Retopo G - Retopology Tool For Maya
Tool Preview:
Retopo G makes re-topology, the process of rebuilding mesh over an existing sculpture, simple in Maya. What makes Retopo G so efficient is the Context Sensitive polygon building creation. This means almost any task can be done with the ‘g’ (repeat) key.
The goal of Retopo G is to create a fast re-topology tool that works directly inside of maya, does not require a plugin, and does not interrupt your standard modeling tools.
More Information Here
Feel free to email me regarding this tool as well. My contact information can be found on my webpage above.
Retopo G makes re-topology, the process of rebuilding mesh over an existing sculpture, simple in Maya. What makes Retopo G so efficient is the Context Sensitive polygon building creation. This means almost any task can be done with the ‘g’ (repeat) key.
The goal of Retopo G is to create a fast re-topology tool that works directly inside of maya, does not require a plugin, and does not interrupt your standard modeling tools.
More Information Here
Feel free to email me regarding this tool as well. My contact information can be found on my webpage above.
Replies
Think of this as a preview.
1. I still have a few very small kinks to work out.
2. Prepping it to sell is not something I currently do have time to do.
3. Right now, I consider this tool a strong asset to my portfolio (including scripts, not just artwork), for a potential employer to consider. If this is public, that goes away.
Of course I understand as well, releasing it publicly will get me recognition, and with that potential work as well, but I want to make the right choice at the right time. The plan right now is to sit on it for a while to allow me to finish up my last semester at school, then decide on what to do.
This !
Looks like someguy entering a room full of kids and saying, who want ice cream ?
And then "sorry you can't have any". :poly136:
Before I can even think about sharing it I need some sort of licencing system in place to protect it. I have yet to decide if I want to release it publicly or keep it as an asset to my portfolio. I know how many people would love to use this though, so I am strongly considering a public release.
Also I have a few kinks to work out, and a few exciting new features to clean up that didn't make the demonstration cut. It will be worth the wait.
Surely you should have some people testing it though ;P
I'll be happy to help. Also. I want Ice Scream!
The second is that selling someone does not necessarily require a licensing scheme. I hate to rant here, but I'm really tired of contributing money for scripts or plugins and then suffering from a half-brained licensing scheme that requires weird activation or doesn't work half the time or locks the license to one particular machine. People are going to steal things no matter what, and spending time and money just to harass legitimate customers is a waste of everyone's energy.
Something to think about: one of the best script purchases I've made in the last few years is Dustin Nelson's Rapid Rig/Rapid Pose scripts. They're sold on Creative Crash for a reasonable price (I think $60 for both) and feature no copy protection whatsoever, yet his scripts have been top 5 in the marketplace for a very long time. I also know that he's gotten attention from larger studios, including one feature studio.
Promoting yourself and sharing your tools, whether for money or not, are not mutually exclusive goals. I would also urge you to avoid complicated, annoying licensing schemes.
But unlike that situation, I'll have a product that goes beyond the personal user. I have already received some studio interest who are obligated to do legitimate business. In that case a licence is 100% necessary. Say if a large studio bought 1 copy and shared it with all of their employees who then took it home for personal use. It's not like I'm looking to make much, but that surely would not be the right compensation. Just to clarify as well, I like free and have released scripts for free in the past, but a tool like this is where I have to draw the line.
In the meantime I'm receiving some outside help from friend who is going to help me get in contact with a few local studios and see if they have any intrest. Keeping it private for the meantime will give me the opportunity to talk to these people. What that means is for everyone waiting is I'll be taking some more time to perfect it and add a few more features before potentially some sort of beta or release.
I do understand why you would like to make cash from your hard work though. Who wouldn't. But look at tools like xNormal and ndo. They are free and extremely powerful tools that have changed workflows in the industry and in people's personal work.
I'm up for beta-testing too!
RetopoG.com
I'm curious, do you have any functionality for mirroring? Is the retopo mesh something that can also be manipulated with non Retopo-G tools? I'm wondering how it works with history and such.
I wouldn't mind a license solution if it came to it as long as there's some sort of free trial to preview it. Looks great so far! :thumbup:
I do not have an exact figure yet but the plan is to price it modestly, probably on the lower side as far as these tools go. Want to be both fair about it and ultimately have more people using it.
I am still a big fan of NEX's Quad Draw. Every Topo tool could learn a thing or two from its simplicity and efficiency. While I am doing things a bit differently, it is ultimately the tool I hold in the highest regard because of how streamlined it is. Of course, it grew a bit tired of some of the setbacks, and wanted a little more.
Mirroring unfortunately is not something in the cards at the moment. A simple instanced mirror display would be easy, but everything else like symmetry snapping and true toggle mirrored tools would be very challenging to create in Maya. It is a small benefit for a lot of work that right now is better spent fixing bugs.
As far as how it works, RetopoG is not a true wrapping tool like say Wrappit that performs a wrap after every task. To boost performance in Maya I went a different route using some tricks to give the illusion of it with key tools. It is not without its limitations but I have added things to make those easier to overcome. All of these will be covered in a video and final documenataion. Understand that some issues may have more to do with Maya & Autodesk in general than me, but I am trying my best to give us Maya users the best workflow possible.
The closed Beta testing has begun! Understand however, I need to keep the number of testers to a manageable amount for me. That means until I can comfortably support more, it will be fairly selective. Your odds will be better if you have professional experience and work/live closer to me (LA). I had to divide it up somehow and unfortunately that's how it has to be. :poly122:
Send your Beta Request to to:
Chris@retopog.com
Also, the tool is currently only comparable with Maya 2011 and Maya 2012 on Windows. Mac OS support may be possible in the future, but all that depends on if I can get some serious time working in the OS. There are licencing issues with Mac, and a few other big Mac OS specific bugs that more or less are inconsistencies across platforms in Maya.
Have you got an estimate on release date?
(out of date, many additions and improvements have been made since)
So where does RetopoG currently stand? First the good news. The core tool is nearly complete with just one minor bug left to fix! You could say it only needs the final coat of polish. Keep in mind that does not mean all the work related to releasing the product is done (video tutorials, up to date documentation, Registration Key distribution, etc)
As for the bad news, yes, RetopoG.com is currently down. My hopes were to release RetopoG by the end of the month, unfortunately having to now find and switch to a new webserver has slowed down progress on the web end :poly122:. Also, while it is great news for me, I got a job. I'm in the middle of preparing for a move and will likely need some time to settle and adjust. Inevitably it will be pushed back a little further, but assuming life doesn't throw any curve-balls, it is well on track for a release in the near future.
Thank you everyone for your continued patience!
I can't wait man !