advice ? can you be specific your first thread link to this one…
I used Topogun , Zbrush… Can give my feedback on those if you like.
Topogun :
Topogun’s topo tools seem nice at first, but it needs labor, if you are going for presicion and have time to spare I guess its ok. It can speed up once you get familiar with a work flow. (For example I use to just draw edges from vertex points and draw the edge loops on the part I’m working on. Then use bridge tool to quickly turn the loops into faces.) Some of the tools I never manage to make work properly like “tubes”. One thing I tried a lot and failed was its baking tools. Just an advice dont waste time on them. They are cumbersome and take too long with no real control over the bake.
pros :
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Has a quick draw capability and bridge capability - good for manual work.
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Has a subdivide feature to preview the topology when subdivided.
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Has a morph tool which allows auto morphing of topologized surface to translated new base model with same number of vertices. (original > topo —change in subdivision sculpt—> original -translated- (original vertex count ) >> morph >> auto arrange topology to the translated new original).
cons :
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Some tools are hard to work with , tubes,pencil.
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use to crash unexpectedly on some options .( dont know current state).
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Has awful bake tools.
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Labor can get intensive if the mesh consist of multiple parts on the same model.
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can only import / export a single mesh at a time. ( A character with multiple parts is either imported as a single object or part by part).
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Price is it worth it ? In my opinion no.
Zbrush :
Most people will talk about Zremesher (qremesher in the first days) when they hear about “zbrush & retopology”. However zbrush has 2 other tools for manual retopology. These are zsphere and topology brush.
ZSphere topology is the legacy mode for retopologizing a model in zbrush , it is controlled but needs a lot of labor depending on the model. If you are familiar with the Ui and use zbrush constantly you can get use to its awkward usage fairly quickly. But understanding how it works may take a couple of trials.
Topology brush is the new tool for manual topology. it seem fairly simple , you draw with the brush on the surface it creates a curve and a preview topology (the face size depends on your brush size). When you get near to a curve end point, the cursor turns to green (means it recognizes the edge and will connect to it) you draw and continue building topology. Easy right. Well in real life it takes more work than that. The system most of the time behaves not the way you like so you try to delete a previous curve, after you delete it you try to draw again and this is where the “s/ht hits the fan”. System interpolates your draw strokes and it is not what you want, delete it oops you accidently deleted the neighboring curve point too… So it is a little bit of 2 steps forward 1 step back kind of way of topologizing. It took a lot of trials until I could get a hang of it which at that point I said “its cumbersome , I don’t need this” and returned to blender.
Pros :
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It Zbrush you get the whole package; including auto topo feature zremesher. Decimation master, Vertex paint tools etc…
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It has Legacy topology mode zspheres. which is controlled but looks very unorthodox at first.
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It can also create fast and usable bakes.
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Also has an alternate tool “Topology brush” but usage depends on the person and familiarity with the system.
Cons :
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Its hard to grasp out of the box.You need to watch couple of zclassroom tutorials before getting a hold of the systems.
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Zsphere legacy topo is labor intensive , you draw faces point by point.
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Topology Brush topo is faster but is hard to control. Takes lots and lots of practice.
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Price is it worth it ? yes , since its not just a topo tool but a sculpt package (with modelling capabilities very soon).
Conclusion :
Personally I use Blender. Just enable “snap to face” and “F2 Addon” and start to create faces. Topology is usually labor intensive anyway. besides it teaches a lot about good modelling practices.
Blender has mirror , baking , subdivision preview , decent projection (shrinkwrap modifier).
if you are going for speeding things up more ; try the CGCookie polystrips and contour tools (You can find them on the Blendermarket). They do speed things up a lot.
There are also custom addons people are working on like Icetools and topology tools. You can try those.
Hope this helps…