Hi Michael,

Thanks for that info, it kind of confirms what I'd suspected & had found so far.

I'd only recently been looking a Zbrush & had been wondering if it might be the better option for me?
Thanks again, think I'll download the trial version & see how that pans out for me.
If Zbrush works out easy enough for me to learn & use, then that'd save me a heap of mucking around within Silo.

regards Colin

Hi Peter,

> Which leads us to the question ..... will V2 have solutions to mesh export that
> make it easier to carry on in Zbrush ? More subd able meshes ?

So far several people have been using MoI export into Zbrush successfully.

Are you having a problem with your exports currently? If you could post an example I could see what is going wrong in your particular situation.

In general it seems like other people have had the most success with exporting from MoI as an OBJ file using Output: Quads & Triangles. ZBrush does not handle n-gon output quite properly, so make sure to switch that off and you should be fine.

As far as I know typically the mesh that is used in ZBrush is then painted on directly, it usually does not have sub-d applied to it first...

If you want to have a sub-d type smoothing applied to your mesh (which kind of shrinks things down and actually alters the shape of your model), your best bet is to manually create that particular type of mesh in a sub-d modeler instead of in MoI, that is not likely to change in MoI v2.

- Michael

Hi Colin, I kind of doubt that you will find ZBrush very simple to use neither, but probably the overall mechanism of painting type operations will be easier than 3d point manipulation type stuff.

It is probably a better place for you to spend time on than subd modeling because it should ultimately provide a much quicker and smoother workflow for the type of things you are showing there, once you do get comfortable with it.

- Michael

Hi Michael !
Yes I use the quad and triangle setup and the results are not bad at all..
It just needs an awfull lot of dividing and the resulting polygon count is pretty high !
I just did a fast example of a ring in moi and a fast render in Kerkythea... to show that
there is quite some deformation possible !
Peter

Hi Peter, it looks like that should work pretty well!

One other thing is you may want to use the "Divide larger than" setting when exporting from MoI to cause the exported mesh to be diced up into smaller pieces.

You can put a distance into that "Divide larger than" setting, and any polygons larger than that size will be broken down into smaller pieces.

So for example, if you set "Divide larger than: 0.5" - any polygon larger than 0.5 units in size will be further subdivided during the export from MoI.

- Michael

Yes Michael thank you !
I had that problem with the car too !
But its a good way of sub d ing things more into a zbrush friendly shape.... !
Thanks
Peter

Sorry. I wrote that just before you posted the images and description of those character rings. For something like that, i would do as Michael suggested. Model a single surface Nurbs shank, export as quads to Silo, then add extra geometry (extruding, spinning edges, etc) to build the basic volume of the face. Then sculpt the fine character details...

In a general way (and reading a post about using Silo/Moi for architectural purposes), then i suggest roughing out a shape in subd. Since you also have Rhino you have a another set of excellent mesh refining tools. So you could easily boolean a Moi mesh together with a Silo mesh, then use Rhino tools to adjust the transition area. Or even send it backwards to Silo again for smoothing with the sculpt tools...

jonah

My currently basic apps are--
PhotoshopCS3
Carrara6.1Pro
MoI
3D Brush (THE zb alternative!)
Hexagon(The updates currently due should be wow!)

Put into my "disapointed" list are
Silo
Amapi7.52
ViaCAD

Colin, definatly try 3DBrush out before you try ZBrush. much more affordable and easier to use.
http://www.3d-brush.com/

Thanks xrok1,

I'd already downloaded & tried looking at 3D Brush, but my present Video Card is old & didn't meet the minimum specs, so it wouldn't install properly.

Strangely enough that same old Video Card appears perfectly able to run the Zbrush Demo at present??
I intend upgrading my computer in the near future, so I'll need to take a look at all this again then.

regards Colin

Brian, You say you are disappointed at ViaCAD. Why?

jfallie
I find ViaCADs working methods quite clumsy and un-natural for me. And that 2d/3d setup where you accidently/continuously loose your nice friendly UI work setup you have organised---just too frustrating.