ZBrush Projection Issue

jzweigii

Hi all! I'm trying to project a decimated blade onto a model with proper topology. Thing is, the tip of the blade is not reaching the rest of the model. 

I've pushed around the settings for the last hour, but it's not coming out right. Is there more I could do? Is this a "need a cage" kind of moment? Or should I not make the tip of the blade so fine?

The goal is to get the high and low poly of the model into substance and create the normals that way. Perhaps it will take care of itself in Substance if I just make sure the naming convention in substance is correct. Any guidance would be amazing

Indik

Changing Dist + Projection Shell in projection to higher values may do the trick. Or just remake the tip, its a 30 seconds fix

jzweigii

Indik said:

Changing Dist + Projection Shell in projection to higher values may do the trick. Or just remake the tip, its a 30 seconds fix

Sadly, went all up and down the distance and project shell scale, and no dice. I had thought about just redoing the blade with not such a fine tip, for sure. But something irks me about not getting it like I wanted, lol. 

kanga

Add geometry to the end of the blade and reproject, or, just pull out the tip polys on the model being projected on. With projection you can still jank around bits of your final model to suit the situation.

musashidan

Projection isn't always going to work perfect with the click of a button. Some cleanup is generally inevitable. How  many levels have you projected? If just that base level then kanga's suggestion to add more geo is the way to go. To get an accurate projection you need enough geo to support it.

If all else fails, you're in Zbrush. Just fix it manually. 

FourtyNights

@musashidan
To be honest, I tested that Zbrush's projection with a retopoed head and the result was perfect. I mean I had HP head and lower res head with a good topology subdivided as high as possible and the projection came out identical to the HP source. No cleanup whatsoever. IMO it's superior tool inside ZBrush.

musashidan

@FourtyNights did your mesh have eye/mouthbag? Or any overhanging forms? Yes, it is a great tool alright. I'd be pleasantly surprised if you had any of the above and no spikes.

kanga

Yeah I hide the mouth sack, then project.

FourtyNights

musashidan said:

@FourtyNights did your mesh have eye/mouthbag? Or any overhanging forms? Yes, it is a great tool alright. I'd be pleasantly surprised if you had any of the above and no spikes.

Yep, it had a mouthbag, but the mouth was just a tad open, so if it was closed I'd guess it would probably have some minor artifacts in the corners of the mouth though. Eyesocket cavity was pretty standard, so I can't imagine anyone having projection issues with that. Same with the mouthbag, should work. I guess the only problem would be if the character has mouth closed, because lips clip through each other.

As you said, musashidan, the projection is overall better the more geometry you have though.