hardsurface retopology question.

[Clanker]

I don't like much the retopology tool in zbrush. I use polyboost for 3ds max in association with polycruncher. There are also nex for maya, topogun...

[SilverSpy]

Is polyboost or nex more efficient at retopping hard surfaces? zbrush seems a bit clumsy for hard surface retopping it also tends to twist polies in weird ways.

[Clanker]

Well, it's easier to model a low poly model in max than in zbrush. You have more control (but this is just my humble opinion :))
Basically it works the same way : you snap your vertices on the high poly mesh. But there are a lot of tools and options (loop tools, for example) in addition to your soft basic tools.

[CG-Gordon]

Not sure about Nex, but polyboost is excellent and with the newest update a lot faster than it was. Excellent tool for retopo.

[digital-boy]

As CG-Gordon says Polyboost is the daddy for retopo. However if you're a 3ds max user and limited to the native toolset, I find the following way yields the fastest and best results for high/low poly hard surface modeling, forgive me if you already know most of this stuff:

Always have a low poly cage with a meshmooth/turbosmooth modifier on top with 2 or 3 iterations. Maintain an all quad mesh if possible (better edgeloop selection and less pinching when subdividing) Select the edgeloops you want to keep hard/round, flick the show end result toggle underneath your stack to show the subdivided result, go down your stack to editable poly and uncheck show cage on the subdivision rollout, use the chamfer dialogue to chamfer your selcted edges and adjust the chamfer amount/segments whilst previewing the meshmoothed/turbosmoothed result. Once your happy with your model, shift click to clone it as a copy, rename it to lowpoly or something. Collapse the stack on your lowpoly making sure the meshsmooth/turbosmooth is set to 2 iterations, this will generally hold the silhouette and details in relation to your high poly without volume loss no matter how many iterations your high poly has. Select all unecessary edgeloops and remove them (including the verts) to optimise your model. Make any needed minor adjustments to your lowpoly to match the highpoly silhouette as closely as possible. Finally, use Render To Texture to make your normalmaps.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.