0rang3
Thanks!
- double post. thanks laggy internet.
polystrips can be slow when retopoing a hi-res mesh, or even a mid res mesh, since when you activate the tool the operation is modal and thereās also snapping involved, for comparison observe lag behavior of using wide radius proportional edit with face snapping in retopo action with a hi res object.
to avoid thisā¦
for dyntopo, you can decimate while maintaining the overall shape and detail.
for multires, if you want to get as close to the displaced surface as possible and use the highest level subd, you can use the mask modifier to hide some areas to alleviate the stress on the viewport and the operations needed for polystrips to function. or pick a mid res level where most of the shape/detail are there.
Added! You can get it here: http://cgcookiemarkets.com/blender/customer-dashboard/?task=download
Speed is something weāre definitely trying to improve. Thereās a lot of heavy lifting going on with Polystrips, but thereās almost certainly some things that can be done to made it faster. In Blender 2.73 things should be quite a bit faster, actually, due to a BMesh API change recently.
Iāve just pushed out a bug fix release for Polystrips. This fixes two pesky issues that a lot of people were running into.
Version 1.0.1
- Fix issue where strips drawn in orthographic were placed on opposite side of the model
- Fix issue with ācommon_utilitiesā throwing an error while enabling
If youāve already purchased then you can get it from your Blender Market dashboard, or if you havenāt made the leap yet then you can get it here: http://cgcookiemarkets.com/blender/all-products/polystrips-retopology-tool/
Hey everyone!
Over the last several months Iāve been working hard to constantly improve Contours and Polystrips. These two tools have played a significant role in both my day-to-day work over the last two years, but are also largely responsible for proving that the Blender Market could be a success. The Contours tool was one of the first Blender add-ons to prove that you could build a GPL add-on for Blender and succeed doing it.
However, building and releasing these tools has come with some challenges. One of the most prominent challenges has been how to distinctly, and clearly offer both tools for a fair price as separate products. Thereās been a lot of confusion around this because theyāre both retopology tools, and even though they accomplish different tasks theyāre used closely within the same workflow.
Initially I chose to release Contours and Polystrips as separate products because I felt they were unique tools, that while they belonged in the same workflow, were different enough to justify separate products. Looking back, I was wrong. These tools belong together. The tools compliment each other, they build upon one another, and one day they may even interact together as one, cohesive tool.
In light of this, Iām making some changes and I wanted to let you know whatās changing.
First, Contours and Polystrips are being combined into a single retopology add-on. This makes it simpler for everyone, including us (the developers). Itās simpler to learn about, itās simpler to purchase, itās simpler to install, and itās simpler to maintain.
Second, the name! Contours and Polystrips have always been the name(s) of the tools, and thatās staying the same. What is changing, though, is the product name. Collectively, Contours and Polystrips will now be tools within the RetopoFlow add-on.
My end goal is to offer a complete suite of retopology tools for Blender. A full, dedicated set of retopology tools that doesnāt require a whole separate application within your pipeline.
You can read the full blog post here: http://cgcookiemarkets.com/blender/2014/11/21/contours-polystrips-combined/
Thanks for the update, Jonathan!
ā¦does really sound like a great combination!
Progress is continuing well! Iāve gotten both tools living nicely together and am now working on further cleanup. All the while weāre carefully planning out how new tools will fit in. As an example, we are working on the Simple Fill tool, which will tentatively live inside the Polystrips modal while also existing as a 3rd, more powerful tool to allow filling of arbitrary holes.
Hi Jonathan. Nice to hear, since IĀ“ve had issues getting the tools to play nice together. Will Retopoflow also be available through GIT?
Most likely, yes. I mostly like to the keep the Git Repo open to the public for the sake of issue tracking.
@BrilliantApe, if youāre interested in being a dedicated beta tester then I can give you early access.
Cyber Monday is here, so Contours and Polystrips are 33% off! The discount gets applied automatically at checkout. Itās for today only, though.
I appreciate the offer, but it would be dishonest of me to accept. I donĀ“t have the time needed these days to be able to promise good betatesting.
nice addon! is there a way to set the navigation to maya style btw?
Unfortunately you have to do this manually in the code right now. The reason being is how Blender handles modal operators. Any events that you wish to use during the modal (such as navigation events) have to be explicitly passed through based on their keys. So itās hard coded.
We have experimented a good bit with auto-detection for the navigation keymap but itās very, very cumbersome and very prone to errors.
ah okay ā¦ but great it is editable at all 
and i guess there is some kind of manual on how to alter it, no?
And saving WIP would be great too! I mean while in edit modeā¦
I canāt find a current RetopoFlow thread here on the new forum, can someone point me to it please?
Iām also wondering is there a new thread for RetopoFlow somewhere?
