Topogun or 3d-Coat for retopo
polycounter lvl 6
For manual retopo (Zbrush is already quite good for automatic one)
I know well Max retopo tools and are too limiting, for example you can not cut and conform at same time, something that you can do in Topogun or Maya (and perhaps 3d-coat). Not interested in learning a full featured complex program only for retopo as Maya or Modo.
Topogun was very much the standard but it is not updated since 6 years ago and doesn't seem will update any time soon. Have the retopo tools in 3d-Coat catch with topogun as many people says?
I know well Max retopo tools and are too limiting, for example you can not cut and conform at same time, something that you can do in Topogun or Maya (and perhaps 3d-coat). Not interested in learning a full featured complex program only for retopo as Maya or Modo.
Topogun was very much the standard but it is not updated since 6 years ago and doesn't seem will update any time soon. Have the retopo tools in 3d-Coat catch with topogun as many people says?
Replies
3d-coat could be interested also for stylized painting (not for zbrush alike modeling)
It would depend on your workflow and or avaiable programs, if you need it /can justify its need for that one feature.
It´s like you are having the option within your symmetry to set up a lattice to bend your corresponding symmetrical position(s) to your Mesh.
With "islands" or wraps, you can further add and customize where and how far your corresponding symmetrical positions are lining up to your mesh.
The documentation should help a bit in the explanation;
http://www.topogun.com/Docs/docs/UserGuide.Symmetry.htm
Checking 3d Coat. It has not bridge tool. When you want to join several islands the only way is manually hitting each single polygon that joins both islands. If they are not aligned perfectly then you need to hit each time the 4 points of each bridge face. Imagine if the bridge area has 30 faces or more.
Also the high poly mesh can not be set transparent and parts of the retopology become invisible (or always visible with voxels)
I will take a look to Topogun
for the lack of bridge I can only say to use the select and extrude across or just use the points and faces tool to right click a few times to close that gap, when you say you have to hit all 4 points it sounds like you never touched most of the toolbar before you decided there's no way of doing it efficiently.
The time you might lose by not having a bridge tool is more than made up when you do the UV's in coat
Is a big step forward, try the demo.
with this new addition you can either choose manual which opens instant retopo or automatic which will do it via a command script and loads it back in.
Instant meshes is explained nicely in this clip;
- Lack of bridge (that is big)
- Confusing visualization with parts of the topo hiding inside of the high res. Yes I know you can inflate, but even then is a problem and inflate distorts.
- When doing manual editing frequently new topo edits jump inside of the high res to random locations and force to hide high res , edit etc. These are edits problems and not simply visualization as above.
- Lack of comfortable edit tools to join different topo islands. In part because lack of bridge but also other reasons.
In general the automatic retopo tools are more powerful than Topogun with none of those problems. Precise manual edit tools look more solid in topogun for complex models: faces, clothes etc and anything that needs precise editing with lots of faces.This is not an expert opinion, that is the reason I ask opinion, and I will continue digging more. I'm now finishing learning topogun and will return later to 3d Coat to compare.
3d Coat looks to me in this moment superior for retopo of hard surfaces or topos that doesn't need precise edits.
myclay Damn mate, this instant Field Align Meshes is freaking amazing !! wow. Is there a way to download it somewhere ? I can't seem to be able to find much about this anywhere ? Their GitHub page doesn't give an .exe
on the official Github page,
scroll down for the Pre-compiled binaries,
download for windows or anohter OS,
https://instant-meshes.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Release/instant-meshes-windows.zip
unzip the file and (in the case of windows) the exe should be ready and available.