Blender Retopo

[jordanit0]

So as a member of cgcookie I have saw that a couple of the people that do tuts for blender have brought out a couple of new tools to speed up retopo.  

Now they are in a sense not free but they are bare with me on that and ill explain.

The source code for both the items are up on github free to use.  But they do sell the tools so they can be developed better. 

So you are prob saying get to the point so I thought I post the videos and links where to get them.

 

First we have The contours retopology tool. 

Which i have been using a lot since I got it and most say its very fast at what it does.  Though I do feel as though it can be a bit laggy at time but I believe this is more to do with my laptop than the tool itself.

Then we have Polystrips retopology.

Now I cant say much about this as it doesn't work so well for me its very laggy on my laptop. 

But this is newer of the two tools they brought out so there will be more done to it. 

 

You can buy both of these on the cgcookie website.  Updates they say will be free for both of the tools.

http://cgcookie.com/downloads/contours-retopology-tool/

http://cgcookie.com/blender/2014/10/09/retopology-tool-polystrips-released/

Polystrips is the dearer of the two so if you are like me and are not sure if they are for you ill posting the links for the source code from github.  

I will be buying the the contours retopo tool the next time i get paid i think it is well worth the money.  Anything that can speed up work flow is great in my books.

 

For ploystrips you need both of these.

https://github.com/CGCookie/retopology-polystrips

You put this one in the lib folder of the addon.

https://github.com/CGCookie/retopology-lib

You just need this for the Contours retopo tool.

https://github.com/CGCookie/retopology-contours

 

Hopefully these will be of the same help to you as they are to me.

 

Thanks Jordan

 

[Jake Koronikov]

Thanks for sharing. Looks definetely worth the money, I just love what I just saw in those videos!

[Astrid Kaufmat]

That's a nice tool, however some peple say that it might fail on comlex surfaces and that "manual" or semi-manual editing is always above that.

Blender after all is an open source software and this tool costs 30 dollars if I have to choose an open source software then install least two addons to run it for my sl sage I would rather buy a cheap software  for mac like cheetah 3d that costs just 60 dollar.

there are other free alternatives that I might suggest.After all the nice thing of GNU gpl and opensource universe is just this getting stuff and getting it for free.

http://cgcookie.com/blender/lessons/1-retopology-method-1-surface-snapping/

http://cgcookie.com/blender/lessons/2-retopology-method-2-shrinkwrap-modifier/

http://cgcookie.com/blender/lessons/3-retopology-method-3-bsurfaces-add-on/

Oh and don't forget to install the new alternative addon F2 Mesh that has some good usage also for retopoing.

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Modeling/F2

And now the "little boy bomb"

 

If you like something smoother with a nice ui to use for retopoing ee at what this guy has developed. The guide is in French but the video that he made are quite easy too.

https://github.com/pitiwazou/Scripts-Blender/blob/master/Retopology_Tools_B

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?344060-Retopology-Tools/page2&s=41436458f19792f77463bf4b7d23800c

Enjoy your free retopo tool

Anyway blender is still behind topogun, Zbrush ,maya and the new cinema 4d retopo tool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpzjFTSPMV4

 

[Ashasekayi Ra]

For anyone wondering if Contours and Polystrips are worth the money, I'd say they both are if you do a great deal of retopology. (If you bought Contours when it first came out, CGCookie gives you Polystrips for free btw.)  It isn't automated like Zremesher in Zbrush; however, you still need to do some clean up on Zremeshed files if you want perfect topology and a precise polycount. So, manual tweaking is a reality no matter what software you use. I actually use both Zbrush and Blender in my retopology workflow.

[jordanit0]

I have the retopology tools from that person and there a nice addition to my work flow.  But as i said you can get both of the tools i posted for free on github which i also posted links to.

If you pay for them you are paying for the development of the tools and another tools they bring out. 

I basically see it as some freeware that you get you can get it for free and donate to the development which i have no problem doing. 

I can see your point about if you where going to spend that much you would just buy another program.  But i like to keep the amount of programs i use to make something to a minimum.

 

[Jake Koronikov]

I definetely agree that ZRemesher is quite amazing tool. However, as Ashasekayi Ra stated, other tools are needed for finetuning and adjusting edgeloops.

One imaginary situation might be an avatar with quite general forms, but for example small cavities betweeh toes or fingers or behind ears. Or long and thin tentacles of some creature. With ZRemesher it tends to be time-consuming to fine-tune dense mesh areas where detailed geometry is needed.

Result is usually either too blocky or too dense on those special areas. Using ZRemesher density paint feature is not very exact....it either generates too many polygons or does not use them at all....

For those kind of situations the two OP's tools could be very useful. General retopo using ZRemesher and fine tuning complex geometry with easy-workflow Blender tools.

[Astrid Kaufmat]

De gustibus...

I prefer these kind of addons

This is a big help to have during the sculptpainting process allowing you to handle the layers

http://blendersensei.com/zero-brush/

Of course the dev to keeps the blender spirit left its free

imagine if I'd pay for all the stuff that I install on my linux machines: It would cost more than windows.

Internet explorer the worst piece of software ever developed and it keeps being a beeep, many other nice softwares and thousands of useful plugins for them are FREE. let's not kill the opensource in name of ZEITGEIST, knowledge belongs to mainkind.

[Astrid Kaufmat]

I was wondering how to use some retopo utilities when I am in my office and couldn't use  my own programs, so I found this other method for blender.

Again another totally FREE adon to emulate Zbrush retopo process in blender.

http://blendersushi.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/technique-retopology-using-sverchok.html

this site shows yo how to use svershock addon for blender to create a new retopoed mesh that will be like zbrush zremesher.

Here is the script http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Nodes/Sverchok

Free of course

The result is similar to Zbrush the difference is that with blender you have to get hands dirty much much more,while in zbrush  1 click and it's done.

Not the best workflow.My opinion is that like in math the more math you know the fastest you complete your equation, same it should be in 3d art workflow, but in this case like in many others blender likes to make you use more steps.

Anyway it works even if you need a bit more patience than Zbrush