What do most people use for Retopology?

kunglao · Mar 2011

Hey there,
I have always been interested in which program or plugin that people (personal and professional work) use for Retopology.
I know that Zbrush does it along with programs like 3d coat,and plugins such as polyboost.
I am a Max user and normally after I have sculpted on my base mesh i will bring back to Max either sub div level 1 or 2.
From there I either add or remove edges/loops before baking my normals with Xnormal.
I would love to hear people thoughts on what they find is the most accessible and possibly quickest way.
Thanks

Snowfly · Mar 2011

In Zbrush and Blender, you can sketch out your topology on the mesh before creating any actual geo. I prefer Blender though so you have access to conventional modeling tools.

Max graphite + polyboost might allow you to do the same thing.

Neox · Mar 2011

i totally became a 3dcoat fanboy for retopo, its really great for that

oglu · Mar 2011

same here... 3dcoat...

pior · Mar 2011

Topogun2, all the way. The new brush tool is incredible.

Bal · Mar 2011

Still 3D-Coat here, still kind of waiting for some minor changes to Topogun before I can switch over to it instead (for better symmetry and visualizing).

Farfarer · Mar 2011

I just use modo, does a decent job of it.

Can't be bothered fitting yet another program into my workflow.

InMOP · Mar 2011

Do you guys mainly use retopo tools such as 3d coat and topogun mainly for character models?
Just wondering if it would be beneficial to use it for some hard surface objects too in terms of time saving and getting the same end result.

r_fletch_r · Mar 2011

wrapit is good if you want to stay inside max.
Otherwise I use 3DCoat

BeatKitano · Mar 2011

pior wrote: »

Topogun2, all the way. The new brush tool is incredible.

High five, except for the stupid sym sel/transform switch...

passerby · Mar 2011

silo and blender, but for props i just skip retypo and just decimate with meshlab. and for more basic hardsurface model i just build a new model around it with primitives

pthomas1172 · Mar 2011

If you don't need it to be clean, I just use the wrap it auto re-topo option. takes about 15 seconds with pro-optimize.

chronic · Mar 2011

Topogun all the way

dtschultz · Mar 2011

I resisted getting a retopology tool for awhile, but Topogun 2 swayed me. It's a great piece of software, and it's so much easier than trying to retopologize in Max, imo. Check out this video: http://vimeo.com/19665151

jarrede · Mar 2011

chronic wrote: »

Topogun all the way

agreed, it's crazy fast.

kary · Mar 2011

Wrapit + 3dcoat

Mahlon · Mar 2011

Topogun 2 swayed me to try it; then I bought it. I'm impressed with how intuitive the interface is, ease of use and how fast retopo can be done. I'm a believer.

Mahlon

low odor · Mar 2011

max 2011's polydraw(the graphite modeling tools) has worked really well for me..I like it because I can pop in and out of the regular subobject modes as I am using it..and you can use GOZ to send your mesh back and forth into zbrush

cryrid · Mar 2011

Personally I can't afford all these specialty programs, so I just stick with either zbrush or Softimage's Shrinkwrap+surface snap.

NordicNinja · Mar 2011

I just got around to picking up Topogun after using the demo for a while and I love it. Very simple to use and no software bloat or feature creep (yet), just the way it should be. I was especially impressed with the textures I get baked out of it, very fast and great quality. I'd highly recommend it. :thumbup:

SpeCter · Mar 2011

I´m one of those creatures which still use the graphite tools for that, eventhough wrapit really looks promising if i want to stay in the same app.

designamyte · Mar 2011

Hi,

i saw some days ago a nice script for Cinema 4D. It seems
to be a very cool way for retopology hi-res. Check it:

http://www.holgerbiebrach.com/movies/retoponew_h264.mov

And this is the thread about it:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=47&t=967294&page=1&pp=15

Hope you find it useful.

bye
de.

Sean VanGorder · Mar 2011

3d Coat

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2011

3D Coat, but I just jumped on the Topogun 2 train and I'm loving it so far.

Maph · Mar 2011

Topogun, been using it since the beta of 1.0. Never looked back.

funshark · Mar 2011

I'm between 3D coat and Topogun (2).
Actually, it's topogun because of its clear visualization and precision.
But 3Dcoat has the fastest tools to create geometry.

I hope Topogun will enhance some of this features and tools to speed up the process in the near future ( and tend to be less buggy )

feanix · Mar 2011

Wrapit

Ruz · Mar 2011

low odor - I agree on that, really nice to use. you sometimes lose the connection with the reference mesh, which is a pain, but apart from that is fine.

I suppose I just prefer working in max, not having to install extra software

Froyok · Mar 2011

Topogun most of the time (which is very fast), but I will try soon 3DCoat.

InMOP · Mar 2011

I purchased wrapit a week ago and im loving it so far

BTNH108464 · Mar 2011

i used graphite modeling tools, but looking at topogun, i must try it now.

KICKER · Mar 2011

I use the quad draw feature in NEX which is a modeling toolset plugin for maya.

What do most people use for Retopology?

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