ZBrushCentral

How merge eyelids with face without ruining entire mesh?

Hi! I’m working on a character sculpt, it’s my very first character and I’m partially teaching myself, and I fear I may have made a terrible mistake. Perhaps you can help?

I’ve done the majority of the body how I like it, was avoiding the face because I was a little intimidated by it but now I’m ready, and I have created eyelids for the character by extracting them from a sphere and moving them into place like I’ve seen in a lot of tutorials. However, now I can’t figure out how to merge the eyelids into the rest of the character without ruining the mesh - if I use the dynamesh, I lose all of the subdivision levels I’ve been so careful to maintain (I’m trying my very best to maintain clean geometry), and from there it’s SO dense that now I can’t make large adjustments without making it look classic beginner-style lumpy. If I Zremesh after that, then I’ve essentially lost all of the good forms on the body that I worked so hard on the past few days. Is there something I can do, or is this the hard way of learning that I should’ve done the face first?

Hello @mcholman

Well, you can alter your base level topology at any time then re-establish the subdivision levels by Freezing the Subdivision levels.

However, if you’re working with a mesh-fusing process during which you will frequently be making substantial changes to the mesh’s form and topology, then there is very little point in trying to maintain clean topology and subdivision levels until you are past this stage of your work. You will just keep having to do this.

What you might do instead is work at a single level of subdivision, free of topological concern with tools like Dynamesh and Sculptris Pro, while you establish the basic form of your character-- up to about a medium level of detail. Then when the form of your subject has been established, duplicate the subtool, ZRemesh the duplicate (or otherwise retopologize the mesh to your liking), subdivide it sufficiently, and project the detail from the former onto it via the other process linked on that page. The mesh is now in good shape for fine detail sculpting, painting, posing, UV unwrap and texture export.

That worked! Thank you! I did it by freezing subdivision levels, dynameshing, and then setting Zremesher to reduce only by half. Kept all my details and the geometry isn’t a mess! :smiley: