PaperSphere

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I'm still messing around with the program and kind of getting there with trial and error. I had a go at a complete figure retopo which took a while but I learnt a lot - no mesh errors when reimported back into Zbrush. I've also watched a lot more of the retopo tutorials from the link provided by AbnRanger so I have a better idea of how powerful the retopo room and all its tools are. Also thanks Digman for taking the time to make detailed description with tips - I'll take a much closer look at them tomorrow to see if I can apply all the advice that you've offered. I can really see that once I get familiar with the program it should be super fast to get retopo done using 3D Coat - most of the work that I want to do is for a simple clean accurate mesh that I can re-sculpt back in Zbrush . I'm pretty sure that I'm going to stumble quite a bit to understand all of the concepts - 3D Coat is a much deeper program than I imagined - so I'm grateful that you've been kind enough to offer me assistance. So thanks once again!

I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice about how to get to grips with 3D Coat for retopology. I bought the program a couple of weeks ago, to speed up my retopology and UV workflow. The UV part of the program has been very easy to use and I think that I'll get to grips with it quite soon. However, I am having trouble getting up to speed with retopology using the program. On the face of it the 3D Coat seems brilliant for retopology. The tools that I have worked out how to use seem quite straight forward. However, I am encountering issues that are really slowing me down. It might be useful here to explain what I'm trying to do and the workflow that I'm trying to develop. My primary 3D software is Zbrush and 3dsMax and this is where I'd have done any retopology in the past. I've been importing high res meshes in for reference and then trying to edit a low res Zremesh - the areas that I want to retopo are the face, ears and hands. I usually manage to rebuild the detail that I need for these areas, but I'm encountering some issues with symmetry. The main concern is that faces, edges or vertices that overlap the line of symmetry which can either not be welded or have overlapping faces and edges. This will obviously cause the mesh seams to split when subdividing it back in Zbrush. I've managed to clean up meshes with messy symmetry in 3dsMax - but instead of speeding me up is adding another layer of work. Is there something that I can do about this? Also, I've struggled to fully get to grips with symmetry in 3D Coat. There is virtual symmetry and actual symmetry. Whilst this concept is easy to come to terms with when creating entirely new geometry, it's harder to understand when working on an imported retopo mesh. When I import the mesh that I want to edit and then turn on symmetry (with virtual symmetry) - I get a pale preview of the other side, but if I turn off virtual symmetry the actual geometry still exists. So I'm not sure if this is causing me problems - my mesh may look finished and clean but in fact its got other unseen hidden geometry. It would be nice to simply select and delete the polys on the side that I will not need, but this doesn't appear to be an easy process. The selection tool in 3D Coat appears to work like a brush, with no selection marquee. Getting rid of a whole side of geometry that you don't need would be fast to do in either Zbrush or 3dsMax. Is there a quick way to do this inside 3D Coat? Would I be better for me to import only half of the mesh for retopology? My primary concern is about the main line of symmetry running down the middle of the mesh. Instead of seeing a simple seam there can be a confusing zig zag of edges or overlapping faces. In 3dsMax, you can delete half your model set the transform modifier to Slice Along Mirror and Weld Seams to avoid problems. Are there settings that offer this option in 3D Coat? On the whole, I'm impressed with the program. However, I do wish that there were more quick start tutorials about how to use the 3D Coat. Many of the tutorials go in to detail about areas of the program that I'm unlikely to use at the moment and many of them seem to be from earlier versions. It would be nice if there were some more recent tutorials - like myself, a great many of your users must have come to this program from Zbrush just for retopology and UVs. I ended up resubbing to PluralSight hoping that they'd have some decent tutorials to follow, They are okay, but don't address the issues that are concerning me. Anyway, I will keep watching the video tutorials on this site to see if I can get the answers that I need - though it is quite time consuming and a bit hit and miss. So if anyone could offer some advice about how to make progress with symmetry in 3D Coat then I'll be grateful