Zbrush multiple objects and reference workflow?

Asim7

Im new to Zbrush, I have made a human character with some armor pieces in Maya.
What would be the best way to work with those in Zbrush?

Right now I have them as 2 seperate objects in Maya, 1 is the character and other is the armor pieces combined. I want to sculpt the muscles and such for the character in Zbrush, and dents, scratches etc for the armor. 

My original plan was to import the character into Zbrush, then import the armor as a subtool? And work on each seperatly, would that be a good/correct way?

Also, how would I go about reference images? I know how to import a image into Zbrush, but apparently there is a correct way to do it with layers and such from what i've heard. I already tried importing a reference image, but it ended up making my model transparent

Thanks for any help you provide

redhonour

If you want the greatest degree of control while sculpting, you'll want to be able to isolate your parts somehow so having your armor and character split into different subtools is typically a good way to go. You might even consider splitting your armor further into more subtools should you require such control (pauldrons, greaves, gauntlets, etc). 

Beyond that you can also further control your parts using Zbrush's polygroups to separate out different elements within a subtool and control their visibility.

For reference images, I haven't ever used layers for this so I'd be interested to hear what advantages come with that from one who knows. These are two of my personal favs:

This method is a more traditional: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OM59PQrFoI

This one is less traditional, but covers a step here I use with any ref image method including the above, storing views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhg3GYCQ5UI

kanga

Yeah import the figure model into zBrush. Coming from Maya it will either be gigantic or microscopic in zBrush! I forget which. Anyhow to work on the model in zBrush you need the brush's full size range in zBrush itself to work effectively. Actually a real time saver is setting up the GoZ plugin in Maya and doing all your back an forth using that. Im going to assume you want a low/er poly model in Maya as a finished product. I dunno, for games, presentation or just for fun! 

As far as the reference image thing in zBrush you can set up as many pics in the various planes as you want. You can find it under the Draw menu at the top of the UI. And although this may be what you are looking for you can also make the canvas in zBrush as transparent as you want and place ref images on your desktop. That is how I made this model:


For whatever reason I have found the best way to work with a standard 3D package and zBrush is to establish a correct export/import size at the very beginning of the project. So this is what I would do:

*Setup the GoZ plug so it works in Maya (usually just a few button clicks in zBrush, and there is plenty of info on this on the web).
*Combine the body model and amour model into one object in Maya and reduce it to its lowest subdivision to speed up the process.
*GoZ the combined model to zBrush (hereafter zB).
*With the model in zB find and hit the Unify button under Deform/Tools to get your model at the right size for work in zB.
*Goz the unifyed model (tool) from zB to Maya. The size will prolly be disgraceful!
*Under Export/Tools play with the export settings (x,y,z and scale) and Goz the model to Maya. The newer GoZ version will replace the last version so you can keep doing this until the tool is in (almost) the right size and position in Maya. I say almost because using this method the GoZ version will never be perfectly sized or positioned in Maya to allow for any texture work, or any other work between the two packages.
*Once the model is as good as you can get it in Maya save the zB tool with all the export settings and that is your key!
*Now you can decide which version to keep: Maya (delete the tool in zB keeping the expot settings, and GoZ the original model from Maya) or zB (use the GoZeded model from zB and disregard the Maya version). I recommend the last because if you need to do division levels in zB it alters the size of the lower resolution version of the model. 

In any case you now have the model in Maya and zB at the correct size and position. Just make a polygroup of the figure and a polygroup of the armor in zB and do a group split under Subtool/Tool menu. You can add more subtools to the model at anytime.

This is the method I use but for characters I start off in zB, get the base form then Unify it and GoZ it to the external package I want to use then save out the tool (because saving out a zB project gets very big very fast and after about 5Gig will no longer open). There are loads of way to achieve the same result and someone may chime in with another method. This works for me though.

Have fun!

Asim7

Thank you both very much Sorry for the later reply, as I have been very busy and away from my PC last couple of days.

I modelled my character with the same measurements, as the character in Unreal Engine 4. The model I imported in Zbrush seemed fine, not to small or large from what I could see. Maybe the UE4 size is just a good match

I think I used the more or less the same way to import a reference image, as the video in the 2nd link. I accidently saved the project as a document, and then I couldn't remove the image without clearing the canvas and re-importing my reference image. But then my mesh would be transparent, sadly I can't quite remmember how I fixed it but it works now at least.

This is my first time using Zbrush really, so far it's going alright. Though I have done a few mistakes, i'll try to keep these tips in mind for my next project