I’m having an issue where the symmetry on my model is weaker on one side. The issue seems to be inconsistent across the entire model. One part could have no problem with symmetry when I’m sculpting on either side, but then I’m sculpting on the left leg and the right one is weaker, or I’m sculpting on the right side of the face and the left side is weaker. However if I mask or use an alpha these spots where I’m having problems the symmetry is perfectly fine. I’m not sure what to do. I’m only after noticing this problem after I started doing tertiary details and already have a retopologised version rigged an UV unwrapped. I had the same problem with a previous model I was working on which I ended up abandoning when I noticed it after spending weeks doing small details by hand. I really don’t want to have to do it to this one as well.
Hi @trex32 ,
One quick thing to check is that you don’t have any marked History states. If you see a persistent white blip with an orange outline on your Undo History bar, this means you have a marked state for your current subtool. If you instead see a red blip at the beginning of the bar this means the state is marked for another subtool. Marked states will influence the results and surface calculation of some tools. In either case you can quickly clear any kind of marked state by Ctrl-clicking on any blip to mark it and then again to clear it.
Otherwise the most likely explanation is that your mesh is slightly off-center or not globally symmetrical. Even if the topology on your mesh is the same from side to side, if it does not occupy exactly the same space on either side of the global axis, it is not symmetrical in the worldspace. You would need to re-center or mirror this mesh to restore it to symmetry.
If a mesh is symmetrical across its own local axis, you can enable L.Sym (local symmetry). In that case the symmetry calculation would be performed with the mesh’s center, not the global center. This can be useful for offset meshes that are symmetrical in themselves but not centered in the world space.
Tool> Deformation> Unify can be used to quickly recenter a mesh and scale it back to the optimal working size. If a mesh actually is symmetrical from side to side but merely off center, this may easily correct the issue. Otherwise if non-symmetrical sculpting has been performed on the mesh you may need to use Geometry> Modify Topology> Mirror and Weld to force symmetry from side to side.
Switching on the Floor Grid with the relevant axis toggled on, and setting the Draw> Grid Elevation to zero will let you visualize the global center line.
