Creating Low Poly From High Poly in Max

Ro-Sham-Bo · Jun 2009

Ok so I wondering after completing a high poly model in max, what is your work flow for creating the low poly around it. If their are any plugins or tools to help in this process I'm all ears because I'm still poly modeling around the high poly by hand moving every vert, and it seems like there would be some tools out there to make this task more simple. Thanks for any insight or links you can supply. (And I'm not really interested in poly cruncher, I'm looking for tools to help speed up good typo) Thanks

Joao Sapiro · Jun 2009

well it depends on the complexity of the model , if you have a too dense model to import to max to build your lowpoly , just grab subd lvl 1 or 0 and use that as the start, for characters its practically the same, either you reimport level 0 or 1 ( assuming you made the basemesh with good topology ) or you retopo on any program using a mid level of the highpoly

Muzzoid · Jun 2009

This plugin should help

.

http://scriptspot.com/3ds-max/max-retopo

EbolaV · Jun 2009

mhh I think it depends on the model. Sometimes move every vert and build around the hp

sometimes I pick some poly of the hp model and kill the unnecessary loops, or if using zbrush I take lower sudb and use decimate plugin. But often it depends on model.

renderhjs · Jun 2009

this works like a charm
http://scriptspot.com/3ds-max/max-retopo

it uses some kind of volume normal projection (quadtree / voxel stuff or so) and therefore allows you to do even complex stuff that loops around objects and then for example simply slide it.

Mark Dygert · Jun 2009

Render, that's pretty cool I'll have to check it out further. I like how interactive it appears to be.

Neox · Jun 2009

hm what i dislike nmost on retopo in max is, that i can't render the viewport in passes, i want the retopo to be rendered in front of the highpoly, see through sucks for that and faces that clip through the surface do too

renderhjs · Jun 2009

just use the xRay mode (alt + x) for the highpoly and a 60+% self illuminating material with a slight opacity for the low poly and then work in faces+wire mode.
By default I agree you often cant see what matters at all because it all gets clipped away, but with the xRay mode (in max 2009 you have to disable properties by layer mode) it works very nice.

SHEPEIRO · Jun 2009

i use Zbrushes tool for recreating lower sub'ds sometimes, esp for when i make a mistake and loose a lowpoly cage, is there a script for this in maya.

[HP] · Jun 2009

Doesnt Max2010 comes with something like that max-retopo plugin? I remenber watching a vid on how to use it, before max2010 came out, but I never really used it.

Peris · Jun 2009

dunno if i'm hijacking the thread, but I wonder if there is a nice way to retopo a mesh made out of multiple instanced meshes. I've been building some environment pieces out of lots of instanced high poly bricks and trims etc, to keep performance nice while working with several million triangles in max, but can't find a way to retopo working without having to merge everything in one object.. which usually leads to fun memory crashes and all that!

Marine · Jun 2009

http://www.jcappelletti.com/z3tut03/ usually do this

renderhjs · Jun 2009

@Peris: in max I believe not,- also not with the bolyboost aka graphite tools in max2010. You always have to define a base mesh on which you want to project.

Silo on the other hand (if I am not mistaken) simply projects on anything that is frozen or locked. Silo is a great tool for retopo jobs but their instance functionality does not get close at all to the one in max (no other app. does).

I am not sure how Modo behaves but I assume something smarter as the old packages with their scripts

[Deleted User] · Jun 2009

If the hp needs decimation to be imported into max, Meshlab's "quadric edge collapse decimation" is great. I don't know how it compares technically to Zbrush's Decimation Master or Polycruncher (now ProOptimizer), but the results look great to me and it's a lot faster.

For taking stuff out of ZB that's too high for even Meshlab to load, I split up the mesh in ZB first (hide part of it, group visible, unhide, group split, export) and turn on "preserve boundaries" in Meshlab so the part will fit back together.

There's a bug in Meshlab to watch out for though: When you go to save the decimated mesh, if you don't type out the full filename (extension included) and choose a file format, it'll go through the motions of saving, but not save anything. Like, if you just selected part of the name of the file you loaded initially and added "02" or "_medium", for instance, rather than typing it out, it wouldn't save. I have no idea why or how it makes a difference, but it evidently does.

Ro-Sham-Bo · Jun 2009

Hey Thanks Renderhjs for the plugin, works pretty sweet, saves alot of time and headaches lol. I myself have now run into the problem of having multiple pieces (Like Peris) in my high poly F-15 I'm working on so any work around that are found I'm always interested in. Once again thanks everyone this really has helped!

NAIMA · Jun 2009

Hello , sorry if I introduce myself into this thread , but I have seen one a tutorial from Gnomon I think where a guy modelled a high detail mesh and after used a plugin that allowed to draw directly on the mesh the vertex and poligons it was a plugin for maya , does something like this exhist also for max?

DEElekgolo · Jun 2009

Another tool to keep watch on is Wrapit

http://www.thepixelhive.com/spe.php?o=163

Looks VERY good.

renderhjs · Jun 2009

DEElekgolo wrote: »

Another tool to keep watch on is Wrapit

http://www.thepixelhive.com/spe.php?o=163

Looks VERY good.

but will cost money,- the one I posted from scriptspot is quite similar so I assume. There was a thread here about the one you just linked,- very promising but sadly not much updates lately.

Mark Dygert · Jun 2009

Did someone already mention Topogun? I think its still in beta but the last release was looking pretty good, but its been awhile...

http://www.topogun.com/
http://www.topogun.com/betaform.htm

Empty · Jun 2009

I love me some topogun, but I'm definately going to give these other tools a try.

Creating Low Poly From High Poly in Max

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