This is a continuation from another thread to show some initial challenges with adding the functionality of GoZ between Rhino and zBrush. While not a necessity I figured using Rhino 7 - Beta would be best for a few reason which will be outlined below. As there can be several different methods/workflows that can be used this is not meant to be a defacto guide as much as it is just about possibilities. There’s more that can be added but this is at least a starting point.
Workflow 1 - zBrush to Rhino (Mesh - NURBS)
This first example is taking a model from zBrush (it’s one of their demo files that comes with the software) with the intent to add some additional details in Rhino. Considering that the zBrush model is compromised of 8 Sub-Tools and is being exported as an (.obj) which, when imported, means that it will be a mesh. There are wide range of functionality that can be done with the geometry as a mesh but am going to push this to being a NURBS/Polysurface model so that the full benefits of working with Rhino can be leveraged. What is vital to know about this aspect is that the geometry will/may be converted several times which may lead to downstream issues if not careful.
In this first image it is showing the original model in zBrush with 8 Sub-Tools and also, something that am hoping that Rhino can implement down the road, is a (however you’d like to think about it) running tally of of Polygons/Faces for each mesh and SubD. I know this information can be gathered by selecting the mesh and typing “what” but that is clunky to say the least. There should be a counter shown in the viewport that shows both a total number and a number per mesh when selected (if this is possible that please excuse this error).
To make things easier for exporting am going to use two methods which is what the next screen shot shows. The first is merging all of the Sub-Tools into one mesh. This does not join or boolean the geometry together it only places it basically into one layer which makes it a bit easier to export from zBrush (as an (.obj) which helps to keep the mesh as Quads) and then import into Rhino.
This next screen shot shows the model in Rhino (colors added in Rhino to help show that it is keeping the same Sub-Tools that were in zBrush Grouped together). Using the “what” command gives a running count of how many faces there are (total of 54,498) BUT this is something that should be shown in the viewport.
