ZBrushCentral

What to do before retopologizing and getting the normal map???

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi, i finally finished a cartoon sculpt, but have questions in mind before i do the topology and getting the normal map out of it. I am new to zbrush and know of the software i can say. Have some modelling experience in maya mostly. So detailed sculpts are a challenge for me. I will have some questions on my model, so if you could help i would be more than pleased.

1- My subtools are all in different subdivision models and i can see the edges on some pieces. The model is looking good from far but when i get close i can see the edges, and it makes it hard to add alpha details on surfaces. How should the mdel look at close up? How should i polish without schrinking my objects and get rid of the edgy look? See picture for ref…

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg198/scaled.php?server=198&filename=prep1l.jpg&res=landing

2- The model itself with all pieces is at 2.1M polygons. And i have lost the lowest sub-d level on some pieces ( i dont know how i did this !) . So the naked body is at 600k poly locked down. Shouhld i stick with 2M polygons? Maya wont handle much more… Or do you have any suggestions?

3- I tried to polish some areas of the model for a very long time but i still have some weird looking stroke effects even when looked from far away. Is that a problem? Will it look too obvious when textured?

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg440/scaled.php?server=440&filename=prep2.jpg&res=landing

4- I inserted another mesh for the hand. Ä°mported the mesh and combined them in zbrush with dynamesh. But when i did that the body was subdivided a couple of times. I cant remember if i subdivided the hand, and later used dynamesh. But if you look at the image bleow the topology of the hand and the body looks different. Also the smoothness level is different between the body and the hand. I dont know how i will fix this but cant make details on the hand because of this reason? Is there a way to smooth parts of the same subtool differently? What will be the process on this?

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9311/prep3.jpg
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3637/prep4.jpg
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg140/scaled.php?server=140&filename=prep5.jpg&res=landing

If someone with knowledge could help me i would be more than pleased. Because this is the part i should start learning topo and detailing. So any advices will be more than helpful.

TY !

#2
  1. Tool: Geometry: Subdivide (or Ctrl+D). The extra geometry will make the faces appear smoother in zbrush, while also giving you the vertices you need to make more detailed strokes and use of alphas.

It should also be noted that the faceted look is just how zbrush displays things. If you were to import that same model anywhere else, the shading would look smoother.

  1. Look into the Decimation Master plugin. It crunches down the mesh in a way that preserves all the surface detail while greatly reducing the polygon count (and file size). This decimated mesh is great for baking normal maps from, and would be easier for other programs to load.

I’m not quite sure what would be causing 3 and 4 at the moment (I’m not really sure what’s being highlighted in 3). But for 4, you can turn of dynamesh and subdivide like normal to introduce more geometry into the hand for the details (#1)