Reduce Poly Count with Decimation Master in ZBRUSH

Let's say you just spent tens of hours sculpting your latest model and have upwards of 10 million polygons, so what now? It's pretty obvious that you can't bring that into Maya without giving the poor program a conniption fit. If only there was way you could preserve all that detail, but not have to go through the whole tedious process of using Z-Remesher and having to divide/project (we all know how long that can take). Also, you can bring in a model without needing normal and displacement maps!

This is where Decimation Master comes in to save the day. Decimation Master is a plugin for ZBrush which allows you to reduce the poly count but still keep high resolution detail. Like most plugins that ship free with ZBrush, this can save you great amounts of time without costing you any extra monies!

Lets get started.

I have a high resolution model (just over 14 million polygons), but thats too big for what I want to do so I need to bring it down somewhat before I drop it into Maya.

First, I need to save a copy of my model or clone it using the clone features now available in the tool menu.

You can mask off any detail that you want to keep at 100% such as fine wrinkles or sharp edges.

Next comes the longest process, the Pre-Process Current step. This may take a while depending on your computer and model. Mine took around 20 minutes, but I'll be worth it in the end.

Once your done with your Pre-Process, you and adjust the sliders to get your desired look and poly count. I set mine for 10% which will give me around 1.4 million polygons. Now just hit the Decimation Current/All tabs and WHAM! That was fast, maybe a few seconds since it's all Pre-Processed. But, I think I want it lower, maybe down to 2%. 

That gave me around 284,000 polygons and it still looks great!

 Just export your subtools and your ready to drop it into Maya (without any maps).

Just imagine how much time you'll save by not having to hook up all those maps.  Decimation master could be a game changer for me and I'm guessing you will benefit from it too. I doubt it will end the need for displacement/normal maps, but at least it gives you an option to keep detail and still reduce poly count. As you can see, the new lower poly count model is pretty similar to the original. I couldn't tell unless I zoomed in to around 400 percent and it still looks good. Enjoy!