Need help making reference mesh more discernible

[sm33ol]

Hey all. I'm looking to improve my sculpt to low poly workflow and I'm trying 3Dcoat for the first time.

I'm trying to retopologise a decimated mesh. I'm having some trouble making out the detail of the imported mesh in the viewport however. The mesh has a white shader with an almost flat colour, no shadows or specularity to add contrast and make the volume more discernible. In the screenshot I'm including, you can see it is impossible to see jawline definition which the sculpt has. This is making it very hard to retopo properly.

Contrast controls don't really help much. I've tried going in both the Paint and Sculpt rooms to apply a different shader, but I can't figure out how to make the reference mesh show up in the sculpt room, and I'm having trouble applying shaders in the paint room. If anyone could provide some assistance, I would really appreciate it.

 

 

[sm33ol]

Ok, I've more or less found a way for the moment, by changing the viewport lighting panorama on the top right menu next to [Camera]. I found one with strong light coming from one direction only and I have been spinning it around to favour a certain side while I retopo that. If there are other ways to increase contrast, please let me know!

[digman]

The import  for reference mesh under the  Perform Retopology section, does need it's shader updated since 3DC went with the PBR workspace. I will mention this in the beta section.

I use this method for retopo work on an imported model.

Open a new scene and go to the sculpt room.

Drag the model file into the voxel workspace. You will get this dialog panel. Check first image I posted.

Default is" Import for Vertex Painting or Big Reference. You do not get the import dialog box, Model comes straight into 3DC's surface mode.

If your model is a good working size once imported, your good to go.

If the model is small in scale I use the below.

Again drag the model file into the 3DC workspace.

Choose Import into Voxel Space this time.

Import settings... The import dialog panel will appear.

Select import without voxelization.

Scale to a working size using the transform gizmo. Click yes to keep scale. 3DC will remember the scale of the original model upon export from any 3DC room.

Press the enter key or apply tab in the import dialog panel.

To remove the proxy object select one of the brushes in the left tool panel. 

Choose a shader to revel the forms.

Switch to the retopo for your retopo work. 

Done.

Side note--- I just tend to use the Import into Voxel Space as I can scale the model up to the working size I desire and knowing that upon export the original scale of the model is kept.

I also included a shader if you want to try it out. I use this shader for sculpting as it revels form well, doing retopo work and if I use any kind of tool that uses a mask. You can see the underlying model through the mask.  Some of the shaders black out the model completely. 

To install the shader, go to the main 3DC file menu and choose "Install Extension". Select the extension I provided. Once installed, restart 3DC.

Freeze.3dcpack

Edited May 13, 2017 by digman
fixing words

[sm33ol]

Thank you for the tip and the shader! I might try that next time. Alternatively, I found by accident that pressing 1 on the keyboard applies some very dramatic lighting to the reference mesh so it's very discernible. 5 will return it to normal.

[digman]

Yes, the "1" key is relief only, no color information. That will work too since no color information is needed retopoing.

Under the View menu, check the available views...