Idea for head/face retopo script
Ok, bear with me here.
I was thinking about a head retopology pass I just did in 3D Coat and it got me to thinking.
Max has some pretty nifty retopo tools now (even if the damn thing is a bit crash tastic) and I'm pretty happy with maxscript.
It struck me that once you have a nice edgeloop flow for a face, its likely you'd want to reuse that same edge flow. But change it for the different facial features (different nose widths and the like).
Most people have some form of reference like this image:
http://www.foundation3d.com/gallery/data/500/medium/EDGELOOPS.jpg
Then I got to thinking, why dont we actually use the edge loop image concept as the basis for the topology?
So imagine you took your edge loops and turned them into a planar mesh with all the right edge flow etc, but completely planar. Then you matched that mesh with your sculpted head (which would theoretically be the same as your reference to some extent too). So you would move the vertices of the edge loop mesh on the plane until it matched the edge flow (say on a front view).
Then you simply project along the depth and stick the vertices to whatever it hits. Essentially projection mapping your edge flow as retopologised geometry fit to the sculpt?
Am I going completely mental here, or wouldnt that be better than having to fiddle around retopologizing each face (you'd basically only have to do tweaking in a locked plane from a base mesh you worked out).
Do you see what I mean? Does it make any sense?
I'm just looking at the boring drudge work of head retopo and trying to think with my programmers brain how to make it easier for myself. If anyone has any input into the hideousness of this idea please feel free to call me an idiot!
Ta.
I was thinking about a head retopology pass I just did in 3D Coat and it got me to thinking.
Max has some pretty nifty retopo tools now (even if the damn thing is a bit crash tastic) and I'm pretty happy with maxscript.
It struck me that once you have a nice edgeloop flow for a face, its likely you'd want to reuse that same edge flow. But change it for the different facial features (different nose widths and the like).
Most people have some form of reference like this image:
http://www.foundation3d.com/gallery/data/500/medium/EDGELOOPS.jpg
Then I got to thinking, why dont we actually use the edge loop image concept as the basis for the topology?
So imagine you took your edge loops and turned them into a planar mesh with all the right edge flow etc, but completely planar. Then you matched that mesh with your sculpted head (which would theoretically be the same as your reference to some extent too). So you would move the vertices of the edge loop mesh on the plane until it matched the edge flow (say on a front view).
Then you simply project along the depth and stick the vertices to whatever it hits. Essentially projection mapping your edge flow as retopologised geometry fit to the sculpt?
Am I going completely mental here, or wouldnt that be better than having to fiddle around retopologizing each face (you'd basically only have to do tweaking in a locked plane from a base mesh you worked out).
Do you see what I mean? Does it make any sense?
I'm just looking at the boring drudge work of head retopo and trying to think with my programmers brain how to make it easier for myself. If anyone has any input into the hideousness of this idea please feel free to call me an idiot!
Ta.