Retopology

This video begins a series providing an overview of the most commonly used Retopo Tools in 3DCoat, starting with the Manual Retopology tools.

Retopo tools video tutorials

Quick Start UV Layout Tools

All tools and functions for creating and changing topologies can be found in the Retopo Room.

Retopo room and modeling room have difference task and have difference tools.
– The Retopo room is designed to create a low poly mesh based on a sculpt mesh.
– The modeling room was created later and intended for modeling a low poly mesh without a sculpt mesh.

Whether you are fine-tuning topology created automatically with 3DCoat’s Auto Retopo routines, creating your model topology from scratch, or adjusting and refining topology started in an external application, Retopo Room has what you need.

Every Sculpt Tree object can be worked on separately via the Poly Groups Panel. These can be created automatically (when Auto Retopo is used) or manually as you isolate different areas of your model for different purposes and topology layouts.

Compared to the Sculpt Room, the Retopo Room is quite easy to digest, having merely four main areas to learn and use:

Tool Panel, where you find all of the tools for creating and adjusting topology, as well as the tools for creating UV seams and unwrapping your topology for further modification in the “UV Room”.
Poly Groups Panel, where you can isolate all of the areas and parts of your model that need specific topology and texture.
UV Preview Panel, which does just what it says, displays a preview of your UV map. Don’t mistake this for an area to edit UV.
This is done in the “UV Room” after a model has been “Baked” into the “Paint Room”.
The Retopo Menu – which makes available all of the “Import/Export” functions, “Baking” options as well as “Saving” and “Restoring” of your specific Retopology work.

Make sure that you also pay close attention to the Options that present themselves in both the “Tool Panel” and the Retopo Top Bar Parameters Panel (the top, horizontal panel below the “Menu” area).

The settings available for each type of work you are performing automatically change in both Panels.

The Retopo Tools allow you to construct new topology by means of working with individual polygonal vertices, polygon edges, polygon faces, and polygon “strips” (rows of connected polygons).

All created topology can automatically be set to “Snap” to the nearest Model surface. Entire loop networks can be created instantly by using a combination of Through Strokes and Freehand Strokes.

“Circular Loop Arrays” can also be made with a minimum of effort by means of Freehand Strokes as well.
The beginnings of true Polygonal Modeling are also beginning to appear, function by function, within the confines of the Retopo Room.

New Extrude and Bevel functions allow you to extrude and bevel both edges and faces of your topology, letting you add all new volume and detail to your original or imported models.

New features

– Added a Script command generator in the primitive tool, Sculpt, and Retopo rooms. You can save your actions in a script file, change your primitive parameters in the script and run it again.

– Added the support of Modeling and Retopo primitives via Scripts. You can use the retopo classes for creating the primitives in the Retopo and Modeling room via scripts.

– Added the new tools for creating 2D primitives for Modeling and Retopo rooms. You can create the 2D primitives (circle, box, plane, ellipse, N-gon, disk, triangle).

– Added the Record Script button in the top menu. The button changes color depending on the record state. If the button is red, the script is recording, the blue button indicates that the recording is stopped.

– Added the boolean operations for retopo primitives in Retopo and Modeling room. You can create primitives using the boolean operations add, subtract, intersect, and split.

Retopo Menu and Bake

Retopo Top Bar Tool Parameters

UV Preview

Manual vs Auto-retopology. A quick look.

Industry Tuts run through a quick comparison between both manual and auto-retopo in this timelapse video using 3DCoat amazing retopology tools.

Automatic Retopology

This revised and improved Automatic Topology Creation function now produces a very accurate, contour-following topology automatically that works equally well for both organic and mechanical shapes.
Auto Retopo

Manual Retopology

3DCoat provides a plethora of tools for constructing custom topology, automating repetitive tasks when possible giving you the speed you need to get your project done on time.
Manual Retopo

Retopo PolyGroups

3DCoat has a Layer system for retopologizing meshes. This makes it easier to retopologize your meshes with problem areas and to have multiple retopology versions of the same object.

Much like all the other Layer tabs in 3DCoat, they function like the Layers in Photoshop. You can click and drag Layers to reorder them, drag them to the Trash icon to delete them, hide & show them with the Visibility icon, etc.
Poly Groups

Import & Export

Import retopo
Exports the Retopo mesh as an editable patch of polygons in one of the following formats: .obj, .lwo, .fbx, .stl, and .ply
Export selected: Exports only the selected faces as an editable patch in one of the following formats- .obj, .lwo, .fbx, .stl, and .ply
Export separate groups: Exports each Retopo Group as a separate object in one of the following formats – .obj, .lwo, .fbx, .stl, and .ply. Each object retains the name of its corresponding Retopo Group.

Technical Information

Retopo Workspace: This video begins a series providing an overview of the most commonly used Retopo Tools in 3DCoat, starting with the Manual Retopology tools.

Quick Start: UV Brush Mode: This video demonstrates the usage of the Brush Mode when editing UVs in 3DCoat. It enables the user to reshape, tweak, or relax UV islands/shells in a freeform fashion.

Quick Start UV Layout Tools

Fixing Retopo Snapping Issues

RMB Retopo Menu: This video demonstrates the new RMB menu in the Retopo Workspace. It’s context-sensitive and compact to help a user work more efficiently.

4.5 Retopo Room Additions: This video covers some new additions to the Retopo Room in 3DCoat 4.5.

Voxels vs Reference Mesh: This video compares the two different methods for importing a dense mesh into 3DCoat.

Tutorials

Retopo Room Workflow: This video begins the Retopo stage of this walk-through, including a demonstration of using the Kitbashing toolset to quickly access and use Model/Mesh presets as starting points.

Quick and Dirty Retopo Tricks: This video covers some quick tips to speed up your workflow when working in the Retopo Workspace EDIT: Edges and Faces will have the “Relax” feature, as well as a dedicated “Grow/Shrink” selection tool, in build 4.1.13.

Retopo Project: This video begins a short Retopo project using a combination of Auto-Retopo and manual Retopo tools.

Quick Tip: The need to choose the correct UV map, Retopo Mesh: This video demonstrates a built-in feature of 3DCoat when working in the Retopo Workspace to let the user know whether they have the proper UV map and Mesh layer selected when working on a given mesh.

Duplicating a Retopo Mesh: This video demonstrates two primary methods for duplicating retopo meshes in 3DCoat.

Unify Multiple UV Sets into One