A good alternative to Topogun?
interpolator
I'm interested in using Topogun for creating cleaner topology. ZBrush retopology tools are adequate, but for me at least they have a habit of producing sloppily organized and extraneous vertices, with weak tools for fine-tuning them.
Problem is, Topogun hasn't been updated in like two years, and their forums are dead. Aside from porting it over to Mac and Linux, it seems to have practically been abandoned. I don't know how well their features have held out so far, or how well they can be expected to hold out in the future, and it seems like a hell of a gamble. At the very least their ugly UI could seriously use an overhaul.
If that is no longer so great an option, does anyone know of a solid alternative for good retopology?
Would it be better to just focus on delving into the more elaborate retopology tools of ZBrush and trying to get that right?
Problem is, Topogun hasn't been updated in like two years, and their forums are dead. Aside from porting it over to Mac and Linux, it seems to have practically been abandoned. I don't know how well their features have held out so far, or how well they can be expected to hold out in the future, and it seems like a hell of a gamble. At the very least their ugly UI could seriously use an overhaul.
If that is no longer so great an option, does anyone know of a solid alternative for good retopology?
Would it be better to just focus on delving into the more elaborate retopology tools of ZBrush and trying to get that right?
Replies
3dcoat is great, but if you already have Maya 2014 at your studio that has some decent tools for retopo too.
I'm hoping it wasn't a mistake to get ZBrush, if 3DCoat is potentially better at... everything? And a lot cheaper.
Nope, I love 3D Coat but it's sculpting isn't as good as zbrush, plus you have Dynamesh in Zbrush.
You're about to get pelted with rotten tomatoes :P
That makes me feel a lot better
I am currently trying ZRemesher+Max. Sometimes ZRemesher outdoes itself and gives very great retopology. Especially in clothing. But sometimes you just have to make your retopo in Max because ZRemesher can not understand simply geometries like arms, hands and fingers.
I have my vert, edge, face and clear selection keys hot keyed, along with extrude edge hot keyed.
I also like how you can retopo in layers, so if you're working on say the legs of a character and need to hide the torso, you can do so by toggling said layer.
I also like how 3D Coat warns you (most of the time) if it's about to crash.
I like Zremesh then take it to 3DCoat to tidy up.
Not only does it retopo extremely well... you can poly paint with it, and for the price you're getting quite a lot with the 3d coat package.
It does weird me out that it's made by hardcore christians or something trying to spread the word of god (look at the 'about' button in the program) but damn they can make some good tools.
http://3d-coat.com/company/our-voice/
They even have a 3d model of some saint to top it all off. That's insane.
It used to be worse, here's the old statement.
It now reads
It might be fun to do a 3D Coat lewd, obscene, or blasphemy art jam or contest...
Also worth checking out Rappa Tools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLmuU-OnSiI
or Wrapit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-5XvqX8TQs
...for modeling/retopology, both pretty handy for Max users.
I was having some issues with my exported files, so as a test I made a simple sphere with a flat texture.
Except when I started trying to auto-retopologize a low-poly version (I was testing my retopology method as well), it turned out to be borderline impossible. For a simple sphere primitive.
It kept pinching, twisting, and getting weird points and holes no matter what I did.
If the auto tools can't retopologize a freakin' sphere, how could you trust them with anything?
I'm gonna start trying my hand at using Maya for retopology for now.
Modos retopology tools are good too if you have access to that.
I think Topogun was quite good for its time, but the fact that it has been left to "die" shows and unless you want to get yourself a ticket for a sinking ship, you'd better look elsewhere. Exception being if its developer comes back from his sabbatical and gives us Topogun 3 with all these problems worked out.
I use TopoGun and it is really great but I never considered it might be a problem since the software was abandonned.
Then I take it to blender and select edge rings, then delete them. Then I select the corners of the model and line them up, my selecting the edges and scaling them along the axis to 0. This will get rid of the gooey looking edges that tend to meander a bit.
It still takes time to retopo with Zremesher, but overall I find it just more relaxing than the old fashion way which still feels like a puzzle to me and I'm not so good at puzzles.
I honestly don't think Zremesher will cut it for animation or anything that is supposed to deform in a professional way. You really need granular control. Many people paint weights and paint weights... and then paint the weights some more when it's really the topology that's fighting them. I need to place my verts at specific places. I find that the approximation of "auto" tools leads to crazy headaches down the line when rigging and animating... but maybe someone out there will prove me different and get WDAS like results out of it.
I'll say this though, it does provide a great start.
I don't paint weights with Z remesher, I find it makes it more complicated to edit it later in blender. All I do is make sure the edgeloops are mostly rational and then I take that to blender and select them one at a time to delete the ones I don't want. I just see the Zremesher result as a blank canvas to work from.
You're right - it is a blank canvas from which you can start.
I just find it easier to do it from scratch. Maybe I just don't know how to use Zremesher to its full potential. Is there a possibility of setting exact points?
I'm "self-taught" modeler. And the first "tutorial" I saw of modeling was this guy who was just making up an ogre like character with poly-to-poly technique, without reference.
I really picked up some bad habits from watching that, because it shaped my entire approach to modeling from that point on. The confusion resulting from my own bad habits is what leads me to try to avoid retopo by hand as much as possible.
You're right it's probably best to do it by hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RR06wjt2rs&list=UU9VayT7q3pQ7tdF-TG4Q0yQ
very similar to topogun.
[ame="