Posing humanoid characters in and out of ZBrush

If your ZBrush model has multiple pieces at various subdivision levels you can use the simple approach I showed at the beginning of the video using the Transpose Master. This ZBrush default plugin will automatically move all your subtools to the lowest subdivision level and merge them into a new tool that you can pose. 

If you want to pose multiple subtools with multiple subdivision levels on each piece, you can also follow the second method I showed in the video using something like Mixamo and Blender. What you would have to do is combine the two methods Transpose Master + Export to Mixamo.

In this example I just added a few primitives and IMMs to the character for demonstration (each additional subtool has 3 or 4 subdivision levels):

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Step 1, is to send the multiple pieces to a single tool using the Transpose Master, exactly in the same simple way I showed in the first method:

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Then from the newly created tool in the lowest subdivision level, export that as an OBJ and follow the steps for the second method importing the merged tool into Mixamo for rig and animation.

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After you have your animation in Mixamo, you can follow the last part of the process by exporting the FBX, importing it into Blender to choose your pose and then exporting another posed obj file.

The exported obj file should have the exact same topology as the merge tool from the Transpose Master, so you can import it in ZBrush to replace it and then use the Transpose Master plugin to send it back to your model with all the subdivisions.

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It’s like tricking ZBrush into thinking that you are going to pose with Transpose Master, but once you have the sculp in the merged tool that the plugin creates, you can actually pose it somewhere else and bring it back.