ZBrush - very noob query about dynamesh

obloquy

Hey, excuse the disgustingly noob question/fail - this is my first attempt at zbrush...

I only figured out what dynamesh did yesterday... my problem is that I've been using dynamesh to divide the model and go up in resolution rather than zreshmeshing and then dividing at an early stage (I didn't know and only just found out ).  

So I've got the an almost final stage of the sculpt which is about 3.6mil polygons at a dynamesh resolution of about 700.  My question is... is this ok to do? if not is there a non destructive method to fix the polycount if I wanted to skin texture it etc?  Sorry for the question if its obvious, just a bit lost on how to fix this if it needs fixing that is.  Many thanks

cryrid

So I've got the an almost final stage of the sculpt which is about 3.6mil polygons at a dynamesh resolution of about 700.  My question is... is this ok to do? 

There's no shortages of methods you can use to create a model in zbrush, and they all have their pros and cons. A full Dynamesh (or Sculptris) workflow can be a good way to work without any limitations on the form - the equivalent of doodling a concept to life - but as you've noted this high polygon count can make it harder to do other tasks like creating UVs.  So whether or not dynameshing a sculpt like this is ok to do entirely depends on what it is you want to accomplish. 

? if not is there a non destructive method to fix the polycount if I wanted to skin texture it etc?

If you wanted to do things entirely in zbrush rather than use an external program to retopologize the model, then I would recommend duplicating the subtool. You can get as destructive as you want on the duplicate and you'll still have the original sculpt in the file for backup. 

For example, you could duplicate the head, give the new subtool a pass with Zremesher to bring the polygon count way down, then start subdividing and projecting the detail from the dynameshed sculpt onto the new zremeshed model (See "Duplicating your SubTool" on 
http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/topology/zremesher/transferring-detail/) 

obloquy

Ahhhh I see thank you so much for getting back cryrid.  I think i'll let this one be but from now on ill use the zremesher the divide workflow, it'll probably same on polys.... otherwise id have to retopo in maya