Fastest re-topology application?

jocose

I'm in need for a quick reliable retolopgy solution. I only have limited experience with the technique so I am going to have to learn a solid workflow. I'm using 3dsmax and zbrush in my pipeline. Modo has a pretty good solution I used before but I can't use it for this project.

I hear good things about topogun and 3dcoat. Do they really speed things along or is it more about the artist and less about the tools?

Thanks guys

j_bradford

Personally I prefer 3DCoat, it's the most stable and robust set of tools. But I also prefer it because I use the 3D painting and UV tools a lot.

Topogun 2.0 is great if you're looking for a cheaper solution, the tools are very comparable.

There's also Wrapit, which uses custom tools in addition to Max's native ones and it's only $50. I'm not as big of a fan of it because it needs to be updated to stay compatible with newer Max versions and it's performance isn't as good as 3Dc or Topogun.

This recent thread could provide more opinions;

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=78772

PolyHertz

Fastest is without a doubt 3DCoat due to its auto-retopo function.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEnwxnNMPk4&feature=related[/ame]

jocose

How intuitive is this in practice? Are there any limitations are issues that arn't highlighted there? Does anyone use this feature of 3D coat on a regular basis?

Hazardous

jocose: In my small amount of experience, the autoretopo has trouble if your source mesh consists of a compilation of multiple and overlapping parts ie armor over a body etc etc. It gets confused and doesnt give you any result at all....

I noticed these videos appear to be nice solid meshes 1 subtool style with no overlapping. Though there is a large chance I could have this totally wrong, as I dont have THAT much experience with 3dcoat

BeatKitano

In most case it gives a pretty good base for further tweaking. I use it from time to time. It's nice but it's not the all in one solution in any way.

Bal

Hazardous, most of the time it shouldn't be a problem, as the object is converted to voxels when being imported, so it always ends up being one object.
What BeatKitano said otherwise, it's nice to make a base, or for non-animated objects, but otherwise the regular retopology tools are fast enough that I it by hand mostly.

But yeah, 3D-Coat and Topogun are definitely the way to go at the moment, both have their strength and weaknesses, but I think it can objectively be said that they are much more efficient and fast than the stuff available in Max (polyboost/graphite) Maya (with Nex for instance) or Zbrush (masochism).

ceebee

Topogun 2.0 is a BEAST.

BeatKitano

Manual retpopo is fine in 3dcoat, it even has features that topogun just added in 2.0 and some that are not there yet.
But it sometimes lacks a little precision (the balls used as points are sometime difficult to manipulate in between finger or instance). Topogun still has my preference for precision.