Search the Community

I have heard alot about it,but never really knew what it was for ,surfing on youtube ive seen alot of programs exporting from one program to another and back,and I saw John Bigboote had just posted something about it for v17 ,and is it new in v17? ( Most videos were just timelapsed and did'nt explain anything)

That sounds like a great idea, but UNfortunately- I think it defies how this feature works. From MY limited exposure, I have noticed that the 'Snap to Surface' tool- which is the underlying new mode behind the 'retopology' feature, only works in a PROJECTION manner... meaning- whatever surface lies behind the point(or group of points) to be applied as retopologized data, from your immediate POINT OF VIEW- will be where the points will be reassigned to. With this in mind, it is hard to see it working in a cylindrical manner. HOWEVER, I have not tested your idea yet. COULD WORK! but I doubt it.

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40992&hl= Hey Russ- I made a quick 'illustrated' guide that will show you a little more about the new 'SNAP TO SURFACE' tool.

Now it's time to start modeling! I make sure that the new 'SNAP TO SURFACE' button is ON, and click ADD CP and start laying splines.

Hey Gang, I finally got a chance to try out the new V17 Retopology Tool, and I think it is pretty well thought feature. Kudos to Steffen! I know at this time V17 is in alpha and a lot of people don't have access, but will eventually and here is my 'illustrated' guide to getting the tool up and running. I started with Fuchurs useful instructions from the V17 thread: 1.) Import a Prop (for instance an OBJ) into the chor-window. 2.) Create an empty model in the PWS and drag and drop it into the chor too. 3.) Good practice is to make everything but the empty model in the chor unpickable. 4.) Now select the model and go to the modeling-mode in the chor. 5.) Click on "Add Spline" and activate "Snap to Surface". > Now you are ready to go. Here is my journey down that road, with notes: FIRST OF ALL, I needed a polygonal model so I went to TurboSquid, signed up, and browsed their free models. I wanted an OBJ but ended-up with a 3DS, didn't matter. Here is the link to the model I grabbed: http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/polygo...head-3ds/265937

If the retopo works anything like 3d coat then the lathe and extrude probably aren't applicable but instead you draw over the reference surface and I'm guessing simply stitch the patches together. This will be awesome! Is this how it works in AM? Any chance for Bias handle freezing? Be nice to be able to turn off the auto adjusting when doing mech models. Also like to see visibility and lock icons show up next to the groups much like the roto shows. Would find that to be extremely handy on complex models with tons of groups. Yes it works like that. In short: 1.) Import a Prop (for instance an OBJ) into the chor-window. 2.) Create an empty model in the PWS and drag and drop it into the chor too. 3.) Good practice is to make everything but the empty model in the chor unpickable. 4.) Now select the model and go to the modeling-mode in the chor. 5.) Click on "Add Spline" and activate "Snap to Surface". > Now you are ready to go. You can now create splines as you are used in A:M by clicking on a point visible on the mesh below. (for example the OBJ, but doesnt have to be one). A:M will determine the position of the mesh below an put the new inserted point on it. If you select the point again and move it around, it will slide over the surface of the model. This is possible for polygon-meshes and for patch-surfaces. That means, you can not only use it to "import" very polygon-intensive models but you can although use it to model for example cloth on your patch-based characters, etc. It is very handy and I will surely do a video-tutorial on it in future... See you *Fuchur*

They are available in A:M Reports. The most important once till now are: - Snap to Surface for CPs (Retopology-Tool) useable with poly- and patch-models. > Polys can be imported as Props and dragged in a Chor to use them as reference, patch-models can be used in modelling and chor-mode. - Now uses Intel-compiler and some other improvements > increases speed up to 15% for Intel and AMD-CPUs. - UV-Editor-Improvements (multiselection now possible and advanced splitting of UV-patches) - Many little improvements like "Animate"-Mode-indication, etc. - Many bug-fixes. More detailed informations can be found in A:M Reports, if you have access to v17. See you *Fuchur*

What I already asked for as a feature-request is the Retopology-Tool for A:M. I think this is the easiest way to get this pipeline working... If you have a model done outside of A:M, bring it as 3d-Rotoscope (more or less a prop-object) to A:M, use something like "Snap to 3d Rotoscope" / "Snap to Polygon-Surface" in A:M (done already by for example 3d Painter) and model your new geometry around it with splines. The next thing would be to transfer the UV-cordinates to the newly created patch-model (a bit like TransferAW does it with Weights only the other way round) and we would have a very fast and workable pipeline from the polyworld to A:M and of course out again. Any automatic importer has problems with the continuity of splines, but this would be a great way to get around that problem by letting these issues be solved by the user, who is the best guy for the job anyway. The cool thing about it: Most stuff of it is already to some extend available. There are algorithms to track a surface (>Surface-Constraint) there is the possibility to import Polygon-Object (> Props). The UV-part may be a little bit more difficult, but should be techniqually doable too. What needs to be implemented for that would be the possibility to import a prop (uneditable) to a modelling-window or if that is too much trouble: We can although model in the Chor using the prop... so the first thing would to do would be "Snap to Surface" for the mouse. Steffen is working on OpenCL-implemetation these days and very ocuppied with that, but he did assign the featurerequest already... and maybe we would need that to slide over the surface with the mouse... This would be a way to open the two worlds to eachother and I am very sure that this would be a great way to attract more people to A:M and giving us many opportunities to work on projects with other guys, create amazing stuff and be a source of great inspiration... I'd love to see that! But it will certainly still take some time before this can be done. Keep in mind: Steffen is already working very hard on A:M and he does it as a hobby... anway, it may be possible and is the only way I see to connect both worlds (Patches and Polygones) in a useable way. See you *Fuchur* PS: I tested 3d Coat a little and I find it to be a very nice addition to A:M with the lowest price-tag out there for such features especially Voxel-modelling, etc. seems to be cool... So I cant test it, because this is still a little to pricey to just buy it and see how it works with A:M's importer... there were others here who did it... as soon as A:M has the retopolgy-tools I will however very certainly buy it to cooperate with A:M!

Hi, thanks for your answers. wedgeeguy, I can't do as you say, because I don't use a polygon modeler, but a free scult modeler (Sculptris). The result, is an OBJ model, that comport 550 000 triangles. And I think, It is better to rethinking the topology of a polygon model, so for me it is faster and better to remodeling it, in AM. jakerupert, "...that you could redraw splines ontop of a polybased 3D rotoscopes with the help of a "snap to surface" function similar to the "snap to grid" button...." yes, this is! "I don`t know anything of programming, but maybe it`s doable with a reasonable amount of work?" I don't know too... That idea come to me, when I used the props as 2D rotoscopes, and see the video of resurface plugin. It is just an idea "On the other hand, I think it would be more important/usefull to make the AM displacement "animationsafe", so that one could use the polygon sculpting tools with AM for animatable characters as well.... " All right this animation diplacement problem is more important and usefull.

As far as I understand this discussion, Malo thinks, that a kind of retopology tool or plugin for AM would be great, working in that way, that you could redraw splines ontop of a polybased 3D rotoscopes with the help of a "snap to surface" function similar to the "snap to grid" button. I don`t know anything of programming, but maybe it`s doable with a reasonable amount of work? On the other hand, I think it would be more important/usefull to make the AM displacement "animationsafe", so that one could use the polygon sculpting tools with AM for animatable characters as well....