Hi, sorry for the image, not the most flattering view.
I started sculpting at sub-d level 1 then took the detail as far as I could, then went to the next level and so on, but my model still looks lumpy.
So my question is how do people get the mesh to look really smooth. Will a certain brush accomplish this. Holding “Shift” to smooth areas, seems to only work well for smaller areas. What am I missing?
I think you made A TURKEY! HAHAHA! =D
Here’s what you do to get it super smooth.
Switch to one of your lower subdivision levels and then go to the deformation commands found in the tool palette.
Within the deformation commands find the smooth command.
Smooth at 100 in xyz like once or twice, then switch up to a higher subdivision level and run smooth again a few times.
You’ll notice that smoothing on a lower level has a much stronger effect on the overall volume and will smooth those lumps right out.
Also notice that if you have detail sculpted on a higher subdivision level and you go to a lower level and smooth those details away and then switch back to the higher level you’ll see that the details reappear.
But if you smooth on the higher level and then switch back to the lower and smooth and repeat this a few times you can get the details to dissolve away on the higher levels.
You can make macros that help you smooth too. I have macros that smooth at 10X 25X 50X and 100X
Hope this helps. =)
Thanks so much, that worked like a charm. Actually it’s a bear’s behind, but I think it looks more like a turkey too! 
I have a few more questions if you don’t mind.
Not sure what you mean by “Macros”. Can you explain?
When smoothing some of the detail in the face disappears. Can I select the face and hide it somehow and only smooth certain parts?
Are there certain brushes that will help smooth areas before I run the smooth deformation?
pg
Oh ok, now that you mention that you’re making a bear, I can see the likeness. You bend those arms down by making masks and using the transpose commands on the upper left, move, scale and rotate.
A macro is a small program that runs inside the main program that performs things for you automatically. The best way to understand the basics of macros is to make one.
Look at the top row of menu items. See the menu item that says macro? Click on that button.
Then click on the the new macro button. Zbrush will then ask you if you want to load the default configuration, you can say no, but if you want your macro to run the same every time you should select yes.
So now anything you do in Zbrush will be recorded. So do some sculpting or something and when you’re finished, click on the macro button again and then click on the end macro button.
Zbrush will then ask you save your macro. You’ll want to save it in the Zbrush directory where you have Zbrush installed and within that directory you’ll find a directory called zstartup and within that directory you’ll find one called macros. Think of a short name for your macro and then save it in that directory.
Then, depending on what version of Zbrush you’re running you may have to hit the reload all macros button.
After doing that you’ll see a new button appear with the name you saved your macro file as.
Click that and your macro will replay exactly what you did when you recorded the macro.
The macro is a ordinary text file, which you can open up in a text editor and edit with the Zbrush scripting language.
Like macros, there are scripts, yet scripts are a more robust in the things you can do with them as compared to macros.
And from scripts there is the ability to make plugins… Well… DEPENDING ON HOW NERDY YOU ARE! HAHAHA! =D
That programming stuff is way too nerdy for me. =)
Translation: You have to be super smart to make scripts and plugins.
But macros tho, anyone can make those cuz Zbrush does the nerdy coding for you. =)
Oh yeah, do something in Zbrush and then press the 1 button on your keyboard while holding down the Control key. This is like a minni built in macro that repeats the last thing you did.
So lets say you sculpted an area with a stroke, hit the control plus 1 keys and it will repeat that stroke. And if you don’t like the result you can press control plus z to undo it and then change brushes or brush size or whatever and hit control plus 1 again to try it that way.
In regards to ignoring areas while preforming operations on other areas. YES!
Yes you can and this one of the common ways that you sculpt things in Zbrush. What you do is you make a mask.
To make a mask you simply hold down the control key on your keyboard and the hold down the left mouse button and “paint” the mask on your model. All the areas that turn darker will be your masked off areas and will be unaffected by operations or sculpting.
To remove parts of your mask you do the same thing but hold the control key and alt down and it will remove the areas you previously masked.
Also, you can marquee select areas wth a mask by holding down the same keys and dragging with the left mouse button and starting somewhere off to the side of your model.
You can click the lasso button (lower right) and do the same with a curved marquee select too.
To completely hide areas, do the same but hold down the shift and control keys. Areas in green stay behind. To get them back, hold down the control and shift keys and left click anywhere other than your model.
To invert the hidden parts hold down the shift and control keys and left click on the part of your model that is showing.
There are numerous things I left out about masking and hiding things but this will get you started.
As for your last question, yes, but a good answer depends on what version of Zbrush you are using. =)
The best way to learn Zbrush is to watch tutorial videos. If you Google Zbrush tutorial you’ll find enough videos to keep you busy learning Zbrush for quite a while. =)
@Degenerate Triangle> verbose. Maximum Verbosity :lol:
btw, the polish slider in the deformation palette is useful for major smoothing.
also you might want to check out the zclassroom movies.
Thanks DegenerateTriangle, I am using ZB 3.2 mac (sure wish 3.5 or 4 would come out soon! :)) Anyways, thanks for the tips, any brushes you use that would help smooth too!
Spaceboy, thanks for the tip about the “polish” slider. I will give that try.
pg
Hi space boy! =D
I kinda know who you are cuz I’ve been reading the forum intermittently for years now. =)
I never posted tho until just a few days ago.
Maxim verbosity! HAHAHA! Yeah! =D
I tend to try to avoid maxim verbosity in forums cuz I know no one likes to read long posts. But in cases where I’m saying something to a single person and I know they will read it I spew out the text! =D
Hi paint guy!
How’s your bear coming along? =)
Yes, there are two brushes that I use from time to time to help with smoothing, aside from the smooth brush, and that is the clay brush and the flatten brush.
The clay brush tends to fill in valleys while leaving peaks untouched. This comes in handy when you want to smooth out areas to the tops of peaks, or in other words fill in valleys.
While the flatten brush is good for filling in valleys while at the same time pushing down the peaks.
Also, there is one other way to smooth that I didn’t mention. Remember when you wanted to smooth out those lumps on your bear? Well you could have used the extract command in the sub tools palette. You would have set the edge smoothness to zero, the surface smoothness between 10 and a 100 and the thickness as zero. This would make a sub tool with the surface smoothed out.
The disadvantage of extracting tho to smooth a surface is, you loose your sub divisions, you normally can’t reconstruct lower sub divisions and you cant hide areas very easily. Well, you can hide areas, but it chops them off in your sub tool result and it’s difficult to reconnect the hidden areas back on your new sub tool.
So you’d only want to use extraction to smooth things in the very early stages of your model creation, if at all.
I just mention it cuz it’s one of the obscure ways to make surfaces super smooth. =)