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ZBrush > Sculpty Maker Help

Phoenix Takashi
Registered User
Join date: 16 Sep 2006
Posts: 9
06-30-2009 12:43
Hello, [Question at the end]
I am beginning to try and use ZBrush to make sculpties. I started out with a 32x33 sphere, and began sculpting on it and finished it to my wish. I sub-divided a bit, made it smoother.

The method I use to get it from my computer to sculpty maker is a little different because I'm running on a MacBook Pro, and sculpty maker isn't supported for Mac's yet, so what I do is I email the .obj file of my sculpt to myself and open it on my Windows computer, then run it through sculpty maker. And EVERY time, the program crashes when I try to make a sculpty. I have the latest version of Sculpty Maker, so it's updated. I've used the right initializing measurements, it's .obj, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Could it be that the emailing process ruins it? I have no idea what to do, and it has happened with different sculpts too. In fact, it's only worked once, and I'm not even sure why, lol.

So if anybody has any idea WHY this might be happening, or if I'm missing something, or if I'm doing anything wrong or incompatible with Sculpty Maker, please let me know. Thank you.

(P.S. Since the .obj is a bit large to email by itself, I just upload it to the website RapidShare and then email myself the link to download it...not sure if that's important or not, but I thought I better add it, just in case.)
Virrginia Tombola
Equestrienne
Join date: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 938
06-30-2009 13:06
I might be misreading this, but you say you started with a 32x33 and divided the geometry? You can't use a denser mesh than that to create an SL sculpty.
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Phoenix Takashi
Registered User
Join date: 16 Sep 2006
Posts: 9
06-30-2009 13:30
I thought sub-dividing was okay with SL sculpties? I thought it was the same amount of faces, just made smaller and more detailed...am I misunderstanding the concept of sub-dividing? I've seen other people sub-divide their sculpts while doing a video tutorial for SL...so I assumed it was okay. (I.E. Vlad Bjornson while creating his mushroom.)
Virrginia Tombola
Equestrienne
Join date: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 938
06-30-2009 13:47
Subdividing is fine, but you can't go beyond the equivalent of a 32x33 sphere (different starting primitives have different parameters-- Vlad has a tutorial on that).

I usually start out with an 8x9 sphere, then sculpt and subdivide twice. Once I'm finished with it at the 32x33 level, I'll export it through Sculpty Maker.

Now, you will subdivide past that to polypaint-- polypainting colours each vertex, so the more points, the higher the resolution of the texture you create when you use Col>Txt. But you can't export that high polygon mesh.

You can use the higher polygon mesh to create some nice effects, though. You can add detail, skin textures, what have you, then bake the shading into the texture (or create a separate shadow texture on a matcap white background and composite with your base texture in Photoshop). The details will throw shadows, which will help create the illusion of more detail on your sculpt.

Another technique I like is to select a dark colour with a lowish opacity (15-20) and adjust the cavity mask so that it leaves the highlights alone. This is great for creating scales or fur textures, it really brings them out, even if the actual geometry isn't present.
_____________________


Horses, Carriages, Modern and Historical Riding apparel. Ride a demo horse, play whist, or just loiter. I'm fair used to loiterers.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Eyre/48%20/183/23/
Phoenix Takashi
Registered User
Join date: 16 Sep 2006
Posts: 9
06-30-2009 14:03
Oh, okay. So my problem is that I'm going beyond the 32x33? I guess I misunderstood...
Thank you for your help...hopefully I can fix the problem in the future.