How to make my model less heavy so I can unwrap for UV mapping.

tekkoontan

So i want to 'unwrap' my model so i can extract my UV map. i watched alot of tutorials saying that we have to set our model to the minimum sub division level. the problem is that i use Dynamesh all the time and never touched the 'Divide' button. now my model is really heavy and i cannot lower the sub division. and because it is heavy, i cannot 'unwrap' my model because i only have 8GB of RAM. i really need to unwrap it.... i dont know what to do.

Bek

You (generally) never unwrap the highpoly. You want to retopologise your model to create the lowpoly, which you then unwrap. I suggest watching some tutorials that cover the entire process so you can understand all the steps and how they relate.

tekkoontan

thanks Bek! now before i go off to look for tutorials, i just have 3 more questions, i hope you and others can answer too.

(1) i sculpt with Dynamesh and ignore the divisions... am i doing it wrong? do most people sculpt with minimum dynameshing and use division alot? i am very worried, i dont want to throw away this sculpt.

(2) about UV mapping hair... so my hair is made of strands... do people generally extract the UV map for hairs like this? or just keep it that way?

(3) i saw that UV texture mapping can be done on subtools, but when i merge all the subtools together, the UV texture map becomes unusable... how am i going to make an .obj file if the uv texture maps become unusable?

sorry i am asking stupid questions, i only been doing 3D for about 3 weeks.

SuperFranky

tekkoontan wrote: »

thanks Bek! now before i go off to look for tutorials, i just have 3 more questions, i hope you and others can answer too.

(1) i sculpt with Dynamesh and ignore the divisions... am i doing it wrong? do most people sculpt with minimum dynameshing and use division alot? i am very worried, i dont want to throw away this sculpt.

(2) about UV mapping hair... so my hair is made of strands... do people generally extract the UV map for hairs like this? or just keep it that way?

(3) i saw that UV texture mapping can be done on subtools, but when i merge all the subtools together, the UV texture map becomes unusable... how am i going to make an .obj file if the uv texture maps become unusable?

sorry i am asking stupid questions, i only been doing 3D for about 3 weeks.

1) That's what I do. I start with basemesh from 3ds Max and subdivide it in Zbrush for sculpting. Or If I start with dynamesh, I do quick retopology with Zremesher to get some subdivisions. It's much easier to work with subdivisions.
2) You make hairs with alpha planes, that's how it's done today. Mostly hand painted textures for hair. You can find out more in Polycount's Wiki
3)If you merge objects, then their UVs combine and overlap, you have to manually move one part's UVs away from 1-1 square before doing so or do proper UV packing afterwards.

I strongly suggest you to study Polycount's Wiki thoroughly. It's a wealth of great and relevant information.

tekkoontan

thanks SuperFranky, i went to do some experiment on what you said on no. 3... the UV dont overlap or combine, they just disappeared... or i just dont know how to do it... if you (or other people) can help explain this in a little bit more detail, that will be awesome. thanks!

Tzur_H

There are a lot of ways to work with zbrush, that's why it's such a good tool :]

Some workflows I can think of are:
A. You can work with dynamesh all the way, then do a retopo and reproject your details back with subdivs.
B. You can work with dynamesh just to get the silhouette of the model, retopo that, and start using subdivs.
C. You can do what SuperFranky wrote, build a base mesh using an external 3d app (with good topology, that is also sculpting suitable), import that into zbrush and work with subdivs.
I'm pretty sure there are more workflows, these are the ones I know.

You should try various ways and see what suits you the most :]