In this post I want to talk about ZRemesher. ZRemesher is a very handy and easy tool to use in Zbrush. When making a model it is easy to go and make a model with a few hundred thousand to a couple million polygon count, the problem with that is if you try to bring that model into a film or game engine, you would not be able to move or work with such a model. ZRemesher fixes the problem of having a high polycount model. Also for those who do not know about polygons on a model, think of it like a wire frame over an object. Basically ZRemesher takes a high polycount model and retopologizes the the model so there is more surface quality and less polygons. In basic terminology you can have a low poly model that looks like a high poly model when using ZRemesher.

When you want to use ZRemesher and Retoplogize the model, the first step is to copy your model and rename the copy so you know that will be the low resolution model that you want to bring in another program. After go to the geometry tab and find ZRemesher. Change the the adaptive size to 100 so the program can use the model more effeciently by using more polygons in a smaller space and larger ones in a bigger space. Take the target polygon count down to see how little polygons you need to keep the basic shape of the model, and hit the ZRemesh button. Select the low Res model but have the high res model turned on also, and go to the subtool project so you can see it and you also want to see the divide button in the geometry tab. Change the distance slider in the project area, so it can look at the gaps between the models and fill it in. Hit the project all button, then the divide button and than hit the project all button again and do this for a few subdivisions. Your highest subdivision level can have a higher polycount than the high res model but that is fine, because you only need to export the level one subdivision. The level one subdivision will than be exported into another program and as long as you have done normal and displacement maps of the high res model, the low res model will look just like the high res but with far fewer polygons.

Now, I know that one could use Zspheres  to retopologize the model to make the polycount even lower than it would be when using ZRemesher, but I think that the model in wire frame mode looks a lot cleaner when using ZRemesher and I think it quads the polygons better.

Cardboard Sculpture

Some the different pictures I took of a sculpture to represent positive and negative space.

Compare and Contrast

In my version on the image, I wanted to keep the certain elements the same. I kept the three bathers, and the turtle, I also tried to keep the same type of composition. I changed the background of the picture, so it would look more outdoors like. I also changed the way the women looked like, to me in the original they are dark and ugly, I tried my best to make them a little more pretty. I also felt like some of the poses in the original were unnatural so I made the middle woman have her hands underneath her chin to try to show that she admires the turtle. In my picture it is more of a light hearted tone where as the original is more dreary.

Work In Progress

These are two of my work in progress. The first one I wanted to see if I made the picture more abstract, so I did the background first, and than made the bathers separate, I cut them out and then I taped them to the background to try to see if it would add some sort of shadow for some dimension-alism. For the second image I added a towel to the one bather and added a mountain range in the background to try to better marry the earth to the sky.  I know I want to keep the basic concept the same though.

Objective Critique

“Bathers with a Turtle” by Henri Matisse is an expressionist oil on canvas painting showing three women intrigued by a turtle that is at the bottom of the painting. Matisse separates the background into three parts using cool colors, the bottom green, the middle blue, and the top a darker tone of blue. Since the brown turtle and the women have warmer colors with pink and light brownish tones they pop out more to create a sense of space. In the Painting “Bathers with a Turtle”, Matisse places emphasis on the turtle by having its color be a reddish brown color to contrast with the blues and greens of the background, and also the skin tones of the bathers. Matisse also has done a nice job spacing the bathers apart to create balance in the painting, as well as a compositional structure of a circle.

Subjective Critique

     I do not like how flat this panting looks, the background is comprised of three layers a bottom green, a blue in the middle and then a top that looks like he mixed the blue and green together but is dingy like in color but there is not mid or foreground, even though Matisse tries to use warm and cool colors to solve this problem, I do not think it works that well. I would like to make the work look lighter, because even though there are some places with lighter colors, like some of the skin on the women, the work looks to dark and dull.  The bathers in the painting look very ugly and unnatural to me and I want to change that. The woman in the middle looks like she has a monkey’s face and is eating her fingers. The woman on the right side of the painting, even though only have of her face is seen, looks like she has a unibrow, and the way her hair is designed looks like she has a mullet. Finally the last bather is what I assume to be another woman, but looks more like a man to me, because the face is hidden and the figure only has short hair. Another thing I dislike is how big the feet of each of the bathers look, especially the woman on the right. I also can not understand if the bathers are indoors or outdoors, if I had to guess, I would say outdoors, but there are no plants or trees to help ascertain the difference.

Image and Basic Information

"Bathers with a Turtle"

By Henri Matisse

Oil on Canvas

1907-1908