ZBrush Character Creation - Advanced Digital Sculpting 2nd Edition

248 chapter 7 ■ Transpose, ZSphere Rigging, Retopology, and Mesh Extraction

Here’s a tip for getting a nice projection when you have problem areas that you can’t

fix with the Projection Shell slider. Store a morph target at the highest subdivision level

before projecting. Project your mesh and then switch the morph target back with the

To ol → Morph Target → Switch button. Select the Morph brush and brush the changes

back in. The Morph brush will reapply the changes stored in the morph target based on

the intensity of the brush (set it to 100). This approach allows you to blend off problem

areas while keeping the good parts of the projection.

Changing Topology with GoZ

The simplest method of changing your underlying topology is to use the GoZ script that comes

installed with ZBrush. In this section we will look at how to enable and use GoZ. First we will

make some topology changes to the lowest subdivision level of a ZTool and then transfer back

to ZBrush.

1. Load the ZTool remeshedManHead.ztl. Be sure to load the original from the DVD; do
   not continue with the altered version from the previous demonstration. Step down to the
   lowest subdivision level of the ZTool.


2. You need to be sure GoZ is activated and enabled for your 3D application. As of this
   writing, GoZ supports 3ds Max, Maya, and Cinema 4D, with other applications on
   the way. In this example, enable GoZ for Maya. Click Preferences → GoZ and click
   the Path To Maya button to set the application path to maya.exe. This file is located in
   C:\Program​Files\Autodesk\Maya2009\bin.


3. When the path to Maya is set, click the GoZ button under the Tool menu (Figure 7.48).
   This will automatically load Maya and import the lowest subdivision level into the pro-
   gram (Figure 7.49). There are three GoZ buttons: GoZ will export the current subtool,
   All will export all available subtools, and Visible exports only those visible subtools.

The Maya Embedded Language (MEL) script aspect of GoZ may require manual setup.

This is because some system preferences won’t allow ZBrush to access other programs

to automate the setup. To manually set up the Maya button for GoZ, in ZBrush run Force

Reinstall under Preferences → GoZ. Open Maya and from the Script editor source the script

GoZScript.mel from C:\Users\Public\Pixologic\GoZApps\Maya. The script is sourced

by clicking File → Source script in the Script editor window. This action should create the

shelf and buttons you need. If for some reason it doesn’t, then you can manually load

the shelf shelf_GoZBrush.mel.

4. In Maya, you extrude new geometry for the head. Also add new edge loops to the
   mouth area. In this example, I have also extended the shoulder area by extruding
   edges (Figure 7.50).


5. Click the GoZ shelf button while the mesh is selected. This transfers the mesh back to
   ZBrush. ZBrush will ask if you want to transfer the high resolution details to the new
   mesh. Click OK in the dialog box to transfer the high-res details to the new model
   (Figure 7.51).

Figure 7.48
The GoZ but-
tons under the
Tool menu