ZBrush - Basics of Projecting a Mesh

 This is a short blog post of what I went over in ZBrush.

When going over some tips and alternatives with manipulating meshes, I went over the basics of how the Project tool works within ZBrush. While it may be just one specific tool compared to the rest, it still holds a significant part if you want to retopologize your mesh, especially if you want clean and smoothen geometry. Its primary purpose is to allow transfer of sculpting from your original mesh into its retopologized counterpart. This tool can impact rigging and topology tools within Zbrush, so it’s best to learn what the other tools are before moving forward.

A couple days ago, I imported a skull from Maya that was completely retopologized based on the original skull in ZBrush. Once that was complete, I had to be sure both the original skull and retopologized one were both present within the subtool folder. When using the Project tool, MAKE sure you have at least 2 or more meshes present visible.

Before moving on, what I would do is go to the Geometry tab, find the ZRemesher tool, and re-mesh the original ZBrush mesh to an acceptable target value of polygons so that the other mesh can have a cleaner projection. For my skulls, my recommendation would be 5.7.

Once that’s all set, you're ready to move on to your projection tool. Head to the Subtool, then find the Project tab. Inside the tool are some neat details. To start off, since I have both the original and retopologized skull visible and aligned, I select my retopology skull. Make sure you have the retopologized mesh selected, NOT the original, that would cause issues. Once selected, I click on ProjectAll in the tool. While it may seem like nothing has changed, you have to go to Geometry, then click on Divide or use the hot key Ctrl+D to add a subdivision. This will showcase how the geometry is affecting the mesh. My retopologized skull looks cleaner than it was before.

I would repeat this process at least 3 more times, having my subdivision levels set to 4 for a much better result. In return, my retopologized skull is now officially projected. As you can see from the images above, the one on the left is the original ZBrush skull while on the right is the retopologized projected skull. You can notice the difference of polygons.

In retrospect, this was a fun little tool to go over despite ZBrush not being my strong suit when it comes to topology, but playing with the tools a little should give you a much larger understanding of how ZBrush works compared to the likes of Maya and Blender.