Rigging Julie Model Using Zspheres

Press R to rotate and now, raising the arms shouldn’t affect the body.

Hmm..wrong joint.

Rotating the shoulder joint looks more natural.

Lightly tap to select either to rotate the joint or the chain.

Let’s generate a Polymesh3D with this pose.

Go under Adaptive skin and change the Density to 5 ,

the same as the number of subdivision levels.

Slide down the Dynamesh resolution to 0 and click Preview or Press A.

Dynamesh can always be done after the new polymesh is generated.

That’s not necessary for now.

This is the Preview of a high resolution Polymesh.

The resolution is controlled by the Density slider.

Notice the Active points are 1.4 million, the same as Subdivision level 5 previously.

In order to reset it and repose, turn off Preview or Press A.

Go under Rigging and unbind mesh.

Once I click unbind mesh, the model will snap back to the original pose.

Click on bind mesh again to repose.

This time let’s use Layers to record the movements

so that I don’t lose the pose every time I click on unbind mesh.

Go under Layers and click on Record. Re-pose the arms.

I want to try an assymetrical pose. Press R to rotate.

All the changes or movements applied on the rig or mesh would be recorded under

the new Layer .

If the REC sign is on, it means the new Layer is recording.

So now I can go ahead and pose the arms for Layers to record.

Whenever the slider is clicked on and moved, the REC icon changes to an EYE icon.

Move the slider towards the center to see Julie move back to the neutral pose.

Negative value inverts the pose of the model.

For example for this pose, negative value moves the arms inwards instead of outwards.

The last recorded change or pose on the mesh can be retrieved

when the Slider value is at 1.

Now, with the pose recorded, I can click on unbind mesh

and not worry about my edits.

Go under Rigging and toggle off then on bind mesh to reset the pose.

In order to retrieve the pose under Layers, tap on the slider of the recorded layer.

This way we can keep the model intact without having to redo the poses.

Let’s create a new Polymesh3D with this pose using Adaptive Skin.

After which, I can use Julie to test out Dynamics feature.

Leave Density at 5, the same number as the number of subdivision levels

and Dynamesh resolution at 0.

Click on Preview or press A.

Go to the bottom of Adaptive Skin tab, there’s a button called Make Adaptive Skin.

Click on it. Make Adaptive skin will create a copy of what we have here on the canvas

and save it as a Polymesh3D. The tool name will begin with Skin_. Click on it.

Open up Geometry tab, you will see the Subdivision levels are intact.

So the rig can be used for the highest Subdivision mesh too.

A word of warning on how not to undo your work accidentally when using Layers.

I made this mistake when making this video, might as well add it into the tutorial.

I wanted to add in another layer to pose the legs.

So I tested out a new rig layout to prevent the thigh and buttocks from collapsing.

Then I realise I didn’t turn off Bind mesh.

So I went back and turn it off.

When I was done adjusting,

Experimented on the new rig layout.

I clicked on Bind Mesh under Rigging again.

I made a mistake by clicking on the first recorded layer,

not realising that I was reversing the rigs layout, undoing any changes.

So I had to redo the new rig layout for the legs again, to record for the second layer.

Touching the Arms layer undid the layout test I had done on the legs.

So I reset my pose again by unbinding and rebinding mesh.

Do remember not to touch previously recorded layers when recording a new layer.

This time I must not making the same mistake. I click on New Layer for the legs.

Click on Rename and named it Legs.

I did the same to the Arms Layer too. When I clicked on Arms layer to rename it,

recording on the Legs’ layer stopped. Recording will only resume if the Record button

next to the Eye icon for Legs layer is clicked on. Do take note to resume recording.

Trying not to make my pose too complicated,

I will make do with a simple, non-too-bendy pose.

When I finished posing, I previewed it with Adaptive skin mode

and exported a new Polymesh3D with this pose.

Go under Adaptive skin and at the bottom of the tab, Click on Make Adaptive Skin.

At the Toolbox window, you will see the new Polymesh Subtool.

Skin_ZSphere_2 which is the new polymesh generated by Make Adaptive Skin.

Skin_ZSphere_1 is the Polymesh generated previously before posing the legs.

All new Polymesh3D generated from ZSphere rigs will start with the Skin_ prefix.

These new Skin Polymesh no longer contain Layers.

The ability to pose or animate this mesh is available under ZSphere_1 subtool.

Let’s click on it.

After clicking on ZSphere_1, there is still no active Layers visible because

the model is still under Adaptive Skin preview mode.

Under Adaptive Skin preview mode, I can’t unbind mesh too.

Go under Adaptive Skin tab and toggle off Preview mode or press A.

Go under Rigging to unbind mesh to separate the rig and the mesh.

Then when you go under Layers, you will see

the previously recorded layer Arm and layer Legs.

There are other features under Layer I will not be using in this tutorial.

but you might be interested to use Duplicate to test out certain poses.

I can duplicate this Arm layer, rename it Arm 2 and further build on this layer,

This way I can test out poses non-destructively.

Toggle each layer on and off to pick the best pose,

Once finish recording, set all poses to 0 or neutral pose and turn off the eye icon.

Unbind and rebind mesh to take a look at the selection of poses.

Go under Layers again to click on anyone of the sliders to test out each pose.

Once I have made up my mind , I can click on Delete to remove any unwanted Layers.

Now with the new poses available, I can go ahead and pick anyone

to use as a reference for my skirt then proceed with Dynamics feature. Let’s get started.

I will continue this tutorial in Zbrush-17 part 4.

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See you in the next video. Adios!