Creatur variants techniques in zbrush?
polycounter lvl 14
Hello I am making this Wip creature for skyrim ... New Dragon Specie
very early stage but , I woudl like to create some variations in the creature shape and look ... right now is one single mesh , apart teeths and eyes , how wwould be the best way to proceed in order to have a different tail , a different head and may be some different decorations on back?
Optimizing the time so to not have to redo all from scratch but just change or variate some details ...
I tried to cut the model into 3 parts but then the "empty" sides of the mesh woudl look inside folder when I woudl apply the more subdivision and so loose the seam with the other parts ...
same thig if I "closed" the gaps the borders woudl need a lot of subdivision to preserve somehow the seams ... but anyway I guess is not the right way to proceede ... what do you suggest me as best approach to be able to have at least 3 different head types ?
very early stage but , I woudl like to create some variations in the creature shape and look ... right now is one single mesh , apart teeths and eyes , how wwould be the best way to proceed in order to have a different tail , a different head and may be some different decorations on back?
Optimizing the time so to not have to redo all from scratch but just change or variate some details ...
I tried to cut the model into 3 parts but then the "empty" sides of the mesh woudl look inside folder when I woudl apply the more subdivision and so loose the seam with the other parts ...
same thig if I "closed" the gaps the borders woudl need a lot of subdivision to preserve somehow the seams ... but anyway I guess is not the right way to proceede ... what do you suggest me as best approach to be able to have at least 3 different head types ?
Replies
Try to formulate them in clearer technical terms. Tell us what you are trying to achieve as if it was a cube or a sphere you were working on.
Also, please post screenshots of your issues - that would avoid the confusion coming from using vague terms. Save us the time it takes to ask you all that and explain things clearly ... and you will get your answer much faster
I am just going free style couse I having fun at trying to give shape to the dragon by modeling directly on the mesh ... I started by a basic mesh and then detail up ....
What I wanted to do is possibly utilize the same base mesh and the same detailed body once done for severall dragon types , well not many may be a variant or two ... with some minor different details like spikes here or there but for the head I wanted to give a much different shape and look so to do so on this basic mesh in order to reutilize the same body mesh seams , textures and normals etc ...
wich one is the best way to procede?
Cut the heead out and work separately on it?
or somethingelse?
Sounds like ... you just need to save your basemesh as .OBJ somewhere. Or am I missing something ?
without knowing where you want to head to and what you want to do it is impossible to say if you would need a seperate head mesh or if your initial basemesh will do
Pior, from what i understood - he wants to create a dragon and several variations including body and head shape changes and asks if he needs to do everyone from scratch or if he can just use one basemesh and change this - but i might be wrong
Once the mesh is split into groups, isolate the border edges and hit the Tools: Geometry: Crease button. They should then hold their position when subdividing.
So you say you want the ingame meshes to be swapabble. Then ... its a whole different question then, because there is two components to the problem, the highpoly stuff (that you mentionned before) and the low (that you just mentionned)
Then .... do whatever you want with your high, and just folllow common sense for the low models. Some games morph the whole body continuously, others follow precisely defined mesh cuts for swapping, some do both. Just start looking at any game with strong character customization and work from there.
Simply put together a design mockup of what you want and shape your customization system accordingly from there. It's all a matter of common sense, and being organized. There is no need to start worrying about technical constraints if you don't have a clear idea of what you want to achieve visually. Just do all these dragon variants you are thinking of, right now ... and then, imagine a system to make them work!
I was wondering about a problem I am meeting ...
As you have guessed I am a total noob at Zbrush and I like to sculpt freelance this thing , to learn mostly and for fun ...
so I saw some tutorials online of monsters , creatures etc , they all usually make one single mesh made with zspheres or a low poly in external tool ... I followed the last way and did a low mesh in 3dsmax then imported and started sculpting ...
Now in the tutorials usually they make all the monster with a higher sub level of up to 6 usually .... but I ended up reaching 7 and I woudl need a 8 couse I can't add very detailed elements on the head like Eye orbits and other stuff couse I have not enough polygon density ... but on the other side I can't increase the density because my zbrush crashes ... how can I do , if is possible to do , Increase the polygon density somehow only in some areas and reduce in others?
Thanks I hope I was clear
So, your problem is not about a low poly, ingame swap after all - it is about you working on a big, dense model, and not being able to work on the more detailed parts because you need more subdivisions.
So it is simply a matter of resources, and using them wisely. The first thing to do would be to create a more accurate base mesh, with more appropriate density where needed.
Another approach is to be totally oblivious of such "strict" technicalities and use the powerful tools in Zbrush to work "just like with clay".
I'd say you have two choices. One would be to create groups in zbrush to easily isolate different parts. (mask the head with ctrl ; hidePt to hide the rest out of view ; group visible to create two groups accordingly ; and then you can Ctrl-Shift-click to display one or the other. It's an odd operation to the first time but it is helpful to know)
Second would be to embrace Dynamesh and use the split tool to effectively slice the object in two subtools that you can work on separately - and eventually merge them later and keep working.
Look up : Zbrush groups, and Zbrush dynamesh slice.
Also, if you know you want to work on huge dense objects ... one obvious thing to do is to get a more powerful computer. I know it is obvious, but again - it is all about resources.
The dynamesh remerge after on higher polycounts I think woudl just make crash .....
the other is what I was trying spplit the mesh into groups but I can't increase density on unhidden parts when other parts of themesh are hidden ...
I woudl have to cut it up but then woudl be the same problem in remerging down ...
You'd probably be better off not even sculpting the high res detail on the different parts first. Get in the larger distinct shapes, the smaller surface details can be added after its merged.
If the parts were split from polygroups and weren't dynameshed/retopologized, zbrush should probably have an easy time merging them back. If they even really need to be merged.
I reduced to level 1 and since I didn't sculpt yet a lot of details , actually none yet couse I didn't have enough polycount on head I exported the model from Zbrush lev 1 to obj , imported in 3dsmax , applied a localized meshsmooth on the selected polygons in head , so I doubled the density there and I reimported in zbrush , I coudl now have a decent level 6 density without need to go beyond to level 7 ...
http://www.creativebloq.com/3d-tips/monster-size-sculpting-tips-123707/
It talks of the same problem I am facing about memory not enough to further detail on scales and it talks of the solution for it ..
the proposed solution is the use of Divide HD , but altough I read the whole tutorial I couln't understand well how to use and also in relation to the polygroups ...
Can you give me a better idea of what he is meaning in his tutorial and how to use this feature?
http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/HD_Geometry
http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Using_HD_Geometry
It's just like the article said, you basically subdivide up to around 1 mil normally (you can go as high as you can though), then switch over to the HD Geometry subpalette and go from there. Once it's activated, you use the 'a' key to display a smaller region around your cursor in the highest subd level to sculpt on. You're basically working in smaller patches of what your machine can handle (so if your computer can only handle around 2 mil active points and the tool has 40million, the region will only be large enough you let you see and work with 2 million at a time).
I don't think there's a point in going too high in detail though if your plan is to transfer the detail to a texture more suited for a game engine.
Edit: The Workshop is long gone, but you may be interested in:
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He doesn't need to go too high in the polygon count, but the sense of detail is still there
Btw My plan is to export the model from Zbrush to load in xnormal , woudl it be able to transfer also all the new extra data added throught HD subdivisions?