Recreating topology

JohnnySix

I've been searching the forums/google for something I'm sure I saw ages ago involving a polygon mesh being created on top of an existing mesh, to conform to the underlying topology.

I was thinking it might be something like shrink-wrap, but that sounds extremely unwieldy - is it possible to create new faces that are snapping to existing toplogy, say, if you have a reasonably okay model, but you want to recreate it again and optimise it, without having to go through a tedious process of collapsing verts/recreating faces etc?

Rob Galanakis

Check out Nex for Maya, Polyboost for Max, and Topogun for a third party plugin that is designed solely for the task you describe (and artists here love).

MoP

Most good apps have snapping tools which will do this.

3dsMax has snaps which, if set, will allow you to extrude edges and cut verts, all snapping to a high-poly mesh. There is also Polyboost which has better functions for this, but costs money.

Maya has "Make Live" which lets you snap any meshes to a selected mesh and model over the top of it in the same way. NEX has better functions for this, but costs money.

Silo has retopology tools built in. ZBrush has retopology tools built in. There is a stand-alone app called Topogun purely for retopologising highpoly meshes.

edit: Gah, beaten!

solar

there are a few videos showing various retopology methods on youtube, just search for retopo, retopology etc...

JohnnySix

Oh sweet! Thanks guys, I was thinking as I've been sat for hours, moving verts into place, creating polygon by polygon, 'there must be an easier way!' .

I'll start digging now, thanks again.

I will finish this 3 year old vapourware nali cow.