New Tool Test "Draw Mesh"

So far I have recorded three hours of video material (I'm halfway through retopo process, object-wise. No audio - mind you). Do you guys want this as multiple (probably more than 25) video clips or as a one huge and long, long, and even longer video?

This huge, consolidated video takes (obviously) a long time to set up in Fusion properly (trimming, transitions, alignment, etc.), and by a magnitude longer to render (on my six-core). Especially with a slight time acceleration of 1.5x or 2x which I intended to apply on the final video to shorten its length.

If you guys are can promise me that you will sit in your sofas with a pack of beer, and watch some random guy retopologizing a snail for five hours, I'll do the long video. Otherwise, you'll gonna get a series of short videos, one for each object that constitutes this one-tooth mollusk.

Hi rubberDuck!

Thanks a lot for your efforts!

I would say to go for a series of short videos.

Thanks again and have a nice day.

Marco (mkdm)

So far I have recorded three hours of video material (I'm halfway through retopo process, object-wise. No audio - mind you). Do you guys want this as multiple (probably more than 25) video clips or as a one huge and long, long, and even longer video?

If you guys are can promise me that you will sit in your sofas with a pack of beer, and watch some random guy retopologizing a snail for five hours, I'll do the long video. Otherwise, you'll gonna get a series of short videos, one for each object that constitutes this one-tooth mollusk.

RubberDuck, thanks for going to so much effort on this, much appreciated !

I think 1 video that just shows short segments (a couple of minutes each) of the different draw mesh tools you used to tackle certain parts of the model would be the way to go. So kind of a highlights video. I would keep it 20 minutes or less. If that is a lot of work to put together then a series of short videos would be great.

Kevin, can you try to use the Draw Mesh tool in non-retopo mode when you make models from background images? In non-retopo mode, if you draw a line which goes through snapping points or across other existing lines, the program will know how to put the line in camera depth.

Thanks Istonia, I'm looking forward to using Draw Mesh for a lot of modelling other than just retopo.

I just tried it with patch with retopo turned off and instead of using splines I used draw mesh and got bizarre results ?



Note the last image shows the mesh looking at it from another view which is different than the first two images.

Did you use the Patch tool for this?
By default, the program will use viewport camera projection to process the mesh forming. So if you have those lines overlaps each other in the view, you won't get a good result. But if you are using Patch, Bridge or Extrude, the program has enough information to form the mesh without projection process. To achieve this, before you release mouse button, hit Enter key. These tips are described in the tooltips.

I used the patch tool of draw mesh for this.

I also tried rotating the view to more or less a top view so lines didn't overlap and got a better result. The yellow wireframe view of the patch looked good but after hitting the ENTER key to generate the mesh it had lots of errors where the polygons are close to 90° to the view.

Did you hit the Enter key before mouse button released? If not try again.

Thanks working perfect now as long as no lines overlap in the view.

I was previously releasing the mouse and then hitting ENTER.

If you hit Enter before mouse button releasing, it doesn't matter what view angle is. It is not view dependent.

Thanks working perfect now as long as no lines overlap in the view.

I was previously releasing the mouse and then hitting ENTER.

I know what you meant now. You were talking about the 4 border lines.

IStonia, please check your PM inbox.

Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Sep-21-17.rar

One new feature.  MASK. Mask provides the way to ignore some line intersection points in line intersecting testing. To create a mask, press down LMB then tap Alt key. A mask can be moved by dragging it. To remove, RMB. The size is customizable, Edit > Preference > General > Draw mesh mask size.

Kevin, can you try to use the Draw Mesh tool in non-retopo mode when you make models from background images? In non-retopo mode, if you draw a line which goes through snapping points or across other existing lines, the program will know how to put the line in camera depth.

Thanks Istonia, I'm looking forward to using Draw Mesh for a lot of modelling other than just retopo.

I just tried it with patch with retopo turned off and instead of using splines I used draw mesh and got bizarre results ?



Note the last image shows the mesh looking at it from another view which is different than the first two images.

You can now use the Mask tool to fixe the problem.

Hi Istonia

I created a mask and made it big enough in preferences to cover the area of the intersecting lines. But CAPS LOCK no longer works to create the patch with the mask in place.

I assume the red box of mask should cover the area where the intersecting lines are ?

Having to change the size of the mask in preference is not very intuitive to use. It would be better if the user could drag out the size of the mask on screen.

Its a great addition to the draw mesh toolset but I'm not really sure how this tool works ?

Can you show where you placed the mask in a pic.

You don't have to have that mask that big.

You have masked two intersection points. You only need to mask the one where the bottom line intersects with the left line between the two ends of the left line. That is the one which confused the program.