Retopology

In previous blog posts, I have mentioned that I began to sculpt my models rather than box modeling. One problem that has occurred as a result is messy topology and a lot of verts. Because of this, if I ever want to animate these models, I would deal a lot of rigging problems. So, after some scrolling on Instagram, I have found that artists that do sculpt go over the sculpted model to create a neater lower poly model. I am mainly going to use humans as the center of my pieces and, luckily, there are various references that I can use to help me retopologize my models. Overall, when retopologizing it is usually done in circles, or on various muscle areas that should be highlighted on the model

However, the idea of just modeling over the sculpt I already made sounds time-consuming since I would have to get the vertices and faces to line up with the model and would have to get the same effect without using as many verts. Luckily, Blender has an add-on called BSurface that helps makes this process quicker and efficient.
 


How to use BSurface for Retopology: a Step by Step
1.Add the BSurface Add-on

2. Create a new mesh for the retopology

3. Set up the Grease Pen accordingly

4. In Edit Mode turn on snap(to faces), and turn off the following buttons beside it

5. Draw lines in the desired locations(make sure they are facing the same direction and on the model to prevent problems)

6. Go to the BSurface tab in Tools and press “Add Surface”

7. Next, you can modify the number of verts by playing around with “Cross” and “Follow”


When practicing this on a model, I found really easy to do and I was able to get a good part done fairly quickly. However, at some points, I did run into problems where the faces did not turn out nicely so when doing this I am going to have to err on the side of caution and not be too risky, just to keep things working.

Work Log:
Monday:Modeled cityscape
Tuesday:Textured cityscape
Wednesday:Textured cityscape
Thursday:Textured cityscape
Friday:Field Trip