intial autopo shape

[Jason Brindley]

hi,

I have a glove which I'm trying to retopologise. when I open it for autopo I get this....

when I open it for manual retopo it looks ok, but I can't get a poly to appear on the surface.

It was made from multiple subtools in zbrush then merged and exported as an obj - I'm assuming there's something wrong with my geometry..?

[Psmith]

When you import directly into the Retopo room, your imported mesh is not "voxelized" (new English word). You are seeing it as it truly is, a polygonal mesh.

When you import it into the Voxel room, it IS voxelized and often loses much of its crisp detail.

So, if you intend to import your mesh to be run through the AUTOPO routine directly, try "Import without voxelizing" from the "File" menu.

Greg Smith

[Jason Brindley]

sorry Greg, I can only see 'import for voxelizing'... ?

[Psmith]

Sorry Jason, I've mislead you - the function is not found in the "File/Import" menu, but, rather in the Settings Panel for the Voxel "Merge" tool - "Without voxelizing".

So, from the Voxel Room, "Merge" your mesh "Without voxelizing" and then run AUTOPO on this merged mesh.

Greg Smith

[Carlosan]

http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9196

[Jason Brindley]

ha got it! thanks! took a few attempts but got there in the end.

thanks both

[Jason Brindley]

well I thought I had, but I'm getting this again. I've merged as a skin and upped the resolution a few times too...?

[Carlosan]

It appears from your last statement that your mesh is separated into sub objects. if this is the case try the below.

Merge as skin. You also try this method if your mesh is one piece

Merge to separate volumes and merge as skin selected. Then you could merge them together but merge the layers to the highest voxel count layer. Maybe be alittle cleanup afterwards.

Even unwelded vertices sharing the same space will cause problems with spikes. Check in your modeling program for unmerged vertices sharing the same space sometimes called duplicated vertices.

Select a voxel tool to get rid of the white proxy object after pressing enter.

[Jason Brindley]

Thanks that seems helpful carlosa. but I don't think I'm familiar enough with the software yet to quite be able to utilise these commands properly. I increased the resolution as you advised in your posts, but the autopo was taking 30+ minutes. I don't really know what you mean by "merge the layers to the highest voxel count layer" I not even sure I know what a 'voxel' supposed to be (is it a pixol?)

I've decided to separate the glove into two parts now as the shape is proving too tricky to do manually - splitting it into a simple cylinder and hand shape should make things easier..

[Carlosan]

http://3d-coat.com/w...t_are_Voxels%3F

->

[Jason Brindley]

Thanks. I kind of got the idea anyway, it was more the application of and the principles of working within the software that was confusing me. It's all good information though so thank you.

I think I'm getting the hang of things now - I've found that I don't need a very detailed mesh in the retopo room anyway - if I just trust to 3DCoat getting it about right I can adjust the mesh at the low poly stage in ZBrush and project all to get it to about the right shape. Then, using a combination of the project brush then dividing and projecting as I go, I can 'grow' the mesh into the correct form. My mistake was trying to project hi detail into the new mesh straight away. This new gradual technique seems to give better results.

Thanks for all the help and advice

[Carlosan]

from the beginner its hardhardhard to understand the 3DC workflow...

the philosophy behind the tools in every room...

to much potential but... how is interconnected ?

for me, every room is like a standalone software.

And there is a way to go from one room to another.

The workflow is veryvery linear.

Voxels are good for low/medium fast sketch (take care with the voxels density). To build organic is easy and mechanical using primitives and "booleans add/substract" .

Convert voxels to surface is good to add surface detail.

Export to retopo -manually, no auto- and go back, is good to add new objects. (like surface modeling)

To paint normal o displacement maps is good for the last steps.

My BIG fault -at the beginning- was to work comparing 3DC with ZB or MB. NO way.

My best friend is to use Applink with Blender.

This post changed my point of view about 3DC workflow, I hope you find it useful.

http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8184

Regards !

[Jason Brindley]

thanks C, this is very helpful.

I'm learning ZBrush at the minute, I want to avoid traditional 3D software (like blender or maya) as much as possible as I've never liked the modelling process. It seems that sculpt in zbrush and retopo in 3dcoat will do for now. Maybe one day when I'm better at 3d I'll try other 3dcoat features!

Thanks very much

j