ZBrush hard surface help

Hanpan · Sep 2011

I'm trying to create some flooring slabs in Zbrush and I'm having some trouble, I was hoping someone here might be able to give me a few pointers.

I'm trying to do something similar to this awesome sculpt by Orb:

http://orbart.free.fr/index.php?Gallery=103 but I can't seem to get my base meshes to work properly. I'm creating the simple slabs in Maya, like so and sub dividing them down in ZBrush. Obviously, I'm getting results like this:

I know there are a few options to get around this problem such adding sub dividing each slab in Maya, using edge loops or even using the crease tool in Maya and exporting the mesh as a Maya ASCII file.

Which of these options is going to give me the best results when creating hard surfaces like that in the example? I'd appreciate any advice.

Oh, and this is my first post, I hope I did everything properly

AnimeAngel · Sep 2011

there is an option next to the divide button in zbrush that turns off the smoothing and just adds geo. forgot the name of the button but it just to the right of the divide button.

Shadownami92 · Sep 2011

It's the smt button that your looking for. Turn it off and then subdivide and you should be good to go.

Hanpan · Sep 2011

AnimeAngel wrote: »

there is an option next to the divide button in zbrush that turns off the smoothing and just adds geo. forgot the name of the button but it just to the right of the divide button.

Oh man, it's right there, I feel so stupid. Thanks a lot. The button is labelled "Smt" if anyone comes across this in the future.

maze · Sep 2011

you are better of doing proper loops in your 3d package. Than removing smt.

m4dcow · Sep 2011

maze wrote: »

you are better of doing proper loops in your 3d package. Than removing smt.

Adding loops manually actually throws off the density big time, and can lead to weird issues when sculpting.

Zbrush can read edge creasing on models from maya (.ma files only), which seems like a better solution. Zbrush also has a plugin that will crease edges beased on smoothing groups.

But if the base model is like what the OP has ie: no curves, then turning off smt is the quickest option.

cptSwing · Sep 2011

while we're on the subject, what would the best workflow for working on SubD models within Zbrush/Mudbox be (only have experience with the latter)?

I've run into the edge density problems which m4dcow describes above, so i'm not sure how to sculpt a mesh put together in 3ds max through edgeloops/turbosmooth without either dealing with mad tricounts (to get good density on planar areas), or possibly splitting off parts of the mesh, sculpting them, and rejoining in max (a process i can imagine to be quite fiddly).

It seems to me that there's no way to quickly pop your neat subdivided mechanical model into a sculpting package and add some wear and tear without a completely different workflow (subdividing by smoothing groups, for instance)?

Envart · Sep 2011

I also had trouble with this when doing hard surfaces. I found the 'smt off' method can work in some spots, but when trying to smooth the edges of a hard cylindrical object, it sucks. It's bad because it won't smooth the cylinder evenly and creates hard edges. The only way I found that worked was to UV map the model, with UV islands along the edges I wanted to smooth correctly. By using 'groups from UV' it creates polygroups. By Shift+cliking a polygroup to isolate it, then setting the crease value which controls the smooth at the selected levels of sub-divison. This was a really boring process even for a small model.

Is there an easier way?

Envart · Sep 2011

put together a quick illustration

cptSwing · Sep 2011

This tut http://www.cgrats.com/prepare-hard-edged-objects-for-mudbox.html uses support loops prior to importing into the sculpting app, but it's not an ideal workflow for ready SubD models since he adds more geometry all across the model for averaged mesh density, and that'd probably screw up your model.

maybe copying your SubD, collapsing the turbosmooth modifier, then adding more loops for density (if at all manageable), and then importing into the sculpting program would be an idea. it'd be quite a heavy model though.