SubD examples and models

[Rich O Brien]

Could you imagine if SU had these type of tools!

I'd love it. But it would completely cripple the viewport and user experience.

[panixia]

@Rich-O-Brien yeah, in Sketchup is hard to imagine this kind of stuff working in realtime.

For simple objects sometime I do some basic retopology using Tools on Surface, or Artisan Knife or Intersecting geometry, then extract the edges, weld and run QFT "create quadfaces from wireframes".
Another workaround is to pre-triangurate (with qft diagonals) small patches and then use the "Drop To" plugin to trow/conform them over objects.
I usually do those tricks for smaller portions of models.

For massive retopology on heavy meshes like this (this model is 120k+ vertices) I usually run Topogun (whith QFT oj import/export) then import back the base topology to refine and detail it using VT, Artisan, Edge tools, Qft, fredo corner, JPP, Flowify and basically every plugin compatible with quads (and basically whatever tool and plugin as long as I use the pretriangulation trick).

I did a quick video to demonstrate this tecnique a few time ago..

[rv1974]

@panixia there are some awesome Vietnaniese plugins to copy\paste from\to SU\Max.
you could just paste to max and apply Retopo modifier (fully parametric, as we love it). Then continue in max or paste it back to SU

[panixia]

@rv1974 of course you have that Retopo modifier if you have a new version of Max..
But I'm still on older perpetual version..
Btw I have quadremesher, which is quite similar (but not as good as the modifier) and of course the "classic" manual retopology tools from 3dsMax in the "freeform" panel.

There's no need for Vietnamese Plugin because with QFT exporter/importer to move quad models back and forth between SU and Max.

The reason why I use Topogun most of the time instead of Max, is actually that the dynamic patches are sort of halfway between the speed of auto-retopo and the full control of manual retopo.
If I reacall correctly, only Blender has something similar in retopoflow, but the patches are limited to 3 or 4 sides.
In topogun you can have patches from 2 to whatewer-you-need sides, and they can be changed interactively.

[tuna1957]

@panixia Fantastic shoe ! Always amazed by your modeling.

[panixia]

@tuna1957 thank you so much!
I'm glad you enjoy this stuff

[rv1974]

@panixia

yeah they significantly improved Retopo Mod:
https://youtu.be/qtj3rvL2pUI?si=fgKIm9kbfUwoqCY_&t=1
also Conform is insanely good:
https://youtu.be/gQXM76Xy0qY?si=T-FUu8PxPFfmgU53

[panixia]

@rv1974 said in SubD examples and models:

yeah they significantly improved Retopo Mod:

yeah.. I saw that.. amazing.

@rv1974 said in SubD examples and models:

also Conform is insanely good:

I also saw the new conform modifier, but I believe this video shows an updated/improved version.. looks good.

[panixia]

Let's go

[Rich O Brien]

Yay! Wrap-R

Looks like a fun texturing project too!

[panixia]

@Rich-O-Brien indeed

I believe I've just found a new trick to speed up that IDmask baking thing
(just some SelectionToy trick to quickly detect hard edges and split up surfaces without having to select too many loops manually)

[panixia]

Addictive..

[Mike Amos]

Brilliant and inspiring. Thanks for posting this.

[panixia]

@Mike-Amos thank you.. I'll share the last couple of models when I'm done

[panixia]

I had to put the shoe modeling on hold because I had to do this for work today

[Rich O Brien]

flawless

[panixia]

@Rich-O-Brien flowify is the key for this sort of stuff..

[Mike Amos]

It would help to see the workflow for that last especially, if/when you have time.

[panixia]

@Mike-Amos well, in this case i started with a basic trace of photo references, I use components, so that I can use different photos for different pieces but then the components are nested in the main assembly so they end up in the right place..

They also gave me a pretty bad photoscan, so I used that just to intersect it with a plane and extract the basic profile of the seating.
I then smoothed the extracted curve with Curvizard and normalized it with Polyline Segmentor

Then I created a base grid for the pattern with the proper real world measurements.

I then created a repeated component with Curviloft Skin

Same for the buttons

And then create a different variation of that component for the sides

And another variation for the corners

then I joined all of them together.. please notice that In this stage I try to keep the quads as even as possible, because I'm gonna deform this stuff

Then I extracted the diagonals for the sewing and used "Lines to Tubes" with quite low poly geometry.. and of course I did some cleanup with quadface tools for the overlapping geometry which will not be seen.

I then created the base shape of the seating using Curviloft ad Quadface tools.. and extracted the grid were I need the upolstered thing..

Then I use the QuadfaceTools "Unwrap Grid" feature to extract a flat grid from that.. which has the exact same lenght and topology of the seating that I'm going to replace.. and here is the flowify rig setup that I used to send the geometry to the curved surface.

WARNING: you need to use "flowify without cuts" to avoid messy topolgy and keep quads.

From this stage, it was just a matter of stitching and tweaking.. with the usual VertexTools, QFT, Artisan shenanigans

Meanwhile I also added the studs.. I used profile builder assembly to place them and then manually repositioned some bits in the problematic areas

And this is the updated version with the studs..
I hope this was helpful to better understand the process..

It's a bit different every time.. the shoe and the skatepark used a quite different process.. and the other sofas I posted before of that, is another different story..

[HornOxx]

A Great work! – & thanks for the many pictures of the doing process.