ZBrushCentral

workflow confusion

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I have worked through a lot of tutorials and spent a bit of time in ZBrush now, but there’s a couple of simple things I haven’t managed to grasp.

  1. I start my models with a zphere and then press T for edit mode, but what is the purpose of everything outside of edit mode? ie. if I exit edit mode, use the snake hook tool to modify my tool, I can’t re-enter edit mode any more. Or, if I add another zsphere or something else to the canvas, again I can’t then edit them or rotate or do anything. The edit button is greyed out, and it seems the only thing I can do is add more stuff to the canvas or clear the layer and lose it all. I really must be missing something because this makes no sense to me.

  2. A lot of workflows I’ve read consist of building a base model in ZBrush, retopologising in maya/max and then detailing in ZBrush. example I don’t understand why this retopologising is necessary. Can I do a similar thing in ZBrush to build something from start to finish?

#2

First, I’m a total noob (bought ZB a while ago, never used it until recently lol). So take my reply with a grain of salt.

When you’re drawing stuff on the canvas, that’s ZB’s so-called “2.5D” mode. Instead of pixels simply having color information, they have depth information as well. Imagine if your paint in Photoshop could pile up on the canvas. It’s more like painting as opposed to 3D modeling.

When you’re in Edit mode, ZB is fully 3D. This is where all the familiar things like polygons, UVs, subdivision levels, and whatnot live.

Don’t confuse the document (a 2.5D drawing you create outside of edit mode) with the tool (a 3D model you create or modify inside of Edit mode).

To be honest, I’m not sure why would you retopo outside of ZB, unless you’re just more comfortable with other apps’ retopo tools. ZB workflows, as I understand them, are quite varied, depending on your final intent and creative style…

You could create a base mesh using ZSpheres, sculpt on it directly, and (if the topology is good) export the mesh into another app along with UVs and a bunch of maps, and animate/render there. Or you could create a base mesh and UVs in your favorite app, detail them in ZB, and export the maps for use in your other program. If you generate your mesh with ZB’s primitives, or even ZSpheres, and you want a better topology to export into your other app, you can retopo as well. Choose your workflow to suit your needs (and just pray that it all works! lol).

#3

Hello! And happy new year, by the way.

What loki74 said is pretty much it.

Once you leave edit mode and “draw” anything else on the canvas, your tool gets “dropped”. It means it is now in 2.5D. 2.5D is, in layman’s terms, like a pixel (in this case it’s a pixol) that contains not only an X and Y axis, but in addition also a Z axis, for depth.It can’t be picked up and converted into a 3D Mesh anymore. About the Snake hook brush, I am not sure if you know, but there’s 2 of those. One of em is 2.5D only, and the other one, just like all the other brushes you see when you press B, are all 3D sculpting brushes. So, there is no reason to leave Edit mode.

Also, should you find yourself placing stuff on the canvas and not editing your 3D mesh (or Tool, in ZBrush) anymore, hit ctrl+N.
That will clear your canvas of all 2.5D information and only keep tools in edit mode.
KNOW that your tool is never LOST when that happens.
At the top of the tool palette (where you also find load tool etc) is a little preview of the current tool. When you click on it, it will expand and show a list of recent tools. Take a look around, and it will still be there, unaltered.
To place a new tool on your canvas to edit, Make sure “Stroke” is set to DragRect. Place the Tool on the canvas by clicking and dragging on the canvas. Then hit T. Don’t do anything else, because if you do it’ll be dropped and doomed to a 2.5D existence.

About adding ZSpheres to the canvas, I advice you to use Subtools to do that - but you’re better off looking up some tutorials on that, as I doubt it’s very effective if I try to explain it with just words.

About the Workflow thing, I guess it’s a thing of preference.
You can do most of what’s required within zBrush (except for rigging and animation, those can not be exported) but it’s not what ZBrush is meant for, I recon. Other 3D Software packages fare better at UVs, rendering, rigging/animation and retopology.
Getting the most out of it in as little time as possible.

The Topology (or retopology) is important for a number of reasons, but it really comes down to what the purpose of your work is.
You can create an amazing sculpt from just a polycube (though that can get a bit tricky if you’re not experienced)
But the result, however good looking, will probably not perform very well when it comes to real time rigging and animation or UVs and textures.
If you’re going for an unmoving mesh, topology may not be your highest priority, but a good topology enables you to sculpt evenly on every part of your mesh, without running out of resolution and definition.
You see, doing a retopology allows you to control how much polygonal resolution is needed for certain parts of your mesh. For example, the back of the head of a basic human character won’t need as much resolution as the face.
At it’s best, it saves a lot of performance because no polygons are wasted while focusing resolution where it’s needed, like in a character’s face.

You can do a retopology in ZBrush using Zspheres, there’s tons of tutorials on that out there. It can be a rather frustrating process, as it’s sometimes clunky and buggy and weird - but understanding topology is essential for any 3D artist.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I hope it didn’t bore too much and helped a little.
Good luck, and take care.

#4

Thanks very much for the reply! I understand the whole canvas thing now. As for the retopo stuff, I guess I was hoping that the ZBrush decimation master would do the job, but perhaps not? Does the decimation master create new topology with less verts, or does it just remove the least important verts from the existing topology?

I may have to have a look at topogun and 3d-coat…

#5

Uhm…Decimation master, as far as I know, is kind of like the “remesh all” feature (which I recommend you look into, it’s great for free sculpting without worrying about running out of resolution, if your machine can handle it, that is…).
It’s not concerned with the underlying topology, it creates a new one.
And while the meshes you end up with look pretty much identical, they have a far, far lower polycount (but the topology will be broken, in more than one way).
I believe it’s mostly used to export high poly ZBrush meshes into other software packages (which could otherwise not handle such resolution) for rendering. I think it’s also used to reduce the polycount on real-time props for videogames. (I doubt it’s used on characters that are to be animated, though, and also I don’t know what would happen to UVs and such, but I recon they would be lost)
I haven’t used it a lot myself, so you’re better off looking up some tutorial.
The only thing close to what you’re looking for (that I know of) is the auto-retopo feature that 3DCoat sports. It’s mindblowing. ( I wouldn’t mind digging into 3DCoat, as it has kinda taken the lead, featurewise.)

In the end however, you won’t find your way around proper retopology.
I think it’s more important to “understand” topology and know the tricks and work-arounds, rather than having a perfect understanding of the tools.
Just like a good artist could draw something amazing in MS Paint, it’s less about the tool’s features, but more about the artist’s skills.