froRetopo : free, fast and simple retopology script for Maya

Froyok

Hello polycounters !
I'm back today with a new script for Maya !

I always wanted to get a nice retopoly toolset for Maya but never found what I desired, so I build my own script to get what I wanted. I'm sharing it with you today.

The main idea was to be able to manipulate the geometry of your low-poly withing the same tool, without the need to switch between a lot of things and keep the full power of Maya without needing to export to an other software.

Download : froRetopo 3.5
Manual : Full manual on my blog

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH951lx_reo"]froRetopo 3.4 - Retopology script for Maya - YouTube[/ame]

The script is open to any suggestions and I will gladly improve it with your feedbacks !


Thanks again to Passerby for the help with the rayTrace function !

passerby

gj works great sofar

kodde

Wow this looks awesome. Would be even more nice to see it used on say a face or something organic to relate to.

Froyok

I will try to post some examples as soon I can, I didn't have any good props under my hands to test at the moment.

OniLolz

Thank you very much sir, you made my day!

nyx702

This is great man! So glad you finally released this!

mastershokhan

Thank you so much man!

CDeniz

Woah, this looks promising,, awesome job.

Ignacio_G

This is awesome! Can't wait to try it out.

Froyok

Just to show how I use my own script :

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMHKuWoo4mg"]froRetopo (3.5) : Workflow demo - YouTube[/ame]


Also, I'm working on an update coming soon, to fix some bugs that some people meet.

Deadly Nightshade

Love it.
The UI can be improved imo (to take up less space by using more icons and less text for example) but overall you've nailed it pretty damn nicely. I'll try this the next time I model car!

Slayvin

Nice job man! Thank you!

Froyok

Deadly Nightshade wrote: »

The UI can be improved imo (to take up less space by using more icons and less text for example)

Yeah, totally.
I think I could remove the whole "Selection" frame by the way (not really useful). Just keeping the "project geometry" button near the quad tool. Just this should help reduce the size of the UI.

jderiggi

Thanks for the great tool! The install seems to have worked fine, but I get an error when trying to extrude an edge: // Error: Cannot find procedure "froRayTrace". //

I copied the files to Maya's documents folder as you stated. I was only confused to see the python command going into a new plugins folder there (which I created as you stated), instead of the plugins folder in the Program Files. Did I miss anything else that could be causing this error? I'm using Maya 2012 x64. Thanks again!

John

passerby

the frocmds.py actually is a plugin, it needs to be in the plug-ins folder, than you have to enable the plugin from the menu system in maya.

window>settings/preferences/plug-in Manager

find froCmds.py and select loaded, and auto load.


the py file can go either in the folder your created or in with the maya install, just a preference thing.
maya search both places, and all modal folders for plugins

Lucas Annunziata

I'm having a wierd issue with the plugin. I watched the videos and setup my HP mesh for retopo. I create my initial poly with the make polygon tool. I press control + shift and drag out my first extrusion and all is good and functional. However, after the first extrusion, if I try to do it again from any edge, it just automatically snaps to the surface of my HP mesh at a wierd angle.



Not sure what is going on here.

After messing around a bit, when I disable project edge extrude, I can extrude as many quads as I want and it appears to function okay, but quad auto weld does not work while it is disabled.

Froyok

You are under Maya 2014 I presume ? If yes, this is a bug I fixed in the incoming version. Should be available this weekend.

Lucas Annunziata

Yeah maya 2014. I am super glad to hear you'll be updating it this weekend. Thanks so much for all your tools fro. I just discovered them and they will make my life sooooo much easier.

Froyok

Update 3.5 is available !

Download : http://www.froyok.fr/maya/froRetopo35.zip
Manual : http://www.froyok.fr/blog/2013-06-maya-froretopo-3-4-a-fast-and-easy-retopology-script
(Old version, I don't have enough time right now to update the manual too)

Changelog :

[version 3.5]
-Added a function to count the number of nGons in the currently selected mesh
-Added a function to count the number of edge borders in the currently selected mesh
-Added insert and delete edge loop in the Quad tool
-Added an option to automatically soften the edges of the low-poly when using the Quad Tool

-Updated the viewport UI of the Quad Tool to display all the mouse shortcuts
-Updated the Quad tool to give an error if the user don’t have a scene in centimeters
-Updated the UI to make it easier to use (+ removing unnecessary tools)
-Updated the Python plugin, now gives better performances on vertices operations
-Updated the edge extrude, now with better performances when projecting on the high poly
-Updated the sculpt tools to improve performances when selecting all the vertices

-Fixed an error about the Edge Loop tool not finding a froTools command
-Fixed an error about the “edgeToVertex” option (when releasing the mouse in the Quad Tool)
-Fixed an error when an object was too big for the Quad Tool (distance limited by 1000 units, now raised to 10000)
-Fixed soft selection problem (now soft selection is disabled when launching the quad tool)
-Fixed a conflict that was affecting the edge extrude under Maya 2014 (“selectTypeChangeAffectsActive” option)
-Fixed the C++ crash of the viewport (use “currentTime” command instead of “refresh”)

Lucas Annunziata

Huzzah! Thanks man! It seems to be working quite smoothly for me after putting 'selectPref -selectTypeChangeAffectsActive 0;' into the mel line. I'll keep you posted if anything comes up.

Dave Jr

AMAZING

Froyok

darbeenbo wrote: »

Huzzah! Thanks man! It seems to be working quite smoothly for me after putting 'selectPref -selectTypeChangeAffectsActive 0;' into the mel line. I'll keep you posted if anything comes up.

Even with the 3.5 update ? The script should take care of that by itself, you shouldn't have to do it manually. Can you give me more details ?

Lucas Annunziata

Not sure what else I can tell you. I'm using maya 2014 64-bit, and the setting was not on by default. It does however save the setting when put in manually.

I have noticed now that whenever I undo something, instead of just instantly undoing the action, the program actually reverses the 'animation' of what I just did, if that makes any sense. So if I extrude down and to the left, then hit undo, the extrusion moves right and up back from whence it came.

Froyok

darbeenbo wrote: »

Not sure what else I can tell you. I'm using maya 2014 64-bit, and the setting was not on by default. It does however save the setting when put in manually.

Hmm, strange. The quad tool disable this setting (and enable it back if it was on by default). I have other users that tested the script and didn't have a problem with this system... To be honest I don't see why you had to do it manually.

I will investigate further is other users report the same problem...

darbeenbo wrote: »

I have noticed now that whenever I undo something, instead of just instantly undoing the action, the program actually reverses the 'animation' of what I just did, if that makes any sense. So if I extrude down and to the left, then hit undo, the extrusion moves right and up back from whence it came.

Yep, that behavior is normal. It's because of the way I handle the refresh of the viewport. This is the only way I found to avoid some C++ crash on certain computers.

justifun

Even with 3.5 I'm getting the same issues as Darbeenbo when extruding an edge. The first one works and the rest only extrude a bit and get suck. I'm running maya 2014 as well.

Swan

justifun wrote: »

Even with 3.5 I'm getting the same issues as Darbeenbo when extruding an edge. The first one works and the rest only extrude a bit and get suck. I'm running maya 2014 as well.

Paste "selectPref -selectTypeChangeAffectsActive 0;" into the mel line or window and the edge extrude should work as intended.

Thanks for this and the xnormal tool Froyok! Massive time savers.

Edit: If using a shelf button/marking menu/Hotkey to call up the script you can just add "selectPref -selectTypeChangeAffectsActive 0;" to the end of mel so one won't have to manually enter it each time.

Froyok

I really don't see why the script doesn't do it by itself for you guys. But yeah, this command is what make a conflict with the edge extrude, so disabling it should fix your problems.

I don't have much time these days, so I will not have the possibility to investigate this soon.

justifun

Entering the command works for only the immediate next edge you extrude, then fails again

you need to do it every single time lol.

works fine in 2011, its just 2014 that's buggy

passerby

If it is only a 2014 problem that would make me beloved that it is caused by the modeling toolkit in Maya 2014. Make sure the auto on feature of it is turned off, since it could be resetting that option everytime.

Dantert

Hi! I need help! Every time I create a poligon and click quad draw the poligon I crated disappear and this shows up "// Warning: file: C:/Users/user name/Documents/maya/scripts/froRetopo3.mel line 1335: The current object has been modified : cancel its edition."
Why is this happening? I would really like to use this great plugin, please someone help me!

Ups my bad, fixed XD i wasn't clicking enter at the end of the polygon creation, lol...

passerby

good you fixed it, @ froyok not sure if mel lets you do this, but you might want to do some exception handling in cases like this, and raise a more useful error message.

Stosh

Will this script work within Maya 2015? Or is this just designed up to 2014? And if there is some new super amazing retopo tool in 2015 in which I wouldn't need this script, I don't know about it because I JUST got 2015 and haven't checked it out yet.

Froyok

passerby wrote: »

good you fixed it, @ froyok not sure if mel lets you do this, but you might want to do some exception handling in cases like this, and raise a more useful error message.

Well, for the peculiar case showed by @Dantert I'm not sure it's a good idea. The create polygon tool is one of the most basic tools of Maya and behave like a lot of other tools (Enter = validate the action). I don't think handling this is the goal of my script. This is the responsibility of the user to understand such basic tasks.

However I think it would be better in the future to handle the full mesh creation in my script instead to rely on the Maya tools.

Stosh wrote: »

Will this script work within Maya 2015? Or is this just designed up to 2014? And if there is some new super amazing retopo tool in 2015 in which I wouldn't need this script, I don't know about it because I JUST got 2015 and haven't checked it out yet.

I don't own Maya 2015, so I can't tell you if it's compatible.
The other retopology tool that you mention is the Modeling Toolkit introduced in Maya 2014 (which is in fast the integration in Maya of the famous plugin named NEX created by dRaster). You can use it of course, it's a matter of taste. Personally I don't like this tool. that's why I created this script.

Dantert

So I finally installed maya 2015, I had some problems of lagging with the modeling toolkit so I installed froRetopo, fixed the bug of the edge extrusion as Swan kindly suggested and all is working fine now
I can switch between the modeling toolkit and froRetopo to have the right tool I need always at my fingertips. with the fact that froRetopo makes the mesh live you can use the modeling toolkit practically as an extension of it.
Thanks a lot Froyok for this amazing plugin and Swan for the bug fix! ^w^

MikeF

Just gave this a shot today and i'm getting an error when i try to create a quad using the quad tool "The target block is already occupied by another HUD."

using maya 2011x64 any ideas?

Froyok

Dantert wrote: »

Thanks a lot Froyok for this amazing plugin and Swan for the bug fix! ^w^

Thanks ! I'm glad you like it (and I totally missed your post before today).

MikeF wrote: »

Just gave this a shot today and i'm getting an error when i try to create a quad using the quad tool "The target block is already occupied by another HUD."

using maya 2011x64 any ideas?

This error means the script can't write some information on the HUD because something already occupies the area. In my case the script write on the top right corners of the viewport. Maybe you have something displayed here ? Like the viewcube maybe ?

MikeF

Thats what i thought but even after disabling all hud elements i'm still getting the error

Froyok

Can you show a screenshot of your perspective viewport ?

MikeF

For sure, this is what things are looking like rite after go to create a quad

Froyok

Okay, to be honest I'm don't know why it's happening since you have nothing on the viewport.

A workaround I can suggest is to disable the call to the function that want to draw on the HUD. In the mel file, try to find the following lines (around lines 1250/1260) :

setToolTo frovtxContext;
    
    froRetopoBuildHUD();
}

and change it to :

setToolTo frovtxContext;
    
    //froRetopoBuildHUD();
}

That should do it.
Here is what is displayed on the HUD (if it was working properly) :

MikeF

Thanks man, that did the trick!

Farooq Baloch

I m looking for download its free version can you please provide me a link to download 

froRetopo free ?

Thanks in Advance :-)

haiddasalami

Uhhhh its free unless something changed. Theres a link on the first post. 

HamuKampo

Passerby
"Make sure the auto on feature of it is turned off"
Where can I found this feature in Maya 2014?
Do you mean in Modeling Toolkit switch everything off? - I have it but the problem is not solved. (short snap edge extrude)

kolayamit

This is the best retopo tool out there for Maya, Thanks a ton @Froyok . And thank you very much for making this free, love your retopo tool. Started to use this today with Maya 2015(latest service pack), will post here if i find any bugs.

HamuKampo

Ok, I found the solution! (I don't know why happend)
When I made a shelf icon for this tool I just drag&dropped from the command line to the self.
The problem rised (second edge extrude stacked in short range).
..
I deleted the shelf.
Run froRetopo3; in command line and created the self icon from the froRetopo command button (down under Info).
Edge extrude problem missing!!! What?