hey guys, hows it going? ive been using zbrush for a couple of years now, but i usually use it for nude/nearly nude characters. i was wondering what some of you did with zbrush when you had a character that had clothing on? usually the way to model a character with clothing (in production anyway, not for games) is you keep all the elements separate and grouped in different layers, for instance my character has a shirt on with a vest over it, those would be separate from the mesh for the head. i want to do the wrinkles in the cloth in zbrush, what is the best way to bring the model in? should i combine everything into one mesh? it seems like that would be rather high in polys if i did it that way, or should i bring everything in separately? and if so, how do i keep the geometry from deforming too much that it no longer matches the rest of the model? ive been adding edge loops near holes (like sleeve cuffs and the bottom of the shirt to keep the shape) thanks a lot!
Bring the body and the clothing in as one model. They’ll be different polygroups. You can then divide just the part that you need to sculpt detail with by hiding everything first. You can also mask everything else so that when you sculpt you will ONLY affect what you actually want to be detailing. This will allow you to easily use the body as a reference while you sculpt the clothes around it. When you’re done you can go to level 1, restore your original mesh, hide everything except the clothes, and create the displacement or normal map.
wow, thanks a lot aurick, that sounds great, i havent used poly groups before, can you point me in the direction of a good tutorial for that?
I thought this would be the best approach too, but I just tried it and ran into a problem. When you divide the geometry while other polygroups are hidden, you don’t get the SDiv Level slider. The geometry subdivides, but there’s no way to return to Level 1. You can try clicking on the Reconstruct Subdiv button, but it won’t return you to the original mesh level. And you can’t re-import the OBJ file because it has a different number of points than the active object. I may be missing something obvious, but it seems like the only way to return to Level 1 is to subdivide all the geometry at the same time. Is that true?
Noot sure of your issue Steve Warner, but you could goto you other app and make sure each part is referenced of the central point (0,0,0) then export each seperately. Then load each into Zbrush, they should all line up, and you can use the multimarker tools.
Now as far as points changing, I don’t think that should happen. Zbrush doesn’t create/delete points. I don’t work this way, so I’m not really much help. Did you search the forum for similar issues, I remember quite a few posts over the years pertaining to similar things. 
ok this might be a bit off topic but i’m wondering what’s the reason for modelling wrinkles etc. into my cloth?
in my case (max-user) i will use the cloth simulation to animate my cloth and that will calculate my wrinkles etc. ? doesn’t it ?
so what’s the advantage of modelled wrinkles ?
i’m asking because i often see people model all wrinkles and i just can’t get the point why they do that…
for animation you’d want to use max or reactor cloth, but for a still image… max cloth looks like garbage and is hard to control.
Ideally in a feature for example you want a few key morphs with the cloth the way you want it. Then you can use some dynamic simulation to get a movement over surface effect, then apply the the morph to get the look and style. Same for water, hair, etc., especially if you are working with a Director (various levels) who wants a certain look. You won’t get that from basic dynamic software, you need repeatable and modifiable systems. Hope that helps…
Actually it does. Every time you subdivide, ZBrush creates more points. 
But it doesn’t let you create or delete individual points.
To illustrate the problem at hand, try this:
Import the attached OBJ, draw it onto the canvas and activate Edit mode. Turn on the Quick and Frame buttons. Then rotate the model so you can see the ball on the inside of the dome.
Open the Tool | Polygroups menu and click Auto Groups. Then CTRL+Shift one of the points on the dome to hide the ball.
Now open the Tool | Geometry menu and click Divide a couple of times to subdivde the dome. Notice that the SDiv slider is no longer available.
CTRL + Shift a blank part of the canvas to show the ball again. Notice that it has not been subdivided. And the SDiv slider is still not active.
At this point, you can re-import the OBJ file, but doing so will wipe out the subdivided dome and any changes you happened to make to it.
So there’s no way to drop the object back to a lower subdivision level.
Now click on the Tool | Geometry | Reconstruct Subdiv button. The SDiv level slider will appear, but if you drop the level back to 1, it will still not be the same resolution as the object you originally imported.
Drop the Sdiv Level back to 1 and click on the Import button. Then select the test.obj file you originally imported. You’ll get a message that says “The imported mesh must have identical number of points and faces…”
So this is the problem. The only way to return to a lower SDiv level is to use the Reconstruct Subdiv button, but that still won’t return you to the level you need. 
Sorry I see what you are doing. Yes, when you divide that way. It is a known issue for a very long time on the forum. If you divide while something is hidden, you get problems. Don’t do that! Zbrush stills sees the import as ONE object.
You should be dividing your object while visible - all of it. Then hiding. Or load each object of your group seperately.
Aurick or Ryan can correct me on this, as the workflow isn’t how I address things. I would suggest searching the forum on this sort of thing as it has come up a lot.