zbrush (brick question)

decorix

Hello,


I have this set of tilable bricks layout. My main problem is that I have chamferd the edges of the bricks on all 4 sides. So I need to re- dynamesh the bricks. For a better smoothing. But when I dynamesh at 1024 I'm on the 3 mil count. You would think that would be more then enough. When applying suface noise to the mesh. It smooth's/blurs out the fine detail.

Is this because I have alot of bricks divided by x number of bricks? Then the poly count is to low?, because its a total ammout of poly's.

Do I need dynamesh? The only reason I'm using dynamesh is because of the poor distribution of my faces. I understand that dynamesh is to sketch out a base model.

How would I approach this?

Thanks,

Ark

Thanks to Kevin Johnstone for the picture.

Basically follow the picture, then just divide in zbrush and start your sculpting.
Noise will require that the mesh is divided heavily if you want noise that looks small and these details would probably get lost anyway when you bake down to the normal map.

WarrenM

decorix

Probably a dumb question but when you dynamesh, are you setting the Blur to zero? It defaults to 2 and will blur out your detail every time.

iniside

WarrenMarshall wrote: »

decorix

Probably a dumb question but when you dynamesh, are you setting the Blur to zero? It defaults to 2 and will blur out your detail every time.

I have set to 0 or 1 or left on 2. It depends on how sharp edges I want. For standard bricks I think it's best to set to 0.

decorix

Ark wrote: »

Thanks to Kevin Johnstone for the picture.

Basically follow the picture, then just divide in zbrush and start your sculpting.
Noise will require that the mesh is divided heavily if you want noise that looks small and these details would probably get lost anyway when you bake down to the normal map.

Hello Ark,

Thanks for the info all. I already know this from Kevin tutorials. I also was trying some techniques with hard beveled edges. And I thought it might been my mesh. But I just tried kevin approach and it does the same thing. I have whole set of bricks eg 64 that make up my tiling set. I would like to see more detail, but I think it because I'm applying surface on all 64 bricks in one go. The surface noise is hardly visible because of the low poly count 3 mil / 64. Even with 3 mil poly's its not enough.

If I take one brick and subdivded it few time then the noise is much better.
So then I would have to instance that brick 64 times. The only thing is how do you get the brick to be precise on the grid?? I haven't tried this yet.

I was thinking of having a low grid layout version and then replacing them with hipoly instances.
At least the low poly version is precise on the grid. Not sure if this would work and is possible.

Just wondering...

cryrid

Using individual bricks instead of trying to subdivide the entire thing is usually the way to go. If you already have them laid out though, you could try just splitting them into 2-4 subtools even to try and get more subdivisions out of each row. Also, since they're already laid out, you can delete the back halves that know would would see, which should free up some room for more geo in the front.

(If you do individual bricks, you'll want to keep the backs so that you can rotate one brick around for more variation).

decorix

Hi,

Basicly I have them already layout on the grid in max. But you mean instead of subdividing them as whole bunch of bricks. I could make seperate subtools parts. This way I can achieve a higher level of detail. Then export each subtool back to max!!!

cryrid wrote: »

Using individual bricks instead of trying to subdivide the entire thing is usually the way to go. If you already have them laid out though, you could try just splitting them into 2-4 subtools even to try and get more subdivisions out of each row. Also, since they're already laid out, you can delete the back halves that know would would see, which should free up some room for more geo in the front.

(If you do individual bricks, you'll want to keep the backs so that you can rotate one brick around for more variation).

cryrid

I was thinking they'd be laid out more in straight rows like normal bricks. In this case try to split the subtools in a way so that no brick is in more than 1 subtool (so you'll want a bunch of zig-zagging columns, chevron-shaped rows, or a more jagged edge to the quadrants). That way you wont have to worry as much about making the surface noise seamless across multiple subtools.

decorix

Hi Cryrid,

That's my plan too... zig zag. I just did't quick layout sketch. Don't
pay attention to the straight green lines. I think making seperate poly
groups might help alot.

Thanks for helping out.
I will give it ago!!

cryrid wrote: »

I was thinking they'd be laid out more in straight rows like normal bricks. In this case try to split the subtools in a way so that no brick is in more than 1 subtool (so you'll want a bunch of zig-zagging columns, chevron-shaped rows, or a more jagged edge to the quadrants). That way you wont have to worry as much about making the surface noise seamless across multiple subtools.