Topogun worth the money?

Hi all

I am wondering or not weather I should buy topogun? Is it worth the money? Does it retopo faster then blender? I would like to hear what you think.

-bon-

Does it retopo faster then blender?
Without any additional retopology addons? Yes, it’s a retopology application so that’s what it focuses on
Try the demo http://www.topogun.com/download/topogun.htm

Yes, the application is specifically designed for retopology, of course it’s going to be better

, but if you bring the fact that you have to spend time learning topogun,

ehh…

Maybe.

I still would recommend getting Retopo flow instead(It’s on blender market)

get 3dcoat instead, you have powerful retopo tools + sculpting + texturing :wink:

I agree with this, 3D Coat is much better imo. Very easy to use.

That said, it is a lot more expensive so if they just want retopo then it might not be worth it. Topogun isnt bad at $100, though my opinion is that its better to get $375 3D Coat for all its features or $299 Modo Indie (or $10 a month). Still, hard to go wrong with Topogun.

As nice as the Blender plugin is, I don’t think its worth it compared to the alternatives. You pay for the convenience of staying in Blender imo, not necessarily because its better persay. Props to the guys that put it together though.

Retopoflow

  • excels at the “tube function” which Topogun had
  • slow on big meshes and long brush strokes due to code and viewport limitations
  • dismally slow Import export of big files is a big hindrance of making Retopoflow a really useful option.
  • the idea of Strips is cool and other programs should take notice.

for 71.25$ its quite expensive compared to the others

Topogun

  • is nice if you have big meshes (more than 3M polygons ) for retopo.
  • easy to learn, it might take you a day or two to know its functions.
  • the retopoed mesh looks nice and you can always see it which 3Dcoat has a lot of problems with.
  • can´t create UVs
  • sadly dated and falls short against the many functions which 3DCoat offers.

for 100$ its compared to the others with all functions the best option.

there was an announcement in the topgun forum that in this year another big update will come…

3DCoat;

  • retopo mesh sometimes vanishes underneath the reference mesh (you have to play with the Z-bias setting)
  • a lot of cool functions
  • more steady and more regular updates than Topogun has.

for 379$ it would be quite expensive for retopo only but it offers much more options which you can include in later projects.

my verdict; if you want to buy Retopoflow/Topogun 3DCoat

I would say, if you want to support CGCookie and the current maintainers of this forum buy Retopoflow,
if you have a tight deadline; buy Topogun even if dated it still is an excellent program.
if you have time on your hands buy 3Dcoat, in your next project you will love its Retopo/UV/paint functions.

Moved from “General Forums > Blender and CG Discussions” to “Support > Other Software”

It might be worth mentioning that Retopoflow, specifically the PolyStrips part seems to be about to have a massive speed and functionality increase in the next release. Which will tie in with the next official Blender release.
In it’s current iteration I found the contours part to be incredibly fast and easy. I’ve even been using it to block out the sort of larger, less cylindrical sections that it wasn’t even designed for.

Can’t help much with TopGun but I have 3D Coat and really love it. It does have really superb manual retopo and UV tools that are a pleasure to use. I was a very early convert. I remember seeing the first videos with the retopo and thinking wow there really is something going on here. It was so far ahead in it’s thinking. It’s been fascinating seeing the sculpt and painting tools develop to such a high level so fast.

I think one great advantage in retopo in Blender for me though, even without any add ons is that you have the whole arsenal of poly modeling tools available. The flexibility it gives you can’t be underestimated. There are just so many options. You can get out of pretty much any difficult situation quickly and also plot out the insides of mouth cavity’s, insides of lips and other details while you go.
Retopo is just a branch of the design and modeling process after all. This way it actually feels like it. The more retopo can be made to be more a part with all the other processes the better I think.
I love the whole flexibility I can get in Blender. As regards poly count limits in both Coat and Blender it’s often best practice to decimate a high frequency mesh anyway for greater ease of retopo. And save the dense one for the texture baking.

However 3D Coat is revamping it’s own tools radically soon to be much more automated and also more like raw poly modeling. Also the new latest version of the auto retopo routine is very, very good now. Although I still would do most parts of a character by hand.
It’s always all in flux. Everything is constantly moving in 3D Land. Amazing how much has changed in only 5 years.

In some countries where the exchange rate is really unfavorable, any of these options are very expensive in local legal currency, especially if you are not a professional working in what is related to the 3D world.
I often have doubts in saying something like what I will say, but RetopoFlow is perhaps even free if you look good (I mean legally free).
But it is always good to show your gratitude and support developers by buying the addon if you have the money, and you also get support buying it.

Curious if there is an updated take on these three programs in 2020 - Retopoflow, TopoGun, and 3Dcoat.

@myclay - I think you had a great breakdown of the three, so thank you! Do you think your observations from 2015 has changed for them?

THanks!

Hi :slight_smile: oh that is quite a while back.

The automatic solutions be it Zremesher, Autopo, instant meshes, Quad Remesher-Exoside (for Blender), Softwrap(for Blender),Zwrap/Wrap/WrapX
where or are amazing solutions which can take away a massive chunk of time within the remeshing/retopology process depending on the output you need/want.

Despite the long time only now there is some changes happening to the classical retopo solutions.

3D-coat as of now (4.9.xx) has fallen back a lot but the upcoming 2020 release will have a Quad Patch solution which seems to be a better solution than zremesher.
The dated UI of 3Dcoat might be an hindrance.

Retopoflow is since a while my current go-to solution for manual retopo on symmetric meshes.
Patches, Strokes and Tubes are enjoyable and quick enough.
Jon Denning did a great update for the 2.8 releases and in general Retopoflow can be teached quickly.

Topogun 3 is (finally) going to get a big update with autoretopo and an implementation which straight out looks like sketchretopo (Sketch-Based Generation and Editing of Quad Meshes).
Since Topogun is going to allow the easy loading of multimillion meshes, it will easily get attractive for many users again.

Only testing the upcoming releases will show if they are worth the money/time.

In general, Retopology among other disciplines like UVing and so on are more and more going the route of inbetweening.
Only rarely will you see people doing it(Retopo/Uving/inbetweening etc) entirely manually, the majority already is or will be content with incorporating automatic solutions - rightly so if I might add.

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I have both Topogun and Retopoflow.
Regarding the Topogun 3 beta - Pros: has huge updates, the Patch tool is an absolute KILLER, I absolutely LOVE IT! Works extremely well with huge meshes. Cons - do not love some of the interface solutions, major functionality for some reason is hidden in menus. The snapping in the patch tool is weird at times, the draw tool is primitive, no easy way to dissolve stuff, etc. … its quite obviously still a beta, the overall experience is a bit last-decade, maya-ish.
Regarding the Retrpoflow 3 beta - Pros: Strokes tool is absolutely INSANE! Love it. Overall RF is totally reworked, the last beta introduced total change to the shortcuts and the functionality of the tools. Great thought has been given to optimizing and streamlining the workflow, which is GOOD. Where as in TG for some stuff you have to go through marking or regular menus, in RF it all happens automatically when needed. (For instance drag and dropping a vertex onto another auto-merges them, X opens a menu with options for dissolving not just deleting, the Polypen tool is much better than TG’s Create, etc.) Cons: Still a bit laggy, high polycounts are a slowing stuff down, though not as unstable as the previous versions, annoying crashes do happen.

In my opinion, as they are now - both Tg and Rf are equally matched, both are good (and bad) solutions. Obviously both are in beta and hopefully both will become better on final release. I really hope the TG team give it the Rf interface treatment to bring it into the present. Also - I wish Retopoflow had the TG patch tool, as well as for it to be more stable and handle larger highpolys without lagging.

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