ZBrushCentral

Spider-man

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Some time ago I decided to make spider-man. I started with zspheres, watched Nickz video - spider-man sketch, so this is what I have now. The model has 2 000 000 polygons, but this is not enough to make smooth net on the body. When I divide it I have almost 9500 000 polygons, but zbrush crashes every 5 minutes (and I have 3 gigs of ram). Is there any way to make zbrush work without crashing? Do you have the same problems that I have?
[6.jpg](javascript:zb_insimg(‘90705’,‘6.jpg’,1,0))
Also I tried to make uv map in blender, but when I import the model back to zbrush my spider-man blows up :slight_smile: I think this is because my topology is really bad in some places, so I I want to retopologize it now.

The net on the spider-man I made by masking this lines, then I inverted masking and used layer brush whith low zintensity and rgb almost white. Are there any more comfortoble ways to make it?

#2

retop is your best shot indeed. Although , those 9 mil , is that already in HD geometry or still normal? Perhaps if you do the net in HD geometry , Zbrush wont crash so much , since it wouldnt have to calculate the geometry the entire time. (only when asked)

#3

Normal 9 mil :slight_smile: I’m studying zbrush, so I never tried to use hd geometry. But this is the time to try :slight_smile: And if I’m using hd geometry all these details will be in my normal and displacement maps? Or this hd geometry can be used only within zbrush?

#4

afraid only in Zbrush (hd geo)

#5

Are you running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows? If 32-bit, make sure that Preferences>Mem>Compact Mem is set to 2000. If 64-bit, you can set it to about 3000. Also, do not set the Undo values higher than 4.

#6

why wouldn’t you up your undo’s? mine is around 30 I think and Zbrush never crashes…I’m working on a 24mil model right now, and It’s fine.

#7

The Undo settings force ZBrush to remember that many undo steps no matter what – even if performance will suffer.

ZBrush will always try to keep more undos available than the setting is at. But if you reach a point where performance requires your resources to go to other things, ZBrush will start reducing undos until it reaches the point set by the Undos slider.

You must have a very powerful computer in order to have that high of a polycount along with that high of an undo setting. Most users will not have that luxury, however.

#8

goast666 what is inside your computer? I have Core 2 Duo [email protected] GHz, 8800GT, 3G of ram and even 10 mil polygons crashes very often. May be this is because of overclocking of my E6600 :frowning:
And the good things are: I retopoligized spider-man, I’m really happy, I made uv’s with blender and nothing explode. The idea is to export spider into 3dsmax and then render with vray, but I’m not happy with the net, may be there is a sense to make it as subtool? And the more important question is - are there any methods to transpose creatures? I want his arms to be raised vertically up, can theoretically this be done? Or my mesh is in such pose now that it is impossible to raise them? (I tried to do it with transpose but the result was awfull)

My texture on uv’s, I’ve lost some detail after retopologizing, so I have to redo some parts

spider_blender.jpg

And I have another very very important question: do subtools have their own uv’s? How to export a model with subtools to 3dsmax or another program? I have to export them separately and then combine in 3d package?

#9

Do a search on subtool master , it allows you to merge all visible subtools into one object. So you can explort it to an external renderer.

#10

I’m not running that great of a system. dell precision mobile workstation (M90). 2.8ghz duel core (i think) 4gb ram, quadro 2500M. the thing is probably my graphics card. when you go for 3d work man, a gaming card just doesn’t compare.

my tower on the other hand can handle near 100mill poly on screen with no slowdown :slight_smile: (dell 690) 16bg ram, duel 3.0ghz quad cores, and SLI quadro 4600s. Best part is, the whole tower cost me a little over $4k. Makes my 30" look sweet. Now I just need to get my cintiq. then i’ll be happy (for a couple years at least) after the cintiq, all extra money is going into the ram. i really wanna see what I can do with 64gb.

Thanks for the Undo setting update. I always wondered why that thing sits at 4 (seemed dumb to me). Nice to know I don’t have to allocate those resources unless I want to.

As for spiderman, I would make his netting a subtool, then its easy to change, color, and have it’s own material with out all the blending of the materials in Zbrush (pain).

#11

Try to reproduce the net on the costume as a subtool, so u can menage the geometry easly and efficiently. Just a noob opinion, let me know : )