Jump to content
3DCoat Forums

retopo/uvs need more organization


blade33ru
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Advanced Member

i mentioned this previously i think vis a vis retopo issues but im doing a robot character with a hundred pieces or so.

 

now i am at the process of unwrapping its a bit of a nightmare.  I want a 2-4k map for every piece of the model which means named uv sets for each one.  

 

what needs to happen is the when u select the Uvs it simultaneously selects the retopo object and vice versa  or have that be an option.  

 

im spending A LOT of time trying to track down the correct UVs for the correct retopo.  Granted my naming conventions sucks/ non existant, but this should be way easier.

 

the process generally is very stable and good but there are A LOT of button clicks.  A macro recorder would be very very useful / essential to maintain sanity

post-2781-0-46353400-1436139324_thumb.jp

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

Why would you need to separate EVERY piece into it's own UV map on a model like this, with so many parts. 2-4k on ever part is uber overkill. You'd be better off creating a single map for each limb, one for the torso and another for the head region. A 4k map for each of those is more than plenty, unless it's for a feature film, where the video frames are like 4k. For all other animations, 4k maps on a limb or head is pretty substantial.

 

Having every single piece separated into it's own retopo layer seems a bit overkill, considering the fact that as long as the part has it's own UV island, you can very quickly FILL it with color, depth or glossiness/roughness with a single click, in the Paint Room's 2D editor. I do think Andrew needs to add Layer Groups to the Retopo layer panel, as well, but in the mean time, it seems your workflow is costing you more effort than necessary.

 

Also, when you select a UV island, 3D Coat highlights the actually polygons that island consists of. Conversely, if you select a group of polygons in the viewport, with the SELECT tool, you will see the UV island highlighted in the UV Preview panel. You said 3D Coat needed this and it does, already. Don't forget, you need to select the UV map (upper left part of the UI...it's a drop list menu) that corresponds to the mesh you are working on. 3D Coat locks some functions when this is not the case. So, for example...if you have a UV map for the Head selected and showing, working on the feet will have many features locked.

 

Lastly, when you have the SELECT tool active, you can double click on an object, and 3D Coat will select all contiguous faces on that mesh...meaning, if the Head mesh is disconnected from the body, you can double-click it to select that head mesh.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

Remember, in your host 3D app, every separated part can be selected using the ELEMENT sub-object selection. So, it might be best to separate the retopo meshes unto limbs or upper/lower limbs, in order to keep things simplified.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because that is how some studios work, and you must work within the rules of the studio's pipeline.

 

 

I agree, and I'll be reminding Andrew about his promise to me to attack the UV tools after the 4.5 release. So we'll see blade33ru. I'll be sure to reference your post, and other's like it when I remind Andrew.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

thank you for those useful suggestions.  i will try them out and see how it goes.

 

meanwhile, check this out...its called a middle of the road model --

 

500 2k textures is considered middle of the road...

 

 

now i dont work at WETA but i want to create work at this level and right now the bottle neck is getting everything out of the retopo room.  to be honest its a nightmare...just figuring out which uv set goes with which retopo object...omg

 

while i hear and appreciate what you are saying about combining the retopo layers into limbs and maybe i will have to do that to save my sanity i just find that disogranized

 

would be better to have groups of retopo and groups of uvs too and that uv drop down needs to be reimagined because it is very difficult to select stuff once it goes off screen at the bottom and there needs to be a way to auto sync this stuff

 

it is a lot of information to manage - voxel layers, retopo layers, uv layers, paint object layers and keeping everything in sync is not fun....but at least in voxels we have hierarchy

 

I think zbrush is weak in this area also although i suppose uvmaster and subtool masters attempt to help with this

 

alot of people seem to think Maris killer feature is information management.  PBR materials are sexy and appreciated but information management dev would really help separate 3d coat from the pack

Edited by blade33ru
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

If it's a model for a feature film, then maybe Mari is a better answer. I have a detailed model of an XM8 weapon and it had a lot of individual parts and retopo meshes, but I all like objects (nuts, bolts, and other small parts), that was to consolidate where it made sense to and leave other parts separate where it made sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

yeah i found a script to move all the uvs onto a single uv map and that made it a bit easier to clean it  up as you described with retopo grouped together.  this seems like a reasonable enough work around.

 

still would be nice to have a more robust interface to manage this stuff better and not be limited

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

yeah i found a script to move all the uvs onto a single uv map and that made it a bit easier to clean it  up as you described with retopo grouped together.  this seems like a reasonable enough work around.

 

still would be nice to have a more robust interface to manage this stuff better and not be limited

Retopo Layer groups would probably help. I haven't need it all that often, but some projects, it would make life a little easier

Aside from that, I'm not sure what else would need altering in the UI

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

heres the list as i see it 

  1. retopo groups (hierarchical like vox layers might be cool)
  2. addition of H shortcut key to select the retopo mesh
  3. this would auto select retopo layers/groups, viewport retopo and uvs simultaeously
  4. lose the drop down list of UVsets and put it into a proper interface so we can scroll up and down.  I often lose focus on the menu and it vanishes and I have to start all over again.  Really annoying.  
  5. Auto renaming system which renames UVS to same name as retopo or to same name as voxels or to paint objects and vice versa
  6. Multi select of retopo layers/groups
  7. multi select of UV sets 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Contributor

If I may add my 2 cents to your list.

8. Introduce an algorithm that would organize all islands into n-number of UV-tiles of custom target resolution each, while keeping proportional scale of islands in relation to each other and texture resolution of the tiles.

9. Full support of UV tiles and UDIM to match major software players. Currently it is not possible to have one face being present on two UV-sets simultaneously, or having one object with n-UDIM tiles and other having UVs inside 0..1 space without breaking UV setup (all tiles are now treated as UDIM).

10. Introduce bake settings that are individual for each retopo group. Not global, like they're now.

11. Cages for baking (creation + importing from files).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • Advanced Member

sorry to revive this thread, but these scripts are pure gold for retopo room in terms of just managing the retopo groups so you can turn them all off and isolate what your working on easily\

 

totally awesome.  thanks whoever made these

 

https://github.com/coverman03/3dcoat_script/tree/master/retopo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Reputable Contributor

sorry to revive this thread, but these scripts are pure gold for retopo room in terms of just managing the retopo groups so you can turn them all off and isolate what your working on easily\

 

totally awesome.  thanks whoever made these

 

https://github.com/coverman03/3dcoat_script/tree/master/retopo

In all layer panels in 3D Coat, you can isolate a layer by ALT + Clicking the icon. You can name a layer by double-clicking on it. You can create a new Retopo layer by clicking on the New layer icon at the bottom of the panel. So, I'm not understanding what the need for those scripts were/are. As you can do everything they do, already, in the app. Retopo Groups is about the only thing missing

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...