ZBrush, dynamesh + different sizes of mesh = different results ?
polycounter lvl 6
I am not quite sure how to explain what i mean so i will take screenshots for help 
Is the size of a mesh important to create "smaller" details while dynamesh is on?
here i have 2 meshes, "1" is the small one, and "2" is the big one
on "1" i have sculpt a donut and "drag and remeshd it with dynamesh on
- then duplicated the model "1"
- zremesh with target poly count 1,8
- divided it and "Project All" (this step 5x, so i have 5 subdivision), this is the result:
NOW THE SAME ON MESH "2"
on "2" i made the same donut, but here the mesh is not so jagged as on
- then duplicated the model "2"
- zremesh with target poly count 1,8
- divided it and "Project All" (this step 5x, so i have 5 subdivision), this is the result:
You can clearly see how "cleaner" the bigger mesh is (although mesh "1" has more ActivePoints)
Is there somehow an optimal size for a mesh?
Am i basicly understanding something wrong?
I hope someone can help me, thanks
Is the size of a mesh important to create "smaller" details while dynamesh is on?
here i have 2 meshes, "1" is the small one, and "2" is the big one
on "1" i have sculpt a donut and "drag and remeshd it with dynamesh on
- then duplicated the model "1"
- zremesh with target poly count 1,8
- divided it and "Project All" (this step 5x, so i have 5 subdivision), this is the result:
NOW THE SAME ON MESH "2"
on "2" i made the same donut, but here the mesh is not so jagged as on
- then duplicated the model "2"
- zremesh with target poly count 1,8
- divided it and "Project All" (this step 5x, so i have 5 subdivision), this is the result:
You can clearly see how "cleaner" the bigger mesh is (although mesh "1" has more ActivePoints)
Is there somehow an optimal size for a mesh?
Am i basicly understanding something wrong?
I hope someone can help me, thanks
Replies
I personally reocmmend making sure you meshes are sized to the dummy human in Unreal Engine. Gets a lot of head ache out of the way.
Check out deformation > unify to understand how zbrush works with scale.
Michael Pavovlich covers this succinctly in his youtube series. Worth watching to get a jump start with the program. Zbrush is kind of weird so I think having somebody show you the ropes is well worth it.
@Brian "Panda" Choi What exactly do you mean by: "There is kind of an optimal size for a mesh based on the slider limits."
Do you mean the "slider limits" for the brush size?
The "Dummy Human" of unreal engine.. did you mean the "ThirdPersonCharacter"?
BIGTIMEMASTER i used zbrush a time now and i watched Pavovlichs tutorials on zbrush but i did not remember he mentioned something about the mesh size?
Good to know it is just a "experience"-thing, i wishi knew this some hours ago, it drove me like crazy not to know what i did wrong
Essentially he shows you that yes, indeed mesh size matters, but it doesn't really matter because you can adjust scale at pretty much any point in your pipeline, and he also shows how you can use Unify and gives a basic rundown on how scale works in Zbrush. If you don't already know about the Unify command, I'd suggest reading the documentation about it. Pretty simple stuff -- basically zbrush has a range of sizes it works best with.
So here is a Video explaining it:
and this explains why to bother with unify
@Brian "Panda" Choi @BIGTIMEMASTER
Thanks to inform me about that!
For a long time I always kind of hated working and zbrush, and for the same reasons as your post here. It's just weird and hard to make sense of a lot of times. So I just used it for sculpting and nothing else, and just got in and out as quick as I could.
Finally one day I decided that this was kind of stupid so I just sat down and worked through all of Michael Pavlovich's tutorials -- and it made a world of difference. Now I absolutely love working in zbrush and find new ways to integrate it into my workflows, besides just sculpting. Mike P. uses it a lot for hard surface stuff, which I still don't think I would ever do as it's just too convoluted of a workflow for my simple brain, but it's still nice to know what is possible.
There is a funny term Henning & Morten from FlippedNormals are always using... they say "ZBrush-Cowboy" to the guys who are ONLY using ZBrush xD
So i guess you bought the gumroad tutorials from him and recommend it? Is the content really that good/informative?
Zbrush Cowboy is in reference, I think, to people who make sculpts but don't do the work of turning an asset into a game model. Or maybe people who are great sculptors but don't uinderstand how to do clean, basic block modeling. I wouldn't get to hung up on stuff like this... just learn the tools available to you and make models how you see fit. There is times when block modeling first makes sense, there is times when working 90% in zbrush makes more sense.
When the optimal Size is "2" is it bad to use a larger scale?
i start with a sphere of size "2" (which is optimal),
then working on the head and at some time i model out the chest of the head,
than the size isnt 2 but greater than 2 (logicaly)
so the "2" doesnt apply always right?
I personally reocmmend making sure you meshes are sized to the dummy human in Unreal Engine. Gets a lot of head ache out of the way.
Okay but when i export the mesh as fbx and import it into zbrush the "size" is about 4
Did you mean another mesh?
I use zspheres to start a character because I like to go up and down with subdivision levels while sculpting. The start size of a zsphere is the ideal size of a human head in zBrush and the finished character (once dragged out of the initial sphere) is about the same size as a unified dynamesh character, if you model the dynamesh figure by dragging out the torso and limbs like you would with zspheres.
So the confusion comes in when using a standard sized dynamesh sphere as the start size for the head of a model. Ive seen tutorials where the artist does just that and completes the character without worrying about the size and without having problems with brush or slider sizes. It would be a different case though if you were modelling a large item like say a building. In that case I would unify an item like a door for example and base the rest of the model on that size.
The above videos you posted pretty mush explain all you need to know about working in an optimal size in zBrush.
This means simply i can append a zspheres with size of 2 and resize my model until the head is about the same size of that sphere?! (which than has the size of about 12!)
after dynamesh:
zremesh, unify, subdivide and sculpt
OR
unify, zremesh, subdivide and sculpt (i guess this one?)
those problems didn't appear the first time i finished a sculpt in it :-D