Jump to content
3DCoat Forums

Auto retopology - place exact polygon edges


Harvey Greensall
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • New Member

Hi all.

We've been using 3D Coat for about 6 months now and of course it's incredibly useful for us. Brilliant.

One thing were really struggling with is the ability to auto retopologise but specify exact positions of edges. For instance we've got really high res. meshes of shoes that need dropping down to about 10,000 polys, and using the existing guides we can make the polys run in a useable manner but we can't draw in a guide that says 'this is a definite edge position' so for instance where a shoes upper meets the sole. Where there is a seam in the actual shoe that needs an edge for smoothing groups etc.

Is there currently a way of doing this? If not are there any plans for such an addition. If not is it the kind of thing we could write our end and include in our build?

Many thanks in advance!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

I always try to add a second or third spline guide close together, to re-enforce a hard edge. Maybe try to paint-select that crease/edge, forcing the app to give it extra geometry. I find Auto to be an ideal solution, personally, about 25% of the time, if that. I usually put it to work on the smaller, secondary objects that can still soak up a lot of time. The Strokes tool is actually the ideal tool to lean on in cases like yours, I think. It is an Auto-topology tool in it's own respect. Sketch the the basic topology outlines (you can now choose to smooth the strokes in the tool panel, toward the bottom), as basic as you can, yet enough to roughly conform to the object beneath. Then hit ENTER. You can quickly add loops to refine the shape, with the Split Rings tool.

You'd be very surprised how far/fast you could Retopo a model with just those two tools. I use the Strokes tool as far as I can and resort to the others, to clean up or get hard to reach parts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

Thanks for the advice. That sounds like a plan. Yes we too have found were not using the auto retopology tool at all for the same reason. With just the addition of this extra function it would be invaluable to us. Ill definitely look into the method you suggested. Thanks again for your help!

I agree with you on that. It would be nice if we could force the algorithm to place an edgeloop exactly along a stroke guide. Maybe you can place the feature request on Mantis (www.3d-coat.com/mantis), and if you have a screen shot (you can quickly create one by hitting the ALT+SHIFT+S keys), attach that so Andrew has a better idea what it is you're requesting.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Advanced Member

In the lastest version of mudbox you can now define edges that should be followed exactly and others to be designed as rough guides. Maybe we can have something like that for some future build.

But if you guys script something like that we others would be interestet in that addon too. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • New Member

That's interesting. Yes that would be perfect.

We have no experience of scripting 3d coat but we do have a very capable code team. Ideally we could do with a source version or some other way of getting under the hood and adding the feature ourselves or if it can be scripted somehow that would be cool, although I presume this is a big change and would involve source changes. . I've been told it should be added later this year which is really cool...we will need to have something else working in the meantime though. It would be a really powerful feature though. Would make 3d coat a no brainer for the community I would imagine 8)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Reputable Contributor

That's interesting. Yes that would be perfect.

We have no experience of scripting 3d coat but we do have a very capable code team. Ideally we could do with a source version or some other way of getting under the hood and adding the feature ourselves or if it can be scripted somehow that would be cool, although I presume this is a big change and would involve source changes. . I've been told it should be added later this year which is really cool...we will need to have something else working in the meantime though. It would be a really powerful feature though. Would make 3d coat a no brainer for the community I would imagine 8)

Andrew recently released some scripting utility using AngelScript (C++ based?), so it would certainly be worth an email to Andrew to discuss the prospects. I've been thinking that it needs morer refinement, because it can deliver results that make you giggle (like you just cheated on a test and got away with it) a little bit, and in some situations it's much, much better to start manually retopologizing.

What I would like to see is perhaps colored strokes, that give specific instructions to the algorithm. Red might dictate strict adherence to place edgeloops precisely along the stroke. Blue could define fewer (perpendicular direction) edgeloops along the stroke.

By the way...is that the lead programmer in front of you (in your avatar)? Starting at a younger age these days, eh? :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

May be Pin vertices/edges can be used in both request ? A pin system ?

UV Tool: Pin Selected/Unselected

http://3d-coat.com/m...view.php?id=341

----------------------------------------------

AngelScript was added at Beta11

Updated to BETA11 (Win)

- с++ like script langualge (angelscript) will be available soon within 3D-Coat's shell.It allows to perform batch actions, create macro commands and interactive tutorials. It has very basic functionality now and will be extended on requests.

c++ like scripting chose because of speed, possibility to include good scripts directly into 3D--Coat's engine.

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...