Learning and Understanding Topology - Tutorial Collection

Hi everyone,

Topology has always been a major focus of mine and I’ve produced a fair number of tutorials and resources on the topic over the years. Until now these resources have always been scattered all over the place. I’m now starting to collect all these tutorials, lectures, etc into a single place in my newLearning Mesh Topology Collection

Currently this collection includes:

  • Topology in Theory and Practice - Blender Conference 2010 Lecture
  • Topology Overview of the Human Head
  • Topology Overview of the Human Torso
  • Topology Overview of the Human Shoulder
  • Topology Overview of the Human Hand
  • Topology Overview of the Human Foot
  • Techniques on Controlling Topology Flow

I will continue to add to this collection as I create more tutorials on the topic.

Learning Mesh Topology Collection

Cheers and enjoy!
Jonathan

P.S. If you have any specific topology requests or questions just let me know and I’ll be happy to see if I can accommodate the request.

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Thank you for the tuts
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate if this thread was in the Tutorials section? sorry OCD

Yes and no. It should since it’s a collection of tutorials but topology is fundamental to modeling and so I put it in the modeling thread as it’s more of a collection of resources rather than a specific tutorial.

should make it a sticky at the top of page!

will this include new topo for Bmesh too?

thanks

I didn’t want to sticky my own thread but if enough people would like it stickied then I’d be happy to :slight_smile: What new topo are you referring to? BMesh doesn’t have any new retopology tools; it just makes it easier to control your topology while modeling.

Well for me this is a general intro to topo so should be with other sticky at top!

and for Bmesn something on how to and when to use Ngon
and discuss adavantages and disavantages !
intro to basic Bmesh commands
some tricks when using Bmesh may be!

then how to save a file under the new feature legacy mesh format to a new file then you can import objects to older version

and may be a short tut intro to API for Bmesh

i’m still wondering if i should use Bmesh and when to use Bmesh with Ngon or keep modelling with 3 4 edges faces

thanks
happy blendering!

@RickyBlender BMesh and N-Gons don’t in any way change an optimal finished model. They simply allow users to change topology and reroute edge flows during the modelling process in a simple, straight forward manner. Some users have a mind that is geared toward spinning edges and merging vertices to change topology. Others just want to be able to delete edges and cut in new ones without being limited by the program. The finished model will still be quads, with maybe a few tris.

Other than that a tut would be great. Basic commands, tips and tricks, so on.

General question: If I want to terminate/add a cap to any tube shaped object and keep it all quads, what would be a good way of going about that? I always have to resist the urge to just edtrude, scale to zero, remove doubles…

Also, I hear 3-poles and 5-poles talked about a lot…is it pretty much assumed that if you have more than 5 edges connected to a vertex, then your mesh is crap or you’re doing something wrong?

Generally something like this works well:


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So I guess it ends in a pole if your tube has an odd number of faces, and ends in a quad if even then, hmm…

dude you’re awesome. You’ve done so much to help out amateur blender users like myself. I hope you know how much we all appreciate your work and your tutorials.

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Thank you so much! Hearing people like you speak up just inspires me to produce more topology resources.

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I echo 3dcineman513’s remarks, Jonathan. You are truly a wonderful inspiration to me and my love of Blender. I absolutely enjoy all of your tutorials. You have helped me tremendously over the last couple of years. I can’t thank you enough.

Wow thank you!

I’d like to add my thanks as well. There are a lot of resources discussing specific program features, but do few discussing first principle ideas!

Sure I wanted to say the same. This is very helpful. Thanks a lot!

Looking at the content of the collection, it seems all to be about human(oid)s. Does anyone know how well these translate to hard surface with sharper edges?

And the “P.S.” in the OP, shouldn’t it be? : “P.S. … and I’ll be happy to see if I can accommodate the request.”

If you watch my talk from the Blender Conference in the collection then I talk a good bit about hard surface modeling topology.

Thanks for the typo fix too, fixed now :slight_smile:

I didn’t realize that. Will dive in now. Thanks.

Hi kakachiex2,

There’s some really great reference there! An anime topology tutorial has been on my list for a very long time but I havent’ been able to do it yet. Thanks for the links!