Hi! I wonder if anyone can give me some pointers as to how to go forward with this kitty cat sculpt:
Since it's a sculpt, of course it'll be insanely dense, like so:
I know I need to retopologize it, but I don't have much time in the evenings to do it the painstaking way. I'm also watching my funds where deciding on whether I'd like to buy RetopoFlow. I haven't sculpted much, but I'd really like to finish up the cat and put some textures on it and some fuzzy fur. I have an idea for a cute scene!
So, if anyone can help me out, that would be wonderful. Thank you so much in advance!
@jlampel Oh! Then I know what I must do... For my sanity, I'm going to get that RetopoFlow. I'm too slow on my own, and I get so frustrated! I saw the jagged seams with a teddy bear I made lately. Not too nice, those jagged lines. :( Still, I'll do it for the convenience.
Thanks, all!
jjazze I’d recommend watching the retopoflow 2 and 3 livestream if you haven’t used it. Retopoflow 3 is pretty much Retopoflow 2 adjusted to work in Blender 2.8
I like the livestream for Retopoflow 3 and @jlampel was doing a great job “stalling” (while Jonathon was logging in) by teaching basic tools of Retopoflow, but once Jonathon joined he basically began retopologizing quickly to show the effectiveness of the tool, but there wasn’t as much teaching going on. I kinda had to pause a few times and take notes after watching his key strokes and such, haha. But I know they said that the previous live stream was better for an introduction if you have never used it.
Hi again @jlampel ! I have a problem: I want to try out RetopoFlow, but it hasn't worked since I installed it. Here are some images ( I tried with other forms, too...sculpted and everything. I forgot to show that in the picture. Still couldn't select):
Besides a warning about it being beta, sometimes Blender doesn't even show the tool at the header. When it does and I press the "Make Target" (or whatever it was called), I'm in the new area, Contours is selected, but I can't do anything. There's no cursor or anything, just the symmetry line. Even that actually works.
When I press escape to leave RetopoFlow, suddenly I can't select anything in the regular Blender window. That bums me out. :( I just bought it a few days ago. :(
EDIT: Never mind...once I restarted the computer, it worked. I have to remember that I hold Ctrl+drag to make a new contour or whatever. Phoo! I'm still gonna look at those livestream vids!
Ohhhhh. I forgot to mention jjazze .
i remember my frustration opening retopoflow and stuff not intuitively working for me. Hence why I directed you to the videos because once I watched them I started realizing how the tools all worked together.
Here’s some of my notes from the Retopo 3 Video: they may or may not be helpful
Contours Notes
Poly strips
Poly PenAlso, there was a bug with contours not working for me at all when I first used it. I didn’t try rebooting my computer but I reached out to the developer on their 👾 bug page he gave me a version with the fix within the day!
I’d also recommend saving a copy of your project BEFORE you start AND doing a save often because it is still in Beta.
I toggled full screen view while retopoflow was active and while taking a screenshot of my shark I seem to have activated a stack overflow or something because blender froze and i lost my project up to that point (I hadn’t saved so really I lost everything). I was goofing around with the tool most of that day so it was no biggy. BUT Lesson Learned!
I also recommend reporting the bugs you find since it is in beta.
Thank you, blanchsb ! I'm sure the notes will help some; I learned a few things so far, but it's a little tough to get used to.
I'd been watching the version 3 video, but freaked out because I couldn't even get the thing to work! I was so frustrated. I wasn't sure, though, about reporting the bug because I didn't know how to best formulate my issue. I should report it anyway, but I'll try and reproduce the problem. I'm glad I managed to get a screenshot, though it was only that cube one.
At the time, I couldn't make RF work when I just restarted Blender, so I just assumed I needed to restart my computer and refresh things. I'm glad that worked. We'll see what happens today. :)
I'm also a little daunted by how I'll need to make each feature work with my cat, since it's no longer fully symmetrical. I guess I'll just turn off the symmetry and see what happens. I'll recall your notes as well, and update here!
Yeah, your model is not symmetrical but it is kinda close for things like the face.
i think this is possible: You could probably do a work flow where you use symmetry on parts that are symmetrical and then turn it off for parts that aren’t.
that may be tricky since I have never done it personally.
modeling something like this teaches a lot of good lesssons for future modeling projects though.
like next time:
Do I want symmetrical from the beginning and then pose it at the end?
Making a plan for you the modeling process will go down:
Blockout -> sculpt -> retopo -> rig or shape key
obviously get more detailed plan for each situation but at least you carve a path early on and expectations are set.
I think this post of yours will be great training for others coming for reference.
Awesome! Yes, I'm certainly learning a lot. Next time I definitely want to keep things symmetrical until I'm completely done sculpting. This sculpt is more like a figurine, and that's because I was scared to do too much with it. I'm learning so much, and this retopology part is going to be something else! Ha ha!
It's a good idea for me to make plans, too. I just jumped in with everything, with this fear that I'd make mistakes. I made so many little ones that it doesn't scare me so much right now. Thanks! You're really helping me! I shall continue!
Hey Jazze , great work so far. Not spoke in ages , hope things are well with you . I look forward to seeing this piece progress. Keep up the good work!
I got a link through GitHub to a more updated version on RetopoFlow; works better now. Gee, I hope they can somehow put that in the Blender Market. Seems like anybody can access that right now.
Anyway, I'm using a practice mesh and trying out contours, and PolyPen for getting into the inside details. I just need to remember that retopology class to figure out what I should do to best close the retopology.
Oh, blanchsb , I confirmed that link on GitHub that I mentioned above, where the shift + middle mouse wheel seems to work now in decreasing the face count. I let them know in that issue. I'm glad I found that post, too! I was going to post the issue, myself! I'm nervous posting things on GitHub. I'm shy. Ha ha!
Nice notes blanchsb ! We're working on updating the keymap, so hopefully everything will be a bit more intuitive soon.
@jlampel - Thanks for chiming in......the ability to keymap is definitely my number 1 expected feature! Put a few extra cookie crumbs on that for me!
Yeah don’t worry about the girhub thing. It has always been there. They are still making money becuase people like you and me believe in the devs and support them creating the tool. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
thanks for adding your voice to the forum.