Trouble with finer details and dynamesh
I am trying to model a hard surface prop using the DYNAMESH workflow. Need help in figuring out how to go about modeling and then dynameshing the circular detail (the visible black circle which defines the separation between the metallic rings in the reference attached below).
I tried bevelling the edges between each circular ring, adding a segment in the middle and then bringing that segment back to make it look like there is a seperation but that doesn't work in ZBrush as it's too small and ZBrush fills up the gap while polishing. I could mask them but I don't think it will work very accurately.
I could model this detail in Maya entirely but that interferes with me polishing the other details to remove the faceting of the low poly in my high poly as you can see in the Zbrush output below. Polishing by feature makes the lines go very faint. I have also added the correct hard edges in Maya and grouped them as per UVS in ZBrush.
Images of my Zbrush output, Polygroups and hard edges
Replies
Just keep everything as separete object where this make sense if this object ware real all of this rings would be separate elements
Avoid polishing by feature step altogether by just subdividing your mesh in zbrush (crease the hard edges to maintain them). Dynameshing with a chunky low res mesh and using polish tools to "hide" them, which is commonly seen and done, is just sloppy and unprepared/thought out.
I always had this option but I was wondering of an alternative way of doing this instead of separating each ring so posted this. Thanks though.
I never knew that it is considered sloppy, that's a new thing to hear about. I have almost always seen people using the dynamesh workflow extensively using polish to eliminate the low poly details. Thanks for the tip.
Only because you can avoid that step altogether by creasing/subdividing, and also since polish by features could melt details else where unintentionally (which then requires you to mask carefully etc.... see where I'm going? 😁)
Not to mention you want to have a very established silhouette. No amount of polishing will give you a 128-sided cylinder silhouette if you're starting with 24 for example.
Yeah, if you are are using the boolean/dynamesh workflow you need high rez on curves and a pretty decent heavy dynamesh. If you are using zbrush then polishing by masking polygroups will give you all the detail you need.