So, I am having a bit of trouble with my first model. I am currently at subdivision level 5 and my poly count is 1,167,360. I am trying to add my details and I am finding that when I am drawing I.E Zadd , Zsub my stroke is very blotchy and stippled. Very much like the dot stroke. Am I missing something? I noticed that when my tool is loaded, all of the stroke options are not available. So, I am having a very hard time adding details. I have to carve into my surface, then smooth it a lot to remove all of the bums, In turn most of the details that I did add are almost obliterated in the process. I then have to go back in and carve again, and again to finally get the detail I want. Even then I still have some bumps remaining on my surface.
Thanks guys, I have already tried all of this! And I still am having the same issues. Are there other brushes that can be used on your Model in Edit mode? Or is it only the one bush with just the adjustments for Zadd, Zsub, Focal Shift, Draw Size, Z Intensity, and RGB Intensity?
Not a problem. I will do that tomorrow, when I get up. I have been working on this guy for quite a few hours this evening and I am done for the night. Thank all of you who have already responded. I love this Forum! What would I do with out all of you.
So, here is a few screen snapshots of my mesh that I am having the problems with. My mesh is currently at sub-division level 5 and is at 1,167,360 poly. The problem that I am having, is when I am using the Zsub tool to cut in my details. I.E the flow of the muscles. The line or stroke is extreamly jagged and blotchy. I could understand having this type of result at low subdivision were I have limited poly counts. However, this is happening in the million + poly counts. I thought that at this level, I would have nice clean lines cut into my mesh.
I have tried several things. I have increased my mouse average up to 4, 5, 6 and this has not impacted my results.
I have decreased the size of my brush, and tried to cut in my details at lower levels. This still had no impact. At all times of the modeling process I have most of my mesh hidden to help using polygroups.
Friends of mine have suggested that I bring my mesh back into Maya and increase my edge loops. I could understand doing this if I was only having issues in my elbow and knee regions. However, I am having this problem on all areas of my mesh.
The other suggestion was to sub-divide my mesh again, however, I am already at the poly limit my computer can handle with the current amount of memory I have. The other suggestion was for me to break up my mesh into separate pieces of geometry and then I could increase my geometry further. I can understand doing this, but I am hoping that there is some way I can work around this. I will do the latter suggestion once I have completely pushed my models as far as I can.
Please can someone help me out! Is there something that I am doing wrong, or something that I am just forgetting to do?
I will try to help you but I think a n00b wouldn`t help too much.
That happens to me too when I have few polys.
And you could try decreasing the focal shift when smoothing.
I typically see this when I have a lot of polys and my lowly 2.54GHz P4 machine can’t keep up. The first thing I’d suggest is hiding any polys you won’t be directly painting on. ZBrush will focus its resources on the polys that are visible and you should be able to get smooth brush strokes.
The second thing I’d suggest is to use the Pinch Edit Mode (found in the Transform menu). This will pull vertices together which will create a visible crease on the mesh.
1.- To get the details you show dont need hight enought poly you have already in your mesh
2.-You will like to select specific area to work on them
3.-Every time you reach high poly count the smooth draw become dotted as i demostrated in the scrip im sending you
4.-I suggest to work with mask to get the basic rought details and then use smooth, pinch or std brush
Andreseloy
ps: a sphere divided 4
a sphere transformed in polymesh then divide up to 2.500.000 poly become dotted
i’m having the same problems and i can’t find peace in any of the given solutions.
is there a way to let Zbrush interpolate (or something) between two points that it registers, so there’s a displaced line on the model instead of a dot? mudbox does this and i’m hoping Zbrush can do this as well.
Also, try turning off Quick on the top shelf (or the Transform palette) and setting Tool>Display Properties>DSmooth to 1. This will allow ZBrush to render the mesh as smoothed when you’re not directly interacting with it. That way, you can see a smoothed effect without having to divide the mesh further.
So, are there other brushes that can be used to model? I know that there are several brushes that can only be used when you drop your tool to the canvas. These tool’s give you different stroke options. Are there any stroke options like these that can be used on 3D tools without having to drop your model to the canvas? Or do I just have to wait three months before ZB 3.0 comes out!
Also, I was told that there are several brushed to stay away from. That these brushes cause issues when the displacement maps are exported and rendered in Mental Ray in Maya. These brushes I was told are Pinch, and Nudge. What are your opinions out there? Should these brushes be stayed away from at all costs? The other thing that was said about these brushes was that they are great if you plan on rendering in ZB, that they are great to be used. But not good options for other rendering packages.
The purpose is to show an easy way(just one of many ways) to get some details without reaching a million poly
1.-The gift show the very low poly from zsphere (level 1) up to level 5:only 94208 polygons
2.-The zscript recorded session where is the overall process, the script will tell you to:
a.-export the mesh
b.save the tool
c.Import the mesh again: when ask this in the zip is there the file zsphereheadmodel, pic up this.
d.After tell you to export images, i put the numerb1 to 5 (the levels i used) to make the gift animation.
Hope this help Andreseloy
Yes, there are other “brushes” that you can use while sculpting your model. They are referred to as “Pointer Edit Modes” and they include things like Pinch and Nudge.
Pinch gathers vertices towards the center of the brush (or pushes them away if you hold down the Alt key). Nudge is like the Move tool but it works like a brush stroke. Think of it like a “smearing” tool.
I can’t speak to how these tools work with Mental Ray, but let’s remove ourselves from the “magic” of ZBrush for just a minute and think about what’s really happening under the hood.
At its heart, ZBrush simply gives you a way to move large amounts of points and polygons around. Other than that, it’s functionally no different than modeing in a traditional 3D app. When you use a subdivision surface in a program like LightWave (and I’d assume Maya, 3DS Max, XSI, etc.) you’re interpolating subdivision geometry between the points on a cage mesh. The closer the points are on a subdivision surface, the sharper a crease you will get. When you use an Edit Mode like Pinch, you’re simply pulling vertices towards one another. The net effect is that you get a crease in your object.
If you understand this basic fact, you can do some impressive things with very low poly counts. I can’t fathom why this would cause a probelm for Mental Ray. If MR can handle subdivision surfaces, then it should be able to handle geometry from ZBrush. It’s possible that the problem comes from how much work is being placed on the displacement map. Displacement maps simply move vertices along their normals. The basic options are In or Out. Left, right, up and down movements can be difficult to recreate. Since this is the case, you may want to export your SDiv Level 1 object from ZBrush and then apply your displacement map to it. This should help resolve issues with the displacement map being asked to move vertices in a manner it’s not well suited towards.
You can try to get sharp creases in your mesh without using the Pinch Edit Mode, but you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle. And you’ll likely have to use way more points than you really need. As Aurick said earlier, you should turn off Quick mode and set your Tool | Display Properties | DSmooth to 1. This will give you a good idea of what your final mesh will look like and can often save you from unnecessarily having to subdivide your mesh.
I’m also having the same problems with trying to create detail on my models- the line is never smooth unless i have a large brush size. I too have tried all the suggestions discussed here. Does it simply come down to a RAM problem- I am currently running on 512mb or RAM- if I were to invest in a lot more RAm would it make a difference to the flow of the brush. I am almost at the point of giving up!
Yes and no. The more RAM you have, the more polygons you can use. The faster your CPU is, the more effortlessly you’ll be able to manipulate those polygons. If you increase your RAM but your CPU is still a bit outdated, you’ll be able to add more polygons, but your computer will still start to choke and your brush strokes will go choppy.
Consider this. I have a P4 2.53 GHz WinXP system. I had 1GB of RAM. I was able to get close to 2-million polygons, but at that level, my system really started to choke. I coughed up $300 for 2 more GB of RAM and now I can handle nearly 4-million polygons. But I didn’t upgrade my CPU and it can’t cope with that many polys. So while I have the potential ability to sculpt more detail, my CPU won’t let me.
The only way I’m able to achieve high levels of detail is if I hide large portions of my high-res objects. Even then it can be a stretch, but it works.
In ZBrush, smooth strokes are determined by two main things. First, you need enough polygons in the area you’re sculpting to give the appearance of a clean line. And second, you need your computer to be responsive enough to handle the amount of polygons on screen at any given time. If either of those criteria fail, you won’t get a smooth stroke.
Try subdividing your mesh to the highest level of detail possible and then sculpting your deformations with Projection Master. Be sure to follow Aurick’s Precision Texturing turtorial to make sure you’re getting a 1:1 pixel-to-pixol transfer. If you get smooth results from PM but not freeform sculpting, then the issue is likely caused by your CPU not being able to keep up with your brush stroke.
