[ZBRUSH] Is Dynamesh a bad idea at high poly resolution?

TaoLiu

Is there a thresh hold for when to stop using dynamesh? 500K active points? 1 million? and why? 

For example, lets say I have a 1 million polygon sculpt, and I use dynamesh set to 4096 resolution to even out topology. Bad idea?

They say you will lose detail from dynamesh, but can't you just set the resolution slider high?

Internet Friend

If your issue is topology the better solution is to use ZRemesher to create that topology, Project from the Subtool menu, then keep dividing and reprojecting to get your detail back. With ZRemesher guides and polypaint you can concentrate your polycount where it is most useful. 

TaoLiu

Thanks, and is there a way to only zremesh a part of a single subtool? Say I have an entire human body as one subtool, but I messed up some polygons on the nose, can I set it to only even out the topology of the nose? 

phbillones

You can use the alternative algorithm when doing a zremesh by holding ALT (in windows) when ressing the ZRemesh button which will give you a different result. Also when zremeshing faces, be sure to use the ZRemesher Guides brush for more "predictable" topology flow results.

In your situation however, where you wanted to just zremesh the nose(part of a subtool) you can just hide parts of your subtool and zremesh the visible faces. This works but I don't recommend doing it like this. You're better off just using guides for better and cleaner result.

musashidan

It's more a case of knowing when to use Dynamesh, as opposed to what res to use. DM is great for getting initial forms, or for hard-surface pieces, or for concepting. If I'm using DM for organic sculpting I'll use it until I feel it's time to ZRM or retopo. It's a case by case and something you really need to figure out yourself.

Here's a recent vid from my YT channel showing a little-known localised retopo method using ZRM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGYB9h9QhA8