So what are the latest trends and tools for retopology?

Would also appreciate any nice retopo tutorials if you have come across anything cool lately…

this is an amazing addon for retopology.

Doesn’t get old.

Thanks guys, will check into it…

Also, do you always retopo? Especially when preparing for 3D printing, its crucial, right? As that is my main goal …

That Countours add-on is insane!

So my question is, what do you do, what are the options after you retopo your model? What are the benefits [design-wise] is also my question, I guess. :slight_smile:

Well, being still really new to 3D modeling, my concern is, well, you’ll lose all the detail… do you re-sculpt your retopo, or?

One typical workflow is transferring the hi-res surface details of a mesh you have created a retopologized low poly mesh for to that low poly mesh with bump, normal or displacement maps that are baked from the hi-res mesh. Bump maps fake hi-res details, normal maps do it a bit better but only displacement maps can actually change the contours of a mesh when being rendered. You can bake those maps directly in Blender.

Marco

Actually for 3d prints topology is much less important than for other end goals such as animation or games. The only things that matter for 3d printing: your mesh must be 100% manifold and usually must be 100% triangles.

For instance, if you use CAD software and generate an STL for 3d printing, then bring it into Blender, you will see horrible, horrible topology. The worst. But it’s all triangles which means it’ll print just fine.

I have no idea what you are talking about :slight_smile:

So I should retopo/model with triangles [to begin with]? I kinda prefer to work with squares…

Can I somehow translate my mesh to triangles, with an addon or sth?

No need to retopologise.
When you export your file to the .stl format for your printer it will be triangulated. The .stl format does not support quads, only triangles

Totally depends on what you are trying to print. If I have one solid mesh then I use quads. If I need to bool two objects together then I still use quads, then I use Dyntopo sculpting at the seems to keep my poly count manageable while at the same time eliminating intersecting faces at the seems of the booled objects. Once you export your object as an STL like these guys stated it’ll be triangulated. The 3D print addon is very handy when checking for a good mesh for 3D printing purposes. Also as an aside, the Decimate modifier hates my meshes so if I need to cut down on polys I use 3D Coat for that.

You should only do retopology if you’re going to use the model in animation or games, if the goal is 3D printing you don’t need to do that.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?165383-What-exactly-is-Retopo