Alright - okay, my ultimate goal here, is to “boolean add the feathers and the body” of the bird scultpture I am making(see image: body an set of feathers are separate subtools)
However, unlike many other 3D softwares out there…of course, ZBrush can’t make this operation straightforward. I searched online and was told that I should click on the two circles icon on the subtools I want to boolean. However, that icon…is selected by default, and clicking it again does absolutely nothing.
And next, I heard I should turn on “Dynamesh” to perform boolean operation - so I went to understand once and for all “what on earth is a dynamesh?”
countless videos and web articles failed - I absolutely don’t understand it. It “simplifies” the mesh, is it? Well, it looks like all it does is ruin my model (Again see image - left is original, right is after dynamesh turned on)
What’s worse is that after I turn off dynamesh, my model still remains ruined. Like a lego polygon.
God I wish I could just boolean with a couple clicks likie Rhino 3D. I don’t get why it’s so complicated in ZBrush…
I ended up asking two things here but to summarize
Just…how do you boolean add subtools??? Do I need to prep something? Which buttons do I press??
What is Dynamesh and what’s the point? (There’s so much information on “how” to do it and “where” to find it, but scarcely on “what” it is and “what the point” is)
Sorry you’re having some trouble! Let m see if I can clear this up for you.
To start, before you consult any other online tutorial or resource , please familiarize yourself with the documentation for the feature you wish to use, as it should answer many common questions. Many third party resources assume a certain level of product knowledge.
There are a number of different ways to fuse meshes together in the program. The two main features for doing so are LIve Boolean and Dynamesh. These features have some overlapping functionality, but are tuned for different uses.
Dynamesh is a rapid-resurfacing tool designed to be useful for quickly developing form up to about a medium level of detail. It is useful in the early stages of a project when you are pushing and pulling a mesh, and making quick, drastic changes to the form. Normally this would result in polygons getting stretched out of shape, which will make them perform poorly for sculpting. Dynamesh is a way to quickly redistribute the polygons over the surface to again make it adequate for sculpting, or to unify the distribution of polygons after working with Sculptris mode, which may result in some very dense areas that no longer perform well.
It can also be used to boolean meshes together, but keep in mind the limitations of the tool. It is most effective up to a medium-ish level of detail. The upper polycount potential is limited, so especially fine detail or especially fine features may not be able to be captured by the process. It would generally be used to help fuse together the general shape or form, and then that mesh would need to be subdivided with the traditional ZBrush subdivision toolset in order to create the finest detail.
This is described in the documentation, but fusing together meshes with Dynamesh is usually as simple as merging the subtools tgether so that meshes both intersect in the same subtool, then running the Dynamesh process.
Live Boolean on the other hand is fairly straightforward. It is a non-destructive boolean system that does not change the original subtools. It creates an entirely new Tool in the Tool palette that is a new combined mesh made up of the tools that have been defined in the boolean chain. This lets you make additional adjustments or different combinations of effects with the same set of subtools, while keeping your original geometry intact.
Live Boolean does not resurface geometry or change the form like Dynamesh. It only changes the topology as neccessary where the meshes intersect, and leaves the topology unchanged every place else. This will make it more suitable for higher detailed meshes with delicate features.
Basic usage:
DYnamesh:
Load the DefaultProject.zpr from Lightbox.
Duplicate the Polysphere subtool in the subtool palette.
Move the duplicate polyshpere to an intersecting location with the original subtool so you can see both the sphere’s intersect in the vewport. Scale it slightly larger or smaller to differentiate it.
Use Subtool Merge> Merge Down to merge the original subtool into the duplicate subtool so both meshes occupy the same subtool. Note that Subtool “merge” only really re-groups the content in both subtools into a single subtool. It does not alter the geometry in any way.
Switch on Polyframe mode so that you can see the surface wireframe for both meshes. Note that Dynamesh mode has already been activated for this file in Tool> Geometry> Dynamesh. So you need only execute the Dynamesh shortcut–drag and release a masking marquee in empty canvas space while holding down Ctrl. You should see the topology on the meshes change so that they are both fused together, with a resolution determined by the Dynamesh resolution slider.
Live Boolean.:
Repeat the above process to step #2 so that you have two separate intersecting subtools.
Instead of using Dynamesh, instead make sure that both active subtools are visible (have their eyeball icons toggled on), and then switch on Live Boolean mode in the top left of the default program UI.
Press Subtool> Boolean> Make Boolean Mesh.
Those two subtools will remain unchanged, but they will create a completely new tool In the Tool palette that starts with “UMesh_”. Select this tool and switch on polyframe mode.
You’ll see that th two spheres have been fused together, and that the topology has only changed with the additional edges that need be inserted in order to connect two meshes.
So that is how you do that as far as it goes. However, depending on what else you want to do with the mesh, additional work may be required. For instance the triangulated topology that is created at the intersection as part of the Live Boolean process will not perform well for further sculpting. Nor will it smooth well as part of a subdivision smoothing process. If you wish to keep sculpting on the mesh, it may be necessary to re-topologize the newly merged mesh to clean the topology and restore it to clean, well distributed quads. The mesh can be retopologized either manually, or with ZRemsher. Once this is done it can be subdivided, and the have the finer detail from the original mesh projected onto it.
I can’t speak on every possible situation and when or why you would need to resurface a mesh further. Note that hard surface meshes have additional concerns that organic meshes do not have. Those will need to be taken into account when fusing hard surface meshes together. I’d recommned asking your questions about as specific a situation as possible.
