ZBrush Symmetry Acting Weird???

artstream

Hey guys, I'm having an issue with ZBrush and the symmetry.

I'm sculpting a character and the symmetry was working just fine until I reached his face. I can still sculpt on it, but the symmetry isn't showing on both sides. It's as if it's reading the symmetry at a lag, missing certain areas. I have M (Mirror) turned on, and it's on the X-axis. I tried
-reloading the Ztool
-exporting/importing the obj from zbrush back into zbrush
-intializing Zbrush
-turning M off and then back on, to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can get screens if needed, thanks guys.

realityV

Hey Man, a quick screen grab might help. Also, are you actually seeing the symmetrical brush across X or are you just not seeing the stroke? Those are exclusive of each other.

By default "x" is the hotkey for sculpting symmetry across x.

Couple of things to check:

1) Make sure that all masks are cleared. Sometimes ZB3 likes to apply masking randomly. It definitely does that when you are retopologizing with zspheres.

2) Select the proper half of you model, step down to you lowest sudD level, and under the deformation panel use the Samrt Resym across x. The step up each SudD level and Smart Resym.

~sG

artstream

Whole different model, still acting weird. Reality, yeah, I'm seeing the brush, but on a whole different axis from where it should be

East

Your problem, as far as I can tell, is your mesh isn't symmetrical. You see that spike sticking out from his right arm? That breaks the symmetry and sets the centre between the left and right edges of your mesh, which isn't on the middle seam of the armour, but in fact as you see it, beween the two brush dots.

Import the spike thing separately, and append it as a SubTool, and then using the armour as your active SubTool the symmetry should work properly.

MoP

Or you could hide the spike section by ctrl-shift clicking on it twice, then turn on Local Symmetry.
But what East says is probably a better idea.

East

Though keep in mind the ctrl-shift clicking requires you have your meshes in polygroups, but you can do that easily (Tool> Polygroups> Auto Groups; or if your mesh is UVed). MoP's way can make sculpting very quick if you find yourself needing to switch like this often

[EDIT] Oh, and if you find importing separate SubTools a hassle, you should use the Subtool Master plugin. It has a Multi Append button which lets you select multiple OBJ files, and have them automatically imported as separate SubTools. Insanely handy if you've done it the manual way before. You should use it anyway as it will probably save you a lot of time if you ever find yourself using SubTools.

artstream

Thanks MoP and East for the quick responses. That takes care of that one...but what about this one??? This model is completely symmetrical as you can see...



And symmetry works on the body...


But when i get to the head, it goes off..


Any thoughts?

East

The symmetry on the body appears to work on the body at a first glance, but at closer inspection you can see it's ever so slightly off. So it would seem you have a more widespread problem with the symmetry that it appears.



I experienced this from time to time when I first started using ZBrush, but I never do anymore. I can't tell you what I do differently now because I don't know exactly what I do differently..

I could do some tests when I find the time but hopefully someone can come along with a good solution earlier than that. Did you try the smart resym as suggested above?

artstream

Thanks again East....it may have been something in the modelling, I'm not sure, but I have pulled a vert on either side to get a better quad after attaching/welding. Like you said, this is a pretty early mistake (just starting ACTIVELY using ZBrush about a month ago) so hopefully I'll break out of the habit in the months/years to come.

By the way, love your site.

artstream

More ZBrush weirdness....now it's with the normals.

Here's a screen shot from ZBrush.


The black arrows show where the glitch is on the normal map....But I'm not sure how it got there in the first place.
And here's what it looks like projected inside of Max.


And here's the normal map exported from ZBrush

And I think I figured out the symmetry problem---I think that the model was rotated ever so slightly when I exported it, which ZBrush didn't like. I havent had a chance to test that, just guessing since that was a solution for this model (he was rotated about 2 degrees off from the center of world space.)

artstream

Ok, so I figured this one out as well....apparently i had a side chest vertex about a pixel off of the UV space, so it moved it over into another UV group, which screwed it up (hence why the artifact is also on the arm UVs)

BenIsOrion

I had the same problem. Make sure your mesh is symmetrical as can be but I've had it work with some minor differences. Also make sure that you have Normals to On under File Type Specific Options in your Export options.

It probably wouldn't hurt to delete history on your object as well as center the pivot. Not sure if this makes a difference but it was one of several things that resulted in solving my problem.

lillababe

I also had a problem with symmetry - i had a head of my model and the body.
The head had some differences (the ears were not symmetrical, though all the rest was).
Important is to first import your very symmetrical model into Zbrush (GOZ),
THEN import non-symmetrical parts.