Retopo A Head with Draw Mesh

Hi Everyone,

I made a video of retopo a head in Nvil, using some new features of Draw Mesh (if your interested, this is the thread: Draw Mesh Tool New Function Test)

https://youtu.be/4MAEUA1LnjU

I use Draw Mesh for almost the entire process (in the video, you can see the Draw Mesh Panel is active most of the time), it's really nice to be able to just "draw" the topology, before this tool, I would switch to vertex mode to tweak the vertices, switch to edge mode to extrude edges, etc etc.. using all kinds of traditional poly modeling techniques, and it involves a lot of clicking and hotkey pressing.

With Draw Mesh, I can operate entirely with my Stylus instead of my mouse, that reduce a lot of strains from mouse clicking.

This video is not really a tutorial but more of a demo. If you are interested in learning Draw Mesh, please check out RubberDuck's NVil Draw Mesh Tutorial

I try to explain more what tool I use and how I setup my hotkeys.. I will update here again.

Edit:
Before this I also made a similar demo, it took about 1 hour and 15 mins, compared to 42 mins this time, it's a big improvement. There are a few reasons, one being I adopt another stragety I saw from Ilya Gagarin's video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO2jHkywdW0). He shows how to start with bigger blocks, to reduce the amount of polys that you have to manage. Another reason is the improvement to Draw Mesh, now there are some new features built in and I no longer have to keep switching tools. Another reason is I have practiced on this head countless times already hahaha..

These are the tools I use in the video and their hotkeys:

 Main Tools
--------------------------------------------------------------
Draw Mesh M
Draw Mesh cut \
Draw Mesh Brush Right Ctrl
Draw Mesh Tweak Right Shift
Undo and Redo  Left and Right

Apps --> ScrollLock
   (Pressing Apps will triggers ScrollLock)
, --> Capslock

Switch to vertex mode '

Clear Selection Enter
Esc --> End

 Accessed through Buttons
--------------------------------------------------------------
*Smooth Brush using Relax
Show Symmetry Plane
Select Ngon

 Poly Modeling Hotkeys that I use near the end
--------------------------------------------------------------
Increase/Decrease Subdivision C/V
Fill Jagged Border Edges J
Fill Hole Shift + F
Quad Cap Ctrl + Shift + Q
Collapse vertices Alt + D
Threashold Weld Shift + W
Delete Ctrl + Shift + D
Ring Select Alt + R
Space Loop Ctrl + Shift + Space
Add loop Shift + C

Viewport Hotkeys
--------------------------------------------------------------
Toggle Transparent Alt + 3
Adjust Focal Length Alt + F

I use Autohotkey (https://www.autohotkey.com/) for some of the keys:

\ --> Shift + 3 (Mesh_Cut)
   (Pressing \ will triggers Shift + 3)
Right Ctrl --> Shift + 1 (Mesh_Tweak)
Right Shift --> Shift + 2 (Mesh_Brush)
, --> Capslock (used to create patch)
Enter --> 0 --> Clear Selection
End --> Esc

I set them up to make it convinient for left-handed. When I retopo, my left hand is holding the Stylus and my right hand is at the right side of spacebar, like so:



So some of the default keys are a bit far to reach for my right hand, that's why I use Autohotkey to remap some keys.

, Enter and End are easier to understand, they are alternate to CapsLock 0 and Esc. 0 is setup to Clear Selection in Nvil.

\ Right Ctrl Right Shift and Apps key are a bit hard to explain, because they need to trigger multi keystrokes. Mesh_Tweak, Mesh_Brush and Mesh_Cut are accessed frequently by me, but the default hotkey is multi keys, and there are number keys to each of them. I find it hard to get used to so I simplify the hotkeys:

Mesh_Tweak Shift+1/0 --> Right Ctrl
Mesh_Brush Shift+2/9 --> Right Shift
Mesh_Cut Shift+3/8 --> /

I am also using Apps key (which sends ScrollLock keystroke) as a state control so the keys are only going to works when ScrollLock is turned on. The keys need to become normal keys outside of Draw Mesh. So everytime I enter Draw Mesh, I will check if my ScrollLock key is light up, if it's not I will press Apps key which is also same and pressing ScrollLock. Outside of Draw Mesh I will turn off ScrollLock using Apps key, so Right Ctrl will remain Right Ctrl, i.e. pressing it won't trigger Shift + 1

This is my Autohotkey script:

Code: [Select]

;
; ------------------------------
;  Nvil
; ------------------------------
#IfWinActive ahk_exe NVil 1.0.exe

end::Esc
AppsKey::ScrollLock

; Retopo
,::CapsLock ; for Draw Mesh
Enter:: Send [color=#9fcd32][tt]0[/tt][/color][color=#9fcd32][tt]Enter[/tt][/color]
m:: Send [color=#9fcd32][tt]m[/tt][/color][color=#9fcd32][tt]ScrollLock[/tt][/color]

RShift Up:: Send [color=#9fcd32][tt]RShift up[/tt][/color][color=#9fcd32][tt]2 up[/tt][/color]
RCtrl Up:: Send [color=#9fcd32][tt]RCtrl Up[/tt][/color][color=#9fcd32][tt]RShift up[/tt][/color][color=#9fcd32][tt]1 up[/tt][/color]
\ Up:: Send [color=#9fcd32][tt]\ Up[/tt][/color][color=#9fcd32][tt]RShift up[/tt][/color][color=#9fcd32][tt]3 up[/tt][/color]

#IfWinActive

#If (WinActive("ahk_exe NVil 1.0.exe") and (not GetKeyState("ScrollLock", "T")))
RCtrl::RCtrl
RShift::RShift
\::#If

#If (WinActive("ahk_exe NVil 1.0.exe") and GetKeyState("ScrollLock", "T") and GetKeyState("RShift"))
RCtrl::RCtrl
#If

#If (WinActive("ahk_exe NVil 1.0.exe") and GetKeyState("ScrollLock", "T"))
RShift:: Send [color=#9fcd32][tt]RShift down[/tt][/color][color=#9fcd32][tt]2 down[/tt][/color]
\::Send [color=#9fcd32][tt]RShift down[/tt][/color][color=#9fcd32][tt]3 down[/tt][/color]
#If

#If (WinActive("ahk_exe NVil 1.0.exe") and GetKeyState("ScrollLock", "T") and (not GetKeyState("RShift")))
RCtrl:: Send [color=#9fcd32][tt]RShift down[/tt][/color][color=#9fcd32][tt]1 down[/tt][/color]
#If
Github Gist
https://gist.github.com/miica37/514994883dd829340624e316bf1a9813

Sorry if that sounds confusing, feel free to ask my anything!

Hi,

I made another video on setting up Nvil for retopo... (this time it's really rough and not edited very well because of limited time that I can spend in these few days, sorry about that)

https://youtu.be/8kQVYtrw3jE