Hey everyone, I am trying to retopologize in ZBrush 4 and am having issues with the underlying mesh transparency. It’s extremely difficult to retop with a semi-transparent hi-res reference mesh. Anyone have any ideas how to correct this as I’ve seen a solid mesh be retopped before.
The first pic is my issue. The second is what I want to occur.
Thanks.
In Preferences > Draw change the Front Opacity slider to 1.
Hello,
That seems to half worked, however, now the retopped mesh is hidden in some areas etc. The points don’t seem to be sticking quite to the surface or something is happening with the depth they sit at. Any suggestions? Thanks for the help so far.
Yes, that is an issue that can’t be helped as it sits, but a better way to retopologize is to append a ZSphere to the tool. Check out this link.
Awesome, I will give that a shot. Thanks!
The appended ZSphere does have its drawbacks too, as I am sure you will find out. Like having to hide the tool to be able to preview your skin whereas before, all you had to do was hit the A key.
Try .5 in the Front Opacity slider value. This lets you see the hidden topo lines when they “sink” under the mesh like that.
If you don’t like the Appended ZSphere method of retopologizing and prefer the other way (Rigging > Select Mesh) then aurick suggested the following settings for front and back opacity in another thread which I think work quite well. (Thanks aurick).
Original pst by aurick.
In the Preferences>Draw menu there are sliders for front and back transparency. I get good results by adjusting Front to .95 and Back to .01
Retopology is screwed up. It looks like a mess now.
EDIT: There’s another big problem with retopology. When you are trying to connect points that are far from each other, even if zbrush is clearly highlighting the edge or point that you want to connect to, it instead creates a new point that touches the mesh, instead of ignoring the mesh and connect to the edge or point that is being highlighted like in Z3. Retopo is useless for me now.
If you do as suggested above and set the Preferences>Draw>Front Opacity to 0.95 and Back Opacity to 0.01 then transparency isn’t a problem. Additionally if you select a dark color, such as blue, then the topology lines will show clearly where they are above or buried in the mesh.
There’s another big problem with retopology. When you are trying to connect points that are far from each other, even if zbrush is clearly highlighting the edge or point that you want to connect to, it instead creates a new point that touches the mesh, instead of ignoring the mesh and connect to the edge or point that is being highlighted like in Z3. Retopo is useless for me now.
When Ghost transparency is on then the mesh surface is ignored, so if you need to create a point below the surface then switch on Transp and switch on Ghost. Move the new point to the mesh surface before turning off Ghost and continuing.
Hi,
These are all great tips but I need to re-topo part of a mesh without changing the rest of it. How can I edit a mesh to re-do some joints without re-doing the whole thing?
Thanks!
~S.~
Original post by SNARK
How can I edit a mesh to re-do some joints without re-doing the whole thing?
First draw a ZSphere then enter edit mode. Open Topology submenu and click on Select Topo and select the mesh you want to work on. Once that is loaded, click on Edit Topology button and edit your topology. When your done editing your topology, open Adaptive Skin submenu and click on Make Adaptive Skin button. That’s it.
Hi,
These are all great tips but I need to reTopo only part of a mesh, not the whole thing. How can I reTopo just some joints without having to redo the entire model?
Thanks!
~S.~
Yeah, I know. Thanks anyway, though! Sometimes I have to put all this stuff down for months at a time and when I get back to it, it seems like I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew about it. Including the Wiki. So, thanks, Zber, you really know the stuff!
~S.~
Thank you for the completely irrelavant post.
I’ve been having this problem too and it’s a mess.
Originally Posted by KillahPriest
Thank you for the completely irrelavant post.
Well, maybe you should have read the three posts above it before you posted this completely irrelevant remark. 
hey i had all of these issues- just want to add that I do all retopolization in zbrush 3.5 with no problems, and i do everything else in zbrush 4 
i dont mind at all
Is there any way of keeping 3.5 retopology settings in 4? I find 4 to be really annoying with the transparency. I’ve tried tweaking the settings a bit but it still doesn’t feel as good as the 3.5 settings.
For me personally, having to jump into 3.5 to retopologize then back to 4 for sculpting is a bit of a pain.
3.5’s retopo was great, something Pixologic has to look at, or we are not used to yet… how about someone throw us a tutorial, this section has been rather quiet (ZClassroom) every lesson has been worth it…