First ZBrush sculpt

iRoller

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could give me some suggestions on how to improve this sculpt. It is a bit messy in places partially due to not being very used to the tools yet.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Good start I think for a sculpt.  I would encourage you to not be fraid of separating elements like gums or horns to keep clarity between elements and have nice clear separation.

Do you happen to be using am particular reference for this? Almost seems like a raptor head.

iRoller

I looked at quite a few pictures of the Game of Thrones dragons. Also, I'll try to separate the pieces a bit more. Is there an easier way to separate them other them removing each piece and remaking it?

Brian "Panda" Choi

Mask the affectable areas, and Split by Masked Points is one method.

iRoller

I've started separating the horns and have done the big ones. It looks a lot better already, in my opinion at least. What should I do about all the very small ones? Wouldn't it be a bad idea to have that many subtools for each individual horn? Is there a better way to deal with all of those?

Brian "Panda" Choi

Depends on if you're treating them like skin tags of bony protrustions.  You could always polygroup them for easier access/separation.

iRoller

All of them are supposed to be bones. Also, is it alright to have multiple horns on one subtool? Or does that cause problems?

Alex_J

iRoller said:

All of them are supposed to be bones. Also, is it alright to have multiple horns on one subtool? Or does that cause problems?

The more modular you work, the more creative freedom you'll get. 

What if, after sixty more hours of work from now, you realize, "man, I think the horns would be cooler if they were much bigger, or curly." Well, if you've got these separated by polygroups or as separate meshes, it will be an easier time to make those wholesale changes. To be honest, I am not sure if there is a big difference between organizing by polygroups versus subtools. I would need to double check, but if you split into separate subtools, doesn't that separate the vertices? Whereas a polygroup is not split, it's just an arbitrary separation. If you have separate subtools, it is easier to one-click hide them if you need them out of the way. 

This is also the primary purpose of the layer system. Check youtube and the zbrush docs to learn about how to use layers to that effect. 

iRoller

I guess my next question is a bit unrelated, but say when I am finished sculpting the character, I want to animate it. What do I do then? Do I retopologize it in something like Max or Maya?  Then rig it?

Brian "Panda" Choi

It's alright to do that sort of grouping in Zbrush as long as it works for you.

Yes.

iRoller

Hm, I just realized I've made quite a big mistake in that I deleted the lower subdivision levels quite early on and am now stuck at 2 million polys. Is there anything I can do?

Alex_J

iRoller said:

Hm, I just realized I've made quite a big mistake in that I deleted the lower subdivision levels quite early on and am now stuck at 2 million polys. Is there anything I can do?

You are going to learn stuff like this the hard way. A lot. It's normal. But bringing every question to a forum and waiting for an answer will take forever. Much of these types of questions can be answered by following character creation tutorials, or by searching for the specific question in google. 

To give a quick answer though -- undo should work? Pretty sure. If not, there is a number of ways to rebuild things in a sense, but it's kind of workflow dependent and I'm not smart enough to explain that much very well.

***here is one way, but only works if you weren't going from a dynamesh workflow but a base mesh.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy8xWELbrmc

Brian "Panda" Choi

1) Duplicate mesh
2) ZRemesh the new mesh
3) Subdivide so it's roughly the same point density as the old mesh
4) Project new mesh onto old mesh
>> New mesh has subdivisions

Alex_J

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

1) Duplicate mesh
2) ZRemesh the new mesh
3) Subdivide so it's roughly the same point density as the old mesh
4) Project new mesh onto old mesh
>> New mesh has subdivisions

And @bri@Brian "Panda" Choi has just answered something I was about to look up myself. Projecting detail from one mesh to another -- I thought I'd heard of this but haven't done it before. 

Similar to OP, I've rebuilt a new lo-res mesh and wanted to subdivide it, and then not have to sculpt my details again. So this is that kind of modular workflow I was talking about. Always good to know ways to save yourself the trouble of redoing things, and have the ability to make wholesale changes and minor changes to at any point. 

iRoller

Thanks for all the help. I've started the mesh anew because I have a bit more knowledge now than I did starting it and it can't hurt to take a bit of time to remake it especially if it'll look better and won't be as messy as the first.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Are you using the Sculptris plug in as well?  That just got added, and may prove to be a boon for whatever you're doing.

Also, keep on top of looking at your references.  They will help guide and clarifyy what you need to hit for anatomy and proportions on the dragon head.