Im working on a model which is basically an alien skull and my problem is I hollowed it out using the move brush which is not good enough and probably wrong. The inside is a bit of a mess. What i wana do is have the inside flush with the outer layer of the skull with a certain amount of thickness. Any suggestions. thanks for ur time.
Subtool menu >> Extract
You could:
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Use the Dynamesh Create Shell function to hollow out a solid object.
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Mask the outside of the skull then extract it in the Subtool > Extract menu.
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Use the Topology brush to draw and extract new topology with thickness on the exterior of the skull.
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You could ZRemesh the skull down to low poly, then select all the exterior polygons, and QMesh them with the new R7 ZModeler brush to get a new low poly shell.
Those are off the top of my head. Im sure you can find more that may work better for what you want.
You can cautiously convert your skull into a dynamesh. I say cautiously because I am not sure how far you are into your project because dynamesh is predominantly used in the start of a project. However you may be able to get by with it if you are still blocking your form. So here it goes…
- Duplicate you skull subtool in the invent any of the follow steps do not meet your standards. This way you loose nothing.
- Click on the skull subtool copy
- Dynamesh your skull at about 128, 256 or 512 in order to match it best with your current polycount. Keep the project option on to retain detail. Turn blur down to 0
- Append a new 3D sphere to your project. It will be a new sub tool.
- Click on the sphere. Reposition it, resize it and use the move the brush the deform the topology as need in order to get the sphere positioned inside the skull in order to fill up what you want hollowed out. Use the transparency button/feature to see how repositioning is taking place. This will make your skull ghostly so you can how the sphere’s placement. What you are going to do is subtract this sphere’s shape from the inside of the skull in order to hollow it.
- Once you are satisfied with the placement and size of the sphere, go back to the subtool menu. Your sphere subtool will have five white icons. First three of five those icons are circles, then a paint brush and an eyeball. Click on the second icon where dark circle is overlapping the white circle. That is the subtractive icon.
- At this point make very sure that sphere subtool adjacent to your skull subtool below it. So skull subtool on the top and below it is your sphere.
- Click on your skull subtool
- Go the merge menu on the SubTool palettle.
- Click Merge down. Don’t freak out when the two subtools combine! You are almost done.
- Now go the Geometry palette and find Dynamesh again. There is a SUB button there. Click it and watch your sphere hollow out the skull subtool.
Hope this helps!
Here are 2 pics of what im working on. I realized that the skull doesn’t have to be completely hollow but just enough to get by the eye sockets. Also is there a brush that will allow me to completely remove polys from inside the eye socket to allow visibility through the eye socket.
By the way thanks Spyndel and jaxprog for ur help. Oh and is there a way to make these picks thumbnails but when u click on them they expand. Just to conserve space. THanks.
Hi Xaero,
Now I see what you are accomplishing. You want the skull to be hollow so there is no mesh blocking the eye sockets thus allowing the view of a more authentic skull.
I have two methods or suggestions:
To get rid of the mesh which is the back of the eyes, use subtractive dynamesh again like I described above. Use a sphere as a new sub tool as if they were eyeballs placing them in the sockets and resizing them to only take out the back portion of the mesh.
You may need to use the move tool reshape the sphere to the overall eye socket shape.
Check out YouTube for subtractive dynamesh. You can keep the project button turned on in order to preserve any detail on your model just make sure you use a decent polycount number to accommodate the detail.
Another method is too use the select rectangle (control+shift and sometimes alt) to isolate the eyes so that you can see all around eyes with nothing blocking the back.
Switch to slice curve and slice off the thin back portion of the mesh. This will create a polygroup(s): one of the skull and the thin back portion of the eye(s).
Next go sub tool sub menu, under split, click groups split. This will turn all polygroups into their own sub tools. Delete thin portion of the eye sub tool and then you will be left with your skull without the backs of the eyes.
A warning here… if you have existing polygroups, they will be subtools too. If its convenient you can control + w and make your entire skull a single polygroup so that after the slice you are dealing with the skull and the thin eye backs
OR you go ahead with operation and just merge all the subtools back together however the caveat is that once you merge them back, you loose your polygroups.
Not sure how your model is being developed, so the warning may not even apply.
Experiment on the duplicate subtool to see how things work out.
Hope this helps!