A few questions about retopology...

Support Modeling
1

To get straight to the point here are my questions:

Does everything need to be retopologized? What I mean by this is lets say I have a reference of a gun for example and I’m able to model the flow with good topology. So in other words lets say its a high poly and it isn’t as complex and I just can remove edge loops later to simplify and clean up.

Would you suggest using other retopo. tools such as RetopoFlow(comes with contours and that other addon)?

In short, I deal with modeling all kinds of weapons so what I’m dealing with mostly is at most models that can have topology done right away unless I sculpt some areas. Please any help or suggestions would be great. I usually model with subsurf on to see the model in a more high density form with small amounts of polys used. Not sure if this is a good or a bad thing but let me know.

2

Retopology is generally used for meshes that need to be deformed, or for game assets that need to be as lowpoly as they can get.

For weapons unless they deform, I’d say a complete retopo isn’t necessary. Just think your topology ahead and if you don’t see anything wrong, there isn’t anything wrong.
Sculpting can lead to high polycounts so in that case you might retopo the areas needed.

3

Thank you for the tips, always helpful. I guess I was on the right track but wanted to be sure since most the weapons I model have a basic form to them and I just add my own details later by modeling separate pieces. The only time I would sculpt is if there is some sort of special gimmick or design to the gun.