ZBrushCentral

Retopology Problem

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I’ve run a search to see if anyone has reported a similar issue but I have yet to find anything that helps me out here.

I’m retopo-ing a mesh right now for a project but I’ve run into an issue. Here was my workflow:

  1. Create a really simple base mesh in 3ds Max.
  2. Export very simple base mesh as an OBJ and import into Zbrush
  3. Design Sculpt the base mesh into something nice
  4. Edit topology and build a new low res mesh over the high res sculpt.

The issue that I’ve run into seems to stem from a scale discrepancy. Although the mesh in 3ds Max wasn’t extraordinarily large, it appears to be quite huge in ZBrush. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal as I sculpted, but now I’ve come across the delightful realization that it is. While attempting to build the new topology of the mesh, I’ve found that I’m restricted by how long the bridges can be between any new vertex points that I place. I’m assuming there’s some sort of upper bound when you’re editing topology and Zbrush won’t bridge between two points when you go beyond that?

Does anyone know how to fix this issue? At this point, I can’t really retopo the whole mesh because its forcing me to keep vertices so close that it would still be entirely too dense when completed.

#2

I’m at a loss for what you’re describing. Can you post up some pics to help explain the issue that you’re having?

#3

Here’s a photo to try to demonstrate. When I try to place a point it won’t let me. Zbrush_Prob_Demonstration.jpg

#4

hmm…never seen that one before.

You can scale down the model that you’re working on and try from there to see if that will correct the problem. Granted…this only kind of fixes the problem.

You can maintain all of your current topo by making an adaptive skin of it. append that into your mesh before you scale it.

use transpose master to scale down both of the meshes together
then finish transpose master.

clone your new scaled down topo into a new tool by itself.

start your topo with a Zsphere, and then load the current topo you had into the topology tab and you should be able to continue from there.

I would also check your import/export options inside of each tool.

If you’re doing something inside of MAX the export/import stuff might be a little funny though…as the scale is going to drastically change.

To avoid any import export errors when I start in Zbrush…before I import any meshes I always load up the default Zsphere (it comes up by default unless you’ve changed it. Anyway, I use subtool master and import the mesh I actually want to work on.

The reason I do this is because Zbrush has some weird scale, and translation import things going on with it. Anyway, if you import any mesh into another mesh that has a scale of 1 and xyz of 0 then it will come it the correct size and location and import and export properly from then on. But if you just import the mesh and start working on it, chances are it’s going to come in with random values associated with it. You might know this already, but it never hurts to give some extra info.

If the scale thing doesn’t work let us know, someone on the forums is always happy to help…and chances are, they’ve already ran into your problem.