ZBrushCentral

Topology & Flow Lab

ZBrush Usage Questions
#541

This may be a stupid question, but I cant find the Topology and Rigging tabs in Zbrush 3.1 :confused:
Somehow they are gone. Am I just being stupid or is it really gone?

#542

Hi guilemo,
First, draw a ZSphere(Topology and Rigging tabs are then available) on your canvas and bind this Zspere to your mesh.

L

#543

Ah! Of course =p Thank you very much. I forgot :lol:

#544

Actually, I’ve noticed the opposite, Zbrush 3.1 is faster for me, at least 50%.

The fact Zbrush is using 250mb doesn’t mean it’s using it all, it’s probably pre-allocating a block of memory before it as actually. When Zbrush is made inactive, it seems to free up quite a bit, if that memory is empty.

My biggest bugs, are the fact that sometimes ALT doesn’t reverse the behaviour of the brush. And switching brushes sometimes leads to incomplete switches, where brushes get mixed up alphas. Usually switching back and forth fixes this.

The other, is that saving curves 100% always crashes Zbrush for me.

#545

Unfortunately the low-poly-finger-hole problem it’s still there in the 3.1 update:cry:
[ZBrush Document copy.jpg]
i’m posting this ridiculous example, for those who don’t understand what this problem is!
the retopologized example is on density 1. (not to mention what is happening when you go higher)

this is not happening if you insert another edge loop vertically(in my example)
ofcourse retopology doesn’t make sense in this example, but it is usually (almost always) , used in toes and fingers.

This is happening 100% in zsphere-born models. I usually start with zsheres, go to maya, or sometimes i don't, then sculpt and retopologize. And i would be sad(and many others) if that is not fixed! i would also be happier if someone from support said: hmm...yes we are aware of this problem and we are going to look after that. Until fixed i can use my workaround that i posted here but it's not the best solution cause i can't reconstruct to my lower subd.

my workaround

#546

yiannis take a look…
Andreseloy

#547

i solved this problem doing topology more dense… try, it may work

#548

you really didn’t understand what i posted.

As i wrote : this is not happening if you insert another edge loop vertically(in my example) in your example ,you have five faces around the finger. That means an extra vertical edge loop and of course no holes! Also your example has wrong edges all over the place!! i want you to understand that i am an advanced user of Zbrush and i think i 've mastered whatever you can do with topology tool. Also the models i make are for animation, and this is the reason that i care more. Personally i can find other solutions because of Maya 8.5 unlimited, but i like to use Maya after modeling (rigging, painting weights,e.t.c.) and i like to rely upon Zbrush topology tool. If i want, i can start with a good topology mesh but i don't, because for me, that kills some of the creativity and sculpting feeling. Also the only workaround in this specific problem without other application can be found in my workaround post, that i suggest you to look, cause if you look the two models that i scupted to test the topology feature(upper & lower limb) you can see that there are no holes. Also in my ridiculous example i suppose you understand that this is becoming a problem if you have a full character. And this extra edge loop is indeed aproblem .or to have a higher mesh( eight faces instead of four) and if i wasn't clear ,this problem only happens if you have ONLY FOUR faces around a finger-toe-whatever!!! i hope that now you understand what is the problem, but thanks for trying to help me
#549

my ugly example was intended to help you, so excuse me. I learn right now the lesson!

and thanks for informed you are advanced zuser and master topology i will take that to require your for sure outstanding help:+1:
Andreseloy

sorry i could not help

#550

whew!!!

this time i was lucky that nobody listened me… so i will not must apologyze… like i always do with my wife :D:D:D:D

peace

#551

hahahaha:laughing: :+1:

#552

Are there any videos on how to retopo a full human? I would like to do this soon. I started from a zsphere model but I’m getting some weird topology in the face so I figure a retopo would improve things. Also I need more polys for the breasts, its a female.

#553

andreseloy: To be more precice i haven’t mastered topology(i know few who do), I mastered the topology feature of zbrush and i have good understanding of topology!

Topology is like playing sudoku, sometimes :) And i always test regarding animation(deformations,optimization ,displacements...e.t.c,)

If you don’t care about animation, even if it is good to retopologize you can have amazing results(with Zbrush) without “good” topology.

Check for example the really nice sculpts by anguyen

gattomanzo: :smiley: I listened to you. but my post had a delay so i saw your post after mine and waited for a reply so to not double post, i have to thank you for trying to help me and there is no need for excusing :slight_smile:

and also there is a difference between a solution and a workaround to a problem, Until now there is no solution(as far as i know) to that problem.
there are of course workarounds and i think the one i provided works the best because you don’t have to do a higher retop in the full model, just the toes-fingers

This thread provided many workarounds and solutions,

i would like to see a solution from Pixologic also :wink: , because many people in this thread have done an amazing job to discover the topology feature,
which i think is an extremely important tool especially if it developed(even slightly)

Also i hope they are reading this thread, which is a huge task itself :lol:

#554

I’m a new zbrush user and new to this forum. Firstly, i’ll like to thank everyone who post all this nice tutorials and info here and the whole community, cause this forum has really enlightened me on zbrush and CG as a whole. :smiley:

The models I make are for animation, also please forgive me if this was answered already or if the answer is obvious, but is the topology brush necessary? Can’t you make a base model in another app with good edgeloops, and sculpt it to a level workable amount of detail and polys for animation(guessing about 50000 polys for a bare human?), and use that as the new base mesh.(Will this sculpting alter base mesh to point that it can’t animate or edgeloops messed up?) Then sculpt in detail and map it onto base mesh using normal and displacement maps and painted textures(did I miss any other techniques needed to get high poly model’s detail?)

Another noob question- do displacement maps work well in animation?( Reading around I’ve gotten some conflicting views, or prob misinterpreted :confused: )

Overall, Do you all think that this workflow is usable?
Please forgive me for bugging you with all these questions, just that after reading alot(stayed up whole of last night, still up now) over about a week, I want to know if my grasp of this whole thing is ok or flawed.

Thanks in advanced! :smiley:

#555

Does anyone know if you are able to hide parts of your source mesh whilst creating a retopologised version?

I’m trying to re-top up in the armpit of a character with baggy sleeves and can’t see what I’m doing! Even being able to use transparency while re-topping would solve my problem but I can’t see a way of achieving it. I’ve searched this thread for ‘hiding’ and ‘visibility’, but to no avail.

#556

http://www.henrykorol.net/ThomasMahler/retopoprojection02.mov

220mb

Shows a little retopo action + …I didn’t know that you can also project polyPainting data to the new mesh. GRANDE!

#557

@henkten:

The goal is that you can first sculpt how you like regardless if the topology is good or bad. You can put all the focus into shape and details like working with clay.

After you’re done, you retopo the model in the way you need the topology exactly to flow how you want and then transfer the details onto your new retopoed mesh.

You also transfer polypainting this way, take a look into my tutorial for mastering that.:wink:
freedom pure.:smiley: (of coarse only if it works properly :mad: ).

@Nolan:

You can hide parts of your topo-setup by using the nomal hide-functions (ctrl + shift + Drag LMB).

@ Thomas:

Yes, that works fine. Cool, eh ?

But the detail-transfer has in ZBrush problems when a mesh contains holes.
I try since over a week to master this.
Very hard.:mad:

#558

Thanks Rastaman - I discovered this shortly after making my post and now feel a little foolish!

#559

Thank you for your answer Rastaman :smiley: , thats really cleared up some confusion i had.

#560

You’re welcome. :smiley:

But now some bad news, sorry for that. :cry:

Topology has become a pure desaster in 3.1 . :-1:
First I thought the bugs would only affect models that were created with 3.0 and before, but this test-model was totally made in ZB 3.1 out of ZSpheres.

The situation in the setup for the fine-detail-transfer:

ZB3_0.jpg

All kind of setups varies under ZB3.1 from almost non-visible Topology to broken meshes.
So far I didn’t have any that was displayed correct and complete.

The topo-process where you paint the topology totally by hand as well as the quick retopo-method (Shift + LMB-Paint) works so far, and the calculations with adaptive skin work as well, but often you need to make some slight adjustments especially in the final-detail-transfer setup what is no more possible under 3.1.
With these bugs topology is only partly usable under Version 3.1. and quite frustrating. :angry:
So, no improvements, but some serious drawbacks and 2 months of hard discovering-work for the trash. :cry:

Let’s cross our fingers and hope for a better 3.2.:roll_eyes: