Hard-ops topology suggestions.

Support Modeling
#1

So, i bought hard-ops a couple days ago and decided to do a practice scene to get familiar with it. Going alright, but the topology is awful, which is expected using booleans and such. So now im at the point where i need to retopologize it, and its incredibly tedious and seems more difficult than retopoing a sculpture for example. Which was sorta unexpected considering the majority of objects in the scene have 90 degree edges.

But any way, im currently using snap to vertices and edges for the topo, which like i said is super tedious and taking forever. Does anyone have any suggestions to a better workflow, or any tips in general for working with the topology that comes after using Hard-ops? Dreading continuing this way to be honest. An example of one of the pieces, just multiply that by 80.

Hops1.jpg1234×944 235 KB

#2

ouch, you just shot yourself in the foot… retopo is not ment for low poly hard surface objects.

first, ask yourself, why do you need to retopo? cause i would argue your already past the point of no return.

a mesh like this is extremely destructive, which means you wont be able to work on it any further. If you are planning on having the shading relativly flat, then id say triangulate it, and leave it at that. but if you want to do more with it, bevels, subsurface, etc, then id start splitting the mesh into smaller pieces and redoing them.

simplify them as much as you can, start with the big shapes, and work your way down to smaller shapes. creating a new mesh on top of it with the snap tool is hopeless. dont be afraid of having several individual pieces, it does not all have to be connected, unless ur planning on 3D printing it, in which case, you would use boolean to unify it all in the end anyways.

#3

upload a blend file and i will demonstrate once i get home.

#4

Well thats sorta the point of hardops, it bevels and smooths everything already, hence all the sharps in the screen shot. And i actually thought of that!(cutting it into smaller pieces) Which me posting this is probably a good indication it didnt help much lol. My issue is I’m using procedural textures, and maybe image textures at some point and i love using the pointiness geometry node, which is the black/white image above, and you can see right after using hardops the pointiness has no idea what to do, It cant tell where the edges are cause the topology is so bad.

So far ive tried the Remsh Modifier and got somewhere, but at the cost of crazy high poly count, idc abput poly count but my pc does lol.(like 1.7 million just on the object in the pic above)

Trying to see if the triangulate and then tris to quads method might work.

I just need to keep the bevels but have a mesh that can use the pointiness node without issue, or any texture for that matter that isnt just a diffuse but still look fine.

I’ll upload a .blend once i get the file size down! And thanks for the help!

Attachments

TestHops.PNG1587×448 1.2 MB

#5

Here it is.

#6

the hard ops modifier was a bit more complex than i thought, i can help you, but if you want so, then i will help you as if the addon was never used in the first place. do you want this?
or do you want to wait for a reply from someone who has experience with the addon?

#7

That seems a really odd result, I have hard ops and I’ve never had any issues with it and masterxeon1001, whos plugin it is, regularly does all manner of things with it. I will take a look at your blend file and see if I can offer any assistance.

#8

Well, I just opened your file and when I go into rendered view, viewing only the exit of the colorramp from pointyness, I get nothing like the mess you show.
I would say some tidyup is in order, if you watch MasterXeons videos, you’ll see he tidies up edges and makes edges elsewhere to refine how things like bevel are handled. I will play around a bit and see what I come up with.

Attachments

Clipboard-1.png1389×999 216 KB

#9

Hmm, thats weird it wouldn’t show up for you(well not entirely anyway, still some defects). And totally agree it needs tidying up, but from the videos I’ve seen of his, and the models available for download, they’re typically either really complex materials or super simple ones. Hard to follow his tuts. I attempted joining verts here and there trying to quad up the mesh but wasnt really getting anywhere, which is when i started doing the retopology snapping to verts and edges which also was ridiculous lol.

I’m aware that my topology is fully at fault here, which is my issue, trying to fix it lol. Below from left to right, Regular Hardops mesh, Remesh Modifier, and Triangulate>Tris to Quads.(none of which look fantastic) And I really appreciate the help, looking forward to what you find.

Attachments

Point.PNG1129×570 146 KB

#10

I understand, and agree, its pretty complex! An amazing addon but not suited for every use i suppose. Well unless this is resolved i guess. And no thats fine, thanks for the assistance!

#11

There’s a definite issue of some areas having bevel weights where they shouldn’t be, some tidying up of edges improved matters as well but that is normal for dealing with HardOps. The tutorial videos do stress that given the heavy boolean actions, you can’t get away from having to tidy up as you go along.
I’ve made some geometry changes on the left object and a couple of tweaks on others. I’ve also got rid of some unwanted / un-needed sharp edges / bevel weights.
Tweaking the colorramp also has an impact, with pointyness, I found myself, really small changes can have dramatic effects.

Attachments

HOPSHELPba_01.blend (310 KB)

#12

I assumed tiding up meant to just add edges places, good to know i need to look for unwanted bevel weights. Yeah i remember him saying that, and in my head i thought fixing the topology from the booleans would be easy, boy was i wrong.

But in reference to file you just uploaded the left object is pretty on point with what i was trying to achieve, and you just removed unwanted stuff, or actually altered the mesh?

Just wish there was a simple way to get all quads but the exact same shaped mesh… easily.

If there was a way to apply the Remesh Modifier, but then Decimate it to quads and not tris that would be a solution i think.

#13

Yes… it can be a good idea in general, to look a little bit at the mesh before use boleans ( whatever it is witth Speedflow, hardops ) and after use them… offtly just use the knife tools and clean up some mesh parts will be a good idea.

On your initial meshes, theres a lot of place where the clean will not be so hard. ( where you have square extrusion as example ), also, it could be a good idea sometimes on complicate object, to vary the methodology ( simple extrusion instead of bolean, ( inset, extrude, etc )

#14

All I did was redefine a few edges and remove some sharps / edge bevel weights. :slight_smile:

#15

Yeah this project was just to test out the add on but I’ll admit I got a little carried away lol. Insets probably would have sufficed in a lot of areas. Thanks for the help and suggestions.

#16

I’d definitely recommend going through the videos, there’s a lot to watch, but the demo videos provide some very useful insights.