zbrush to max question (gnomon dvds)

[Yngram]

I should be getting this DVD tomorrow in the mail. So, I should know a little better what you're talking about then. I'm not really sure why he would import a sub'd model from ZBrush to Max and only use it as a reference. Maybe he is not planning on subdividing to as many iterations in his Max render so he is trying to mimic the ZBrush mesh without having to use or render so many polygons? I know if you render a displacement on a model not sub'd as many times as the highres version it can look odd.

[Searyx]

Thanks for the response.

What you mentioned is the only thing I could think of. And the ZBrush import was fairly subdivided / high-poly.

I guess I should go ahead and ask this: Is there any point in watching your poly count if you're not using the model for a game? I mean I know the render times will be higher, but other than that?

[Yngram]

I got the DVD yesterday but haven't made it that far into it yet (right now I'm just into the modeling parts). And to answer your other question:

Is there any point in watching your poly count if you're not using the model for a game? I mean I know the render times will be higher, but other than that?"

Well yes and no. First, if you're dealing with highpoly items in your viewports it may slow down your system, or even be harder to do certain things to. Character rigging and unwrapping for textures can become a lot more difficult on a model sub'd a few times than on the original or lower poly version. Now if you're only dealing with the high poly version in rendering, then no there is no real other reason (I think?) to watch your poly count than the increased render time. But that doesn't mean that it's not a very important issue. I mean, if you have one extremely high poly model slowing down your render times, what happens if you have multiple characters like that and inside of some enviroment or scene? Not to mention them having to be rendered for multiple frames in a movie or animation.

I think the main point of the DVD is to show a streamlined technique to produce fairly realistic characters in a moderate amount of time and still have them animation and render friendly.

[Kanga]

I should be getting this DVD tomorrow in the mail. So, I should know a little better what you're talking about then. I'm not really sure why he would import a sub'd model from ZBrush to Max and only use it as a reference. Maybe he is not planning on subdividing to as many iterations in his Max render so he is trying to mimic the ZBrush mesh without having to use or render so many polygons? I know if you render a displacement on a model not sub'd as many times as the highres version it can look odd.
Well not odd,... you just dont get any detail.
I have that dvd and the tutor states the reason he goes through this process is because at the time the dvd was made displacement maps had no place in the Blur pipeline. Simple as that. Also the biggest criticism directed at zbrush has always been that the models look great but would be hell to rig and animating them would probably require using a proxy. The technique is still usefull for uses where no displacement mapping is permitted, the only difference being that with zb 3.1 the tutor would probably just retopo the mesh in zbrush itself as that is now possible. Even then the retopoed mesh would have to be tweaked to approach the same level of detail.

Yes there is always a point in keeping low on poly count because you can spend extra polys elsewhere till your comp chokes:)

Cheerio Chris

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