[Zbrush] Banding, memory, etc. to figure out

[Nate Owens]

I keep pluggin' away at learning Zbrush... I need to spend more time reading the stuff, but every now and then I have to jump in and do something just to keep the sanity - also to figure out the memory management stuff. I have 2 gigs ram, and this one is 7.2 mil polys. Sometimes it saves ok, sometimes crashes... it's probably a combo of me and some little glitches Pixologic is finetuning. For now I am just leaving the setup at default... tinkered with it but it made no difference.

This has some banding around chin, I think I may have mishandled the topology a bit, and I have yet to learn the retopo tricks in Zee... another sketch/doodle deal...

[mykyl1966]

Save the tool only when you have reduced the subdivision levels back to the lowest setting.

This will stop any problems with saving and re loading of the tool.

Cheers

Mike R

[Nate Owens]

Excellent!!

Thanks, Mike... this is what Makes this forum (Polyloop) so valuable.

[WillBellJr]

I'm surprised you'd need 7+ mil polys for that model??

Typically at that level you'd be adding pores and skin cracks etc?

All the ZB tuts (and subD for that matter) tells you to get the most from the current subdivision before you move on to the higher levels.

Now if that's a picture from a lower level then I stand corrected, but that looks like it could be done at level 3 or 4, not 5, 6 or 7??

-Will

PS - Yes, the banding is typical when you're working with too high of a subD level. Form your gross shapes at the lower levels, if you try and shape with too many polygons, you'll lose control of the form with unwanted "hi-frequency" details...

[Nate Owens]

THANKS!!, Will..

This is the kind of things I'm learning - i just kept cranking up the polys when it isn't even necessary... kinda like hotrodding. I suspect when C6 comes out with hair we will see hairy bowling balls, hairy teapots, etc... like bubba gump and the shrimp - there are probably 20 kazillion things to put hair on.

I promise to calm down on my z mania... I've got one in the works now that is much saner and getting much more done at less polys. (One of these days soon I'm going to z-up a bug-eyed mangy cowboy.)

Now, I have to go find the section on z-spheres for dummies... everything I see so far is starting in the middle and I need to start at step one.. back to the practical guide or somewhere - I love that there are so many great tutorials out there, just need to go back to ground zero for all of them to make sense.... and then there's scripts, zmapper, etc. etc. etc.

Thanks everyone for guiding me through the baby steps... I'm loving it. May have to sign up for some vacation time just to Zzzzzzzzz!!

[rickei]

Do you just use the "draw" tool?
It looks like the chin was pulled out using the draw tool, instead of the "move" tool. things maybe different in Z3, but(assuming that it works the same as 2.5) I would drop to a lower division level(1 or 2), and use the "move" or "scale" tool to get that chin out there. then sculpt on top of that. I find myself dropping back down to lower subD's more and more, as I get used to Z... very useful.

[Nate Owens]

I'm finding that out.
Believe I was using the inflate tool... Have to check on that... but 4 sure probably at wrong subD.

Setting aside some of the early starts and moving on... probably should wait until I know more before I keep bothering you guys with my goofball false starts... just testing the tools, etc. but it is cool to get feedback so I stop doing the dumb things.

Will check out the move/scale... which I assume requires masking and use of the transpose tool on just those specific polys?

Thanks

[WillBellJr]

Yes, that's the whole idea, you drop down to the lower subs to push & pull larger shapes, then move back up in the subs to add your veins, skin bumps and details - cool stuff!

-Will