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Topology & Flow Lab

ZBrush Usage Questions
#101

Oh man! And what is cooler, is you can turn ‘edit topology’ off, add more zspheres, and then turn it back on!!! Then you can add more mesh-zspheres, connect them up, and voila!

So if you make a bust, and later want to give it a body, you can, as long you saved the bust zsphere rig! :smiley:

EDIT

I was hoping I could use the zsphere rigs to pose tools+subtools. I added the stools as subtools of the mesh, but bind didn’t seem to do much except crash zbrush.

#102

Top marks for keeping an overview on your first post. Truely a keeper. :slight_smile:

#103

I’m getting some weird results when I edit the existing topology of a couple models. Often one side will act the way I want it to while the other will give strange results, as if the edges aren’t attaching logically. I’ve also noticed that sometimes the delete operation doesn’t mirror, which can be a headache if you’re not paying attention.

[frame.jpg]frame.jpg

This is a great thread… The format is really helpful.

Attachments

adaptive.jpg

#104

huan, from my experience zbrush has a tendency to lose symmetry when you get down to the vertex level, this would cause your tweaks not to mirror over, resym might work.

is it possible to do retop on one side of a model and mirror that over somehow?

#105

That makes sense. In more recent experiments, as long as I make sure I’ve deleted everything I meant to delete, I’m able to make some headway. I actually was able to fix some of my issues by resyming, but I had to go through a pretty convoluted process to get any results.

The biggest problem has been that whole thing with the faces not coming together on the right edges, but it helps if you can keep a sort of a weave pattern, making sure that each row of contiguous edges goes the opposite direction of the one next to it. Now if only there was an easy way to reverse the edges without deleting them…

I feel like a such a heel complaining after having been given such an amazing piece of software. I wouldn’t even be finding these obscure quirks if I wasn’t spending every free minute immersed.

#106

hey crusoe can you post a tut of some kind of that adding a body to bust thing?

Question: do we know if we will be able to retop over multiple subtools at the same time, for instance retoping a head and actually going over the eye subtools?

Question:
is it possible to do retop on one side of a model and mirror that over somehow?

#107

Earlier on in the thread, using existing topology to generate a zsphere topology rig was discussed. The Wiki does has info on this (section 1.3 on the Topology page), but the process is quite complex, so I fleshed that info out and added some pictures to make a PDF tutorial.

This is just a rundown of the procedure. I haven’t looked at possible applications of this (other than using obj models I’ve already made in outside apps over high-res ZB models) and I didn’t go into how well the projection works or what one needs to keep in mind when doing it (my results with projection using the example in the PDF weren’t too good unfortunately).

And sorry for the low quality of the pictures. It was a bit of a chore to get the PDF under 500kb, but I hope people can still see what needs to be seen.

#108

Copied from a reply to another thread.

Just a goblin bust so far…

Here is the mesh frame. The grey ‘rings’ were generated using the method mentioned by rastaman. The orange lines are where I ‘glued’ the patches together. Why they are different colors, I don’t know. :slight_smile:

  1. Create zsphere armature
  2. under Transform, there is a option called “Local zsphere radial Symmetry”, you only see it for zspheres. Click it on. On your transform menu, it may show up as “Locals”
  3. If you’re making a mirrored mesh, also enable x/y/z symmetry as appropriate
  4. Go to Topology, enable editing.
  5. When you put your pointer over the zsphere armature, a ring of points should appear. If you see a double set because of mirroring, move your pointer till it appears green, you’re then on the seam line.
  6. Start clicking down a part of the armature.
  7. If you check in preview mode, you should start seeing a tubular patch. In areas of severa zsphere bends, you’ll get partial dots/patches that you will have to later join, but this great for covering large areas!

Once you’ve generated all the patches you can, turn local Zsphere symmetry back off, and start gluing them together as normal!

Here is the mesh frame. The grey 'rings' were generated using the method mentioned by rastaman. The orange lines are where I 'glued' the patches together. You can see how much of the mesh I built using this technique. I only had to clean up and tweak the jaw, and do some work on the where the major forms join up. But this saved a lot of grunt work! [![Goblin Z-Frame.jpg|688x635](upload://9EXGKw8xV8sioumXOnpYMm1dAda.jpeg)](http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2756613%27,%27Goblin%20Head.jpg%27,1,0%29)

If you save the original zsphere tool, then you can always add more ‘frame’ zspheres. So I could add some more zspheres for a body on this guy, turn Local Zsphere Symmetry back on, and quickly bulk out a body!

#109

Guh, we need a new ZifClick so we can join Zsphere armatures with Zsphere topology meshes together!

Then we could break a human body apart, and glue it together with other parts! :smiley:

#110

Rastaman, Crusoe: What an awesome technique! I just woke up and then this on my screen. :eek:
I don’t have the time now, but in a few hours I will update the front page to include this hidden gem. Great addition to the Topolab. Thanks also for the very clear Zscripts.

Bonecradle: an extensive pdf! Really helpfull, it’s gonna hit front page in a few hours! :smiley:

#111

:lol: Hehe, took me most the night to discover :rolleyes: , but was it worth. :smiley:

#112

Question for you guys. I have a 3d scanner and I have a head that I scanned and brought into ZBrush. I want to take a generic head mesh I have with proper edge loops , morph targets etc from lightwave, and and retopo it using the scanned data head. Kinda like the tutorial by Sebastien Legrai, but I want to control or move points to line up the eyes, mouth etc. Can this be done? Can you move points around and they will stay in contact with the scanned surface head?

Thanks in advance

#113

Hello ,

there is a thread in the “zbrush tutorial forum” called “Rigging & surface rigging (topology) in ZB3” that contains good informations about zspheres rigging…
Marcus-civis is giving some good tips abouts adding zspheres, deformation…ect (and he is giving a zscript )

Plakkie you should give an eye to this thread…i think there are good informations…

#114

Thanks Rastaman, after i say no i was reading in my bed"your topology lines will now be zspheres…" hahaha
Yes you were right and i will take a look in your zscript!

also Crusoe The Painter thanks for the step. Can you make a zscript is more easy to see it!
Andreseloy

#115

Fxrtst asked how could he move the zspheres rig on the surface to deform the mesh he got with his scanner. The zscript posted in the tutorial forum uses the bind buttom in the RIGGING menu so it moves the whole figure… This is not what we are looking for. What rasta discovered is a great thing but what about the surface rigging?
Im new to zbrush so sorry if this questions are silly.

#116

I am currently working on a first tutorial for this, so hold on.:cool:

#117

hello! very usefull info! i’ve got a question though: how do you make your new topology identical to the highrez mesh you previously made in preview mode?
mine shows up with no detail?
also ,for those who haven’t noticed, there is a cool way to avoid those nasty link between different vert: use the shift key on the vert you want to start your next edje…work like a charm :slight_smile:

#118

It is good information! I’m not sure if I should include it into this thread; one thread for topology and one for rigging?

#119

Probably will be more didactic to mantain the Topo issue here and if some of the post in the other thread are related with this, will be very kind to post it here, (with their permission of course) my thought…:smiley:
Andreseloy

#120

I haven’t got any luck with subtools and topologizing. Anyone had better experiences?
About mirroring an existing topology: I tried some things but I’m not sure it can be done. In the first video by Thomas Mahler on the front post it looks like the topology gets mirrored, but I’m guessing that is only a timelaps in the movie right? I’m putting the question in the Q&A list.
Ofcouse if you want to mirror your topology you can always activate symmetry with ‘X’ before you start creating your topology. The mesh is automatically mirrored then.