Auto-Retopo in Mudbox 2014

[AbnRanger]

Have to admit, it's kind of ironic hearing how innovative these "new" technologies are, in other apps, when they've been in 3D Coat for a few years now. I like Mudbox, but them being owned by Autodesk seems to have slowed it's growth considerably. Personally, I don't think it's feasible for them to compete with ZB and 3D Coat head to head (from a cost/benefit perspective), but position it as an alternative to utilize from their Suites/Bundles.

http://area.autodesk...x.html#advanced

http://download.auto...dbox2014/en_us/

And Maya 2014 includes a Modeling/Retopo plugin, called Nex. Seems like a similar move to AD adding Polyboost to Max in v2010. With Modo now having good Retopo tools and both Max and Maya having very capable Retopo tools built-in, Andrew is going to have to step it up a notch (with regard to the Retopo room) in the V4 cycle.

http://area.autodesk.com/2014unfold/products/maya.html#whats-new

[Javis]

I've been using the retopo tools in Modo for a while now, I hate to admit it, but they are far superior than 3DCs in many ways. Modo has even a few "borrowed" tools from 3DCs retopo toolset.

[AbnRanger]

I've been using the retopo tools in Modo for a while now, I hate to admit it, but they are far superior than 3DCs in many ways. Modo has even a few "borrowed" tools from 3DCs retopo toolset.

I've seen some of those, and they are nice. It really comes down to making more of the tools quickly accessible through hotkeys. Having to compete with apps like Modo, Max, and Maya, which already have a strong set of modeling tools to draw upon...is a serious issue.

Even though it has some shortcomings (no shell modifier, no gradient selection for massaging imported meshes into place), it still seems more fluid doing Retopo in 3D Coat than it does in Max. For example, I bought a nice Retopo plugin a few years ago for Max, called WrapIt. And it already had a quad-remeshing feature available about the same time Andrew came out with Auto Retopo. But it didn't have the stroke guide and density painting capability. There is also nothing like the rubber band looping feature (whatever it's called) of the Strokes tool. That and the fact that Max's viewport performance just doesn't even come close to 3D Coat's, I just stuck with 3DC.

I put a number of feature requests/refinements for the Retopo room in Mantis. If those get implemented in the V4 cycle, then I think 3D Coat will not only remain the top Retopo toolset, but a very capable Poly Modeler, too.