Zbrush 3.1 related

seforin

ok simple question I saw this done during the original tech videos of zbrush where they had a high poly mesh and then like a flat subdivided alpha plane and the high poly plane conformed to the high poly head sculpt


basically what I want to do is this


I have a full body torso area and the character is wearing a VERY tight shirt. So Im sculpting all the torso area as a seporate sub d tool and making it look normal and such


now the shirt is a layer in the subtools that just floats above it, when im done sculpting the torso area / layer is there a way to make the shirt layer conform to the high poly torso?

Ive seen this done but I dont know whats the steps to do so?


Thanks in advance

Spinks

you could try project all, its in the subtool palette, but it might give you spiky results in places. It might be a better bet to just mask of the area you want covered by the shirt and then do an extract to give you the shirt geometry. I think the geometry you get from extract is two sided though so it wont be that optimised.

[Deleted User]

The Zproject tool is what they used in the demos to make the plane conform, if I'm not mistaken. I've never tried it, so I don't know, but it might not work if you need to project from all around, like with a shirt.

You could also use the retopo tools to make the shirt. It's sort of a roundabout way to do it, and extraction is way faster, but the results won't be double-sided with the retopo. There's some fairly detailed information on that method at zbrush.info, but basically what you'd do is switch to the zsphere tool, go to tool>rigging>select mesh and pick the torso ztool, go to topology>edit topology, ctrl-click on the model to set a starting point*, turn on x-symmetry if needed, click on the model to place new points (they'll be connected from the currently selected point, which is the one highlighted in red. ctrl-click on a different point to start the new edge from there), and then turn on Projection (down below the Rigging and Topology tabs), press A to toggle a preview of what the new mesh will look like, adjust the settings in the Adaptive Skin tab if needed, and when it looks okay, hit Make Adaptive Skin and it'll add the skin as a new ztool. Pick your original model ztool (the torso), use the Subtool Master to append the adaptive skin, and it's done.

*On the first ctrl-click, it will probably mask off the whole mesh. ctrl-click-drag outside to unmask it, then click on the model again to start with the topolines. The only reason you even have to ctrl-click is so that it doesn't draw a topoline from the center of the zphere to the first place you click.

James Edwards

For skin tight stuff you'd be better off just making a new layer and sculpting up the fabric from the original torso mesh - or, if you want to keep polygon counts more manageable (especially with a fully limbed base body), mask off the appropriate area on the torso mesh for the skin tight fabric and do a mesh extraction. This gives you a new mesh that is fit to the original by default. From there you just continue subdividing and sculpting it into shape.

One tip I recommend for this approach: turn on the wire frame mode and select the inner polygroup of the new extracted mesh and split/delete it. You generally don't need the inner shell anyway, and this will prevent it from clipping through the outer shell when sculpting, as well as keep your polygon count down. This way is non-destructive to the original mesh and allows you to make all kinds of clothing and accessories from a base mesh without having to leave zbrush.

I don't worry about retopo until I'm done, unless I really want more control over polygon density for an extracted piece... but this is rare. It's better to do extractions at a medium to higher resolution too, so that you already have most of the forms sculpted in that would also show through the shirt in this case.

You might have to tweak the thickness and smoothness settings and delete the first few extractions till you get what you want, but that's no big deal and you tend to not have to fiddle with that stuff anymore after doing it the first few times. The default setting of .03 or whatever will definitely be too thick for a shirt. Lower the smoothness setting too for the extraction or it will wash out some of your previously sculpted forms/detail.

Sounds like a lot to do but it's really not. This is actually one of my favorite features of zbrush, as it really frees you up to go crazy with detail without worrying about polygons or spending too much time modeling stuff outside of Zbrush when you could just sculpt it and retopo it all together when you are done. I rarely bring any one subtool higher than 4 million because of this.

seforin

well I originally thought to pull off the mesh from the chest and sculpt from that but due to the ends of the shirt and collar area I dont think it would work ,heres a example of what Im thinking of





The muscles subtool area once it was done being sculpted I wanted the subtool of the shirt area to conform to that, is that not possible?

James Edwards

That model on the left... are the head and hands hidden or just not built into the mesh at all?

James Edwards

Here's a quick 5 min example I did using superaverageman.ztl. I tried to leave the neck area out of my mask/extraction to better match your mesh example, though it would make much more sense to include the neck so as to save a bit of work reshaping a collar later. This is why it's good to have a complete base mesh to start with. You can always break it up later as you go or extract pieces from it as needed.

A bit of the move tool and some rough sculpting can still give you a collar even if the geometry wasn't there to begin with. There's still plenty of room to up rez the mesh for further shaping and detail work.

ScoobyDoofus

"One tip I recommend for this approach: turn on the wire frame mode and select the inner polygroup of the new extracted mesh and split/delete it. You generally don't need the inner shell anyway, and this will prevent it from clipping through the outer shell when sculpting, as well as keep your polygon count down. This way is non-destructive to the original mesh and allows you to make all kinds of clothing and accessories from a base mesh without having to leave zbrush."

You just saved me a lot of hassle Gwot...never thought of this. And now I feel retarded. I need to brush up on my usage of polygroups...

Thank you!

James Edwards

Welcome Scoob! Polygroups rock! =]