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Use of Dynamic Subdivision in ZBrush + Morphs
- Thread starter Miss B
- Start date
eclark1894
Visionary
Honestly? I think I'm starting to lose interest in both Poser AND Blender. I'm still experiencing problems with getting Blender to work without color bursrts and streaks in the program, and honestly Poser 12 is a big snore for me so far.
unreal
Noteworthy
Actually, this brings up something. I've found the latest versions of Blender to be very nice for morphing. How close is Blender to being able to support a figure like Dawn 2? I'm assuming Dawn is using all the latest that Poser has. I was planning on making Dawn 2 morphs in Blender, since the sculpting has come along nicely. Poser still can't seem to import subd morphs. That's a bit of a lack. I'm assuming Dawn 2 is sculpted to take advantage of subd. I find it nice to use Blender to make all sorts of Poser things, using quad remesher.
I'm just starting with the latest Blender 2.93, and am slowing learning the new UI. I've been using Blender since 2.45, and I happen to like the 2.79 UI, but have to learn the newer one so I can use them both.
I'm assuming you're working with the latest version of Blender, and I'm curious as to how well the remesher works, as I've always found it pretty bad over the years, and always went into ZBrush to remesh, because I was never satisfied with the way Blender did it. I'm hoping they've finally got that worked out correctly. Now I'll have to try it and see what happens.
I'm assuming you're working with the latest version of Blender, and I'm curious as to how well the remesher works, as I've always found it pretty bad over the years, and always went into ZBrush to remesh, because I was never satisfied with the way Blender did it. I'm hoping they've finally got that worked out correctly. Now I'll have to try it and see what happens.
I am doing all my morphs on a base geometry and so do Chris and others .
The advantage of Dawn2 for subd is the topology and nothing else . You use the topology as a guide to sculpt the model, not sculpting on subdivided model as half of the sculpt is virtual when you do that and will be never translated to the obj as the additional vertex are not existent.
Morph targets has always the same vertex count as the base geometry , you can't import more vertex that the base have.
So many people sculpting figures on high subdivision in Blender or Zbrush and wonder why they can't import it anywhere after.. this is not the way of doing things .
If you do not follow the topology when sculpting , it will never keep the form after subdivision and also you will run in troubles with the rigging and weight maps . Don't forget Dawn 2 have face rig , you will need to adjust rigging to the new morph shape so each bone works proper, other way the face rig will not works correctly any more .
Sculpting with high subdivision for other purpose than displacement or normal maps can cause the topology to get funky and affect the weight maps and then a lot of JCMs will be needed to fix that .
Rich , I only use Dynamic subdivision to make base morphs , at subd 1 to get the same looks I have in DS or Poser viewport,
it is very helpful because it ensure you that the base morph will be exactly without surprises or looking different later after importing it back, you can still use Smooth Normals option in preview rendering and sculpt on the cage only without any subd.
Once the smooth base morph is done I create a new layer , subdivide the model normally to 5-6 times and then sculpt fine details on Dawn for normal and displacement maps .
You can't import all the fine details as morph target , it is virtually not possible . Your morph target need to have the same vertex count as the base you import it on .
HD morph plugin in DS extract the low base morph first at import and probably use smart pixel technology to project the rest of details using internal micro displacement as Zbrush do .
Remember even if you sculpting on normal subdivision in Zbrush and import it back to your software, only the lowest base resolution is imported back as morph target and nothing else , many details getting lost in transition .
The same reason you never create clothing on subdivided base figure , as the base figure will poke through the clothing later since each software use different smooth Algorithm , saving a lot of work later.
So you have 2 choices, working on low base figure and use Smooth Normals preview rendering , or use Dynamic Subdivision set on 1 for real time preview .
Dawn 2 amount of polygons is enough for easy workflow , remember any kind of HD morphs is for the fine details ( replacing normals, bump, displacement ) not for the base morph shapes that need to be smooth and have proper topology flow to avoid disturbing of the UVs, rigging and weight maps.
Thank you so much for confirming this for me. I'll stick with dynamic subdivision. What a great tool.
Another question. I've recently figured out a use for the Layers panel for making morphs. I have a tank top I made, create new layer, name it and set to record and make my morph. Set it to 0 and create another layer, name it, make morph set to 0.
I was really hoping that the dynamics panel played along with the layers but from my findings it does not unless I'm doing something wrong!
I really dig the layers panel for this kind of work!
Another question. I've recently figured out a use for the Layers panel for making morphs. I have a tank top I made, create new layer, name it and set to record and make my morph. Set it to 0 and create another layer, name it, make morph set to 0.
I was really hoping that the dynamics panel played along with the layers but from my findings it does not unless I'm doing something wrong!
I really dig the layers panel for this kind of work!
Good move Alisa, we have so many forum divisions but nothing happening there .I moved these out of the Dawn 2 thread - if you want a different topic name and can't change it yourself, let me know
That is how I am doing it and it working
set new layer, record, sculpt, stop, set to zero, create new layer name it, record , sculpt, stop etc..
Dynamic subdivision not working if any of your model group is hidden , you need to use masks and not hide any elements if you want use Dynamic subdivision, same for morph target layers .
P.S I will check later tonight to see if they changed something in relation between them both with the latest update as I was not using layers since the last update yet.
I do not know Zbrush, but I dislike Blender re-mesh.
If you want to try a good (free) re-mesh app, go to wjakob/instant-meshes and get "Instant Meshes".
About half way down that linked page there are pre-compiled binaries for windows/mac/linux
Zbrush is doing exactly the job you want it to do when remeshing , it have guide tool so your topology is exactly right the way you want it to be , I use actually additional plugin what is the must have thing for Zbrush , especially when doing, figures, props etc.. huge time saving tool .
in case anybody interested : Zbrush Remesher + Plugin
You know Rich, most people click a button and expect result , you need to guide and plan the topology before remeshing , not just magic buttons and let the software decide for you . I can see from the geometry if someone used just a button , or planned it proper .
Rich I tested the layers with Dynamic subdivision on, I made 3 layers with 3 morphs and everything working fine the Dynamic subdivision is active and layers with morphs can be slided on or off
usually when the layer is created it already recording , maybe you shut it down by accident
so you dynamic subdivision was not active ? or maybe you hide part of the model while sculpting ?
I can't wait when one day Dusk and Dawn has conforming eyelashes as hiding it don't works in Zbrush as it shut down the dynamic subdivision
so what I do I just push them out away from the head while working on the base morphs to keep the Dynamic subdivision on.
Cath
Color bursts? Streaks?
eclark1894
Visionary
What would you call it? It does that on the Transform, Rotate, Scale and Move selections. I posted on a question on Stack exchange, and someone said the driver might need to b updated, but I had to update the driver just to get Blender to launch!