ZRemesher in professional game production workflow

yk89031

Hello Polycount!

I just recently started working with ZBrush on hard surface models, and I wondered about what's the best retopology option for those. I know that ZRemesher is not ideal for characters because they need to be animated, but is there any disadvantage with using it for hard surface? What I'm thinking about is that retopology should probably not be so EASY as to click once and do everything automatically. Is there some catch?

I'm trying to learn game asset creation workflow that can help me to get a job in the industry. I would not like to be frown upon for using something a real professional wouldn't. 

Thanks!

2bytes

Do what you want with the hipoly.  Lopoly will need to be created by hand.

2bytes

Still better to know how to model in SubD when doing hard edged assets.  Its more efficient and a better mesh...and an Art Lead will expect to see this.  

Panupat

For in-game static meshes, I'd say go ahead as long as it doesn't exceed your budget AND it renders in-game correctly.

In case something looks wrong, you need to know what causes it and how to fix it manually.

yk89031

Thank you for response!
2BYTES, do you know why the industry is not moving into hard-surface modeling in ZBrush (if art lead will want to see my subd)? It feels like it's a huge timesaver over the subd in Max. I always thought that hi-poly can be done basically however I want. I understand that it will be more clean and have fewer polys if I model in Max, but isn't hi-poly used only for baking maps? If the result is the same and there are not any artifacts in rendering the maps, what's the problem in using that workflow?

It's unrelated to the ZRemesher now, but you really picked my interest in this issue.

oglu

zrmesher is not able to create a decent mesh... you will end up with an even face distribution...

it will be faster yes... but you have to clean it up... and sometimes its faster to do it by hand...

2bytes

Things like realistic cars wouldnt work because you will need control of edgloops and curvature in an efficient manner.

If you want fast hard edged modeling then apps like Moi3d or Fusion use Nurbs and is more accurate then poly modeling.