Retopology: Is Modo good for this?

[Julez4001]

Retopology: Is Modo good for this?
If so, whats the best way to so? I’ve head that 301 may be better but does the current version have nay good tools for this?

[softdistortion]

I think I recall seeing that in the preview vid…It looked really good…or maybe I was dreaming about it.

[_keith]

Modo is pretty good at retopologizing. Here’s some stuff I’ve done in modo 203…

re-topologized modo 203 meshes

By using modo’s background constraints you can lay out curves for patching or draw quads directly on the surface using the pen tool. I would also check out Julian Johnston’s excellent JJ_Wrap script . It’s a great (essential) tool until 301 gives us full background constraints with deform/transform tools. You can also add verts directly on the background mesh using vertex tool+bgconstraint. I’ve saved some tool+bgconstraint variations from the tool pipe for a suite of custom retopologizing tools.

Keith

[Mike_RB]

Very nice Keith! That series of images is a pretty good demo of what you can do with modo and re-topo. I can attest that it’s only gotten better in 301 with the snapping changes.

[_keith]

Thanks for the nice comments Mike. Brad’s example from 301 of the push tool + background constraint was good to see but more useful to me would be the ability to use the move tool with a background constraint. This is what I use JJ_wrap script for many times a day but it is very slow with dense meshes (understandable for a script). Can you please confirm what other improvements 301 has with regards background constraints (other than the push tool)? Move tool would make me very happy and anything else would be a bonus!

thanks,

Keith

[toonafish]

Thanks for the nice comments Mike. Brad’s example from 301 of the push tool + background constraint was good to see but more useful to me would be the ability to use the move tool with a background constraint. This is what I use JJ_wrap script for many times a day but it is very slow with dense meshes (understandable for a script). Can you please confirm what other improvements 301 has with regards background constraints (other than the push tool)? Move tool would make me very happy and anything else would be a bonus!

thanks,
Keith

It works a bit awkward, but you can use the Move tool with background constraint but since Modo only constrains to the Action Center and not the actual geometry it only works on single vertices. So you have to select a vertice first, activate the Move tool, set its action center to selection, and move it by draging the X Y or Z handles on the gizmo.

That way the geometry will stick to the background when you move it, but I hope the way this works is improved in 301 because it’s a pain in the butt to work like this.

btw, it works a bit faster when you create a hotkey for “select through” and use the sticky keys feature, so you don’t have to leave the Move tool when you select another vertice.

[_keith]

It works a bit awkward, but you can use the Move tool with background constraint but since Modo only constrains to the Action Center and not the actual geometry it only works on single vertices. So you have to select a vertice first, activate the Move tool, set its action center to selection, and move it by draging the X Y or Z handles on the gizmo.

That way the geometry will stick to the background when you move it, but I hope the way this works is improved in 301 because it’s a pain in the butt to work like this.

btw, it works a bit faster when you create a hotkey for “select through” and use the sticky keys feature, so you don’t have to leave the Move tool when you select another vertice.

Thanks Toona. I already have a tool preset which works like a background tweak tool. It consists of…

action center element
element fall-off
background constraint
transform

I just click on a vert and move it along the background mesh. Unfortunatley as you say it’s limited to verts, if I try to move a poly it snaps the poly normal to the background not it’s vertices. Same for edges.

Anyhoo, what I really would like for 301 is JJ_wrap functionality of moving large amounts of polys in a given vector, snapping the verts to the background mesh as it collides with it. I guess time will tell how 301 has improved on this.

Cheers,

Keith

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