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ZSpheres and Dynamesh question. Help please.

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#1

I used to work in Zbrush in 2008 and many added functions are now confusing and I am trying to get into habit of understanding them and sorting them out. I like to use ZSpheres to block out my base mesh but since I would like to incorporate DynaMesh into this system I wanna do it in appropriate way so …this is how I would do it and you tell me if this is wrong or not the optimal way to go about it.

  1. I would use ZSpheres to block out a general shape as much as I can.

  2. I would use Adaptive Skin with Dynamesh Resolution slider set to 0 and Density of 2 or 3 max.

  3. Than I would chose my new mesh from the Tool pallet and this is the confusing part… Should I subdivide NOW or AFTER I Dynamesh ?

Because I noticed that If I subdivide once or twice and THAN go to DynaMesh it will ask me if I wanna FREEZE my subdivision levels before I Dymamesh my model and if I do and I proceed to Dynamesh once I UNFREEZE it It looks like someone jammed dynameshed surface onto my pre-Dynameshed model and I need to use smooth to even rthe deformations out plus my SubDiv levels are at different number …hm why?

But If I say NO and I DON’T FREEZE levels it just does it’s Dynamesh magic and of course treats whatever subdivision level I was on before Dynamesh as my first and only subdivision level.

So is that how I should do it or no ?

Thank you

#2

Dynamesh, like ZSpheres, is just another basemesh creation tool. If you already have a basemesh created through zspheres then I think it would be redundant to dynamesh it (especially since you’d lose the subdivisions). You may as well keep subdividing like normal if you start with zspheres, and only dynamesh if you try to pull or attach large new forms to your polymesh.

A better pratice to learn dynameshing might be to start with a single polysphere and dynamesh that. Start pulling out limbs and dynamesh when you need to. Otherwise keep the resolution as small as needed to create these forms. Once you no longer need to pull large shapes out you can then turn dynamesh off and subdivide like normal. Nowadays you can even work up to some medium-level details and forms, then use zremesher to create a new basemesh suitable for sculpting on as well.

You could also use several primitive shapes (spheres, cylinders, etc). Mash them together to create the forms you want, then use a suitable dynamesh resolution to fuse them together.

Freezing the mesh is a process zbrush uses to let you change the topolgy of a model that has subdivision levels (since those are bound to the original topology). Basically it will copy the mesh with all its levels of detail, delete those levels so that you can make topological changes to the base level, and then once you’re done it will resubdivide what you have while trying to project the original details back onto this result. Because of this automated projection, how well it works can usually boil to how much of a change was made.

#3

Thanks for great explanation Cryrid. Makes sense. Its all just different methods. I dont know why I wanted to dynamesh zspheres i guess i just wondered how would that go.
You mentioned smashih primitives together in 1 mesh with dynamesh. How is that done?
Thanks a lot.