I just started to look into using Bsurfaces for some specific modeling/retopo tasks but I seem to be running into some issues, which I suppose might be related to the recent updates to grease pencil. Here is a very simple scenario bringing up an error and not generating anything :
Any help would be appreciated. In the grand scheme of things my goal is actually to use BSurface as a way to easily add geometry based to a current model based on “sloppily placed verts” like shown in the video below, but if I am not mistaken this still requires some initial stroke or surface.
@24:52
I have seen some threads about BSurface compatibility and fixes, but this issue seems to be different.
I might be wrong, but from what I see in the capture, you are in ObjectMode, BSurfaces works in EditMode. I see that after the error BSurfaces gets you into EditMode. If you try to run the same command again (since now you are in EditMode) it should work. Granted you will generate a piece of mesh on top of existing mesh … as you end up being in EditMode of the object you were drawing strokes on to begin with.
Prefered way of showcasing it is having 2 meshes. Active (retopo), and HiRez you draw strokes on top.
Pitiwazou has some cool vids on retopo, check it out for reference! His Pie Menu for retopo is also awesome.
LMK if you can’t dig up the stuff
@cmomoney : Understood - while in edit mode I indeed manage to add strokes and surface them, that’s great. This part works fine then (even though there should definitely be some error prevention to prevent the error when running it in object more, like automatically entering edit mode if needed…). Thanks !
So on to my second point : how does one create surfaces from “sloppily extruded verts” as shown in the Oliver Villar review video ? This seems extremely powerful but I have not been able to do it successfully, as asking to create a surface in that context returns an error message indicating that the tool needs a stroke … even though the whole point of surfacing from verts/edges is to not rely on GP strokes in the first place.
The ideal workflow would be to quickly extrude verts in edit mode without the need to connect them precisely, and then simply run one command/tool to solve this sloppy structure as a quad/tris network and surface it all. But here it seems like I am missing some sort of initial prepping step (that I believe should not be necessary since all the input data is here already …)
As a matter of fact … looking at Oliver’s video again, how does one creates such a network of edges/verts by simply clicking around ? I know how to extrude a vert and snap it to a surface, but I wasn’t aware that such a “click through” approach was possible. How is that done ?
@OrAngE : Hi man ! I actually have a whole bunch of options for retopo “per say” already so that’s not really the issue. Here I am mostly trying to see how Bsurfaces operates to see if I can leverage it for other stuff - basically evaluating the tool to see if it is reliable, fast, and so on (in other words : not researching retopo in Blender as whole, but just this very specific tool in particular). That said thanks for the tip, edit mode was definitely the solution to that one issue. Still surprised that there is no error prevention is in place for it though …
I am bumping this up again because for some reason I am running into this BSurface error issue once more… even though I was just using it successfully during a previous session.
I understand that there are a few conditions to meet when using the tool (like the need for the GP layer to be set to Object, and the requirement to be in Edit mode) but maybe I am missing something obvious. Could someone tell me what I did wrong during the following attempt ?
I’d love to find out not only for my own sake but also in order to initiate a productive feedback loop/bug report about error prevention with Bsurfaces. The tool is extremely useful, but seems to conflict with the recent update to Grease Pencil and that’s a bummer !
Thank you for taking the time to try it out CMM ! On my end it’s been working without errors over the last few sessions, so that’s odd (in a good way). I wonder if the error is triggered by making a user mistake once (like attempting to run it with an Scene-bound GP layer as opposed to Object-bound) which then breaks further attempts even if done correctly. I will have to investigate more.
