zbrush annoyances.

[almighty_gir]

ok, so i've used the groupsplit tool to split my mesh down, but it's done it by element, so both boots are now different subtools.

i can't edit one and have those edits show on the other, how can i merge two subtools into one?

also, uvwmapping in zbrush sucks -_-

[Massbot]

clone one of the boots out, and delete the subtool for it. Then, click on the remaining boot under subtools - go to geomerty> and hit 'insert mesh' and select the other boot that u just cloned. This will merge them.

[Funky Bunnies]

but it can get to be a pain when you're looking to merge a lot of subtools together or if you're doing it a lot. I'd recommend at least picking up subtool master from the zbrush plugins page (http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/zplugins/). It has a bunch of other useful features too

[almighty_gir]

:o

nice work around... why can't they make things easy man?

does this work for, say, if i were to export the mesh, add some armour to it, and then i wanted to import the armour into my existing tool that already has lots of layers etc? i can just go "insert mesh" with the new armour object?

[SHEPEIRO]

nice tips beenwandering how to merge subtools for ages

[spitty]

almighty_gir:

to use insert mesh, both objects must have the same amount of subdivisions in zbrush. so you'd have to subdivide the new armor as many times as the object you're adding it to.

i don't really know what happens to layers.

[Mr GetDown]

Do you have Subtool Master installed? it makes things alot easier

[JohnnyRaptor]

^im with him on this one

[vahl]

yeah same, subtoolmaster all the way man.

you just have to make the subtools you want to merge visible and hit merge in subtool master :)

[spitty]

whenever i use subtool master to merge it doesn't preserve the lower subdivisions. is there something i'm missing?

[Mr GetDown]

In theory, someone said, your supposed to be able to reconstruct your lower levels, but for some reason it doesn't seem to work for me. I think there is some trickery invovled in getting it to work...

I'll see if I can dig up a, how to.

[Massbot]

Think to go lower the model needs to be made up of quads only, any triangles and it gets in a grump and refuses. Only thing I can think of anyway.

Lol I finally started using subtool master. Sure does make life easier :P

[Mr GetDown]

It seems if you press the Tools / Texture / Uvs button, it performs ancient magic and allows you to reconstruct, after merging with SubTool Master.

I tried it on basic objects and it worked.

Glad I looked it up now that will help me alot in the future.

[almighty_gir]

tried merging at the lowest subdivision in the first place? :o

[Mr GetDown]

tried merging at the lowest subdivision in the first place? :o


Yup, it makes no difference.

It's no big deal anymore as reconstructing a mesh is easy enough.

Careful!! it doesn't always work.

[almighty_gir]

and another thing, whenever i try masking, i make a nice lush crisp mask, for ultimate hard edge nasty.

and then the program is all "let me soften that up for you kid". and i'm all "WTF?!" but hitting undo does nothing, NOTHING D:

also, how can i import another mesh into the scene, and then merge it wth the current one?

[bugo]

zoom! i hate the limited zoom on 3.1, some people say 3.12 on mac this is fixed, lets hope they do it for PC as well. ASAP

[Renaud Galand]

almighty_gir : For your first problem, don't blame the tool, it's just a matter of being carrefull with the ctrl key :) When you are doing a masking selection you can smooth it out or make it sharper. Smoothing the selection = ctrl + click on the mask. Sharpen = ctrl+alt+click on the mask (and you can repeat it how many times you want).

For your second question : just select a primitive, import your new object, return on the first tool. In the subtool panel, click on "append" and select the object you just imported. Voila :)

http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/Main_Page (I recommand you to take a look at the official doc, you will find everthing you need ^^ )

[almighty_gir]

heyhey, here's a new annoyance.

it would appear that over the last couple of days i've hit "delete lower" by accident, and lost my lowest subdivision (the base mesh).

is there a safe way to re-import that lowest subdivision?

[fr0gg1e]

What you can try is, if you have an iteration of that tool, let say, tool02 and you are working on tool06, you can export your basemesh from tool02 then reimport it and append it to merge it in tool06. then subdivide the base as much as your more recent / detailed mesh is (let say you re at subdiv level 5, then you divide it until it reach the same number) then project all on the basemesh, with both visible and the basemesh selected (IIRC) then all your details will be projected and you can save that tool that will have all the subdivisions back in.
Not sure if it is really clear =D

[MoP]

Why not use Reconstruct Subdiv? That's what it's for.

[vik]

You could also try Reconstruct Subdiv from the Geometry palette.

Edit: MoP beat me to it

[almighty_gir]

i love you two... with mouth.

[almighty_gir]

exported lowest subdivision

uvw mapped in max 9

reimported into zbrush

MESH ASSPLODE!!!

been trying to fix this all friggin afternoon... i'm of the opinion zbrush/max don't want me to get anything finished -_-

[Popeye9]

exported lowest subdivision

uvw mapped in max 9

reimported into zbrush

MESH ASSPLODE!!!

been trying to fix this all friggin afternoon... i'm of the opinion zbrush/max don't want me to get anything finished -_-

I have had hit or miss with the exploding mesh. What I learned from Aurick at ZBCentral was to bring in my UVed level 1 mesh as a subtool and use the reproject all button to get the poly paint to the new mesh. Works like a charm Just make sure when you hit the colorize button for the new subtool that you dont hit disable uv or will not work.


Hope this helps:)

[almighty_gir]

well i tried that just after you posted... and zbrush is still working on it. how long should that usually take? :o

[Ruz]

it depends how heavy the mesh is almighty_gir .

If i am reprojecting a head for example say six levels, it's less than a minute.

My workflow is - import the new mesh as a subtool, subdivide same amount as target mesh

then project all, but make sure you only have the subtools visible that you want to project.

BTW which settings did you use when exporting from max 9?, the exporter can be a bit flakey

at times.

make sure its converted to polys before you export

nice tip Popeye9 - I didn't know you could save the polypaint over

[almighty_gir]

ok, tried both methods... importing to the lowest sub-d, and then reprojecting higher subdivisions on that sub-tool, makes all the detail i sculpted disappear, but it keeps the polypaint (weird...).

i can't figure out how to import a new subtool...

the really strange thing, is that it works for two subtools in the scene, but not for the main one.

[Ruz]

just import the new mesh separately , go back to the original tool and go to 'append', choose

the new mesh.

subdivide the new mesh to the same level as the original,then project all.

[Unleashed]

I think SIlo preserves the vertex ordering when exporting, so if you do UVs there and reimport, it wont explode.

Also for project all, I find its best to project all at each subdiv, so:

import the new mesh > project all > subdivide > repeat until you have hit the max subdiv you want(instead of import, subdivide multiple times and then project all).