Become a Topology PRO with these Five Tips

Five tips to level up your topology skills.
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Chapters:
00:00 Qaud cylinder types
03:31 Redirecting edge loops
04:48 E and N poles
07:33 Face topology
08:24 Deformable joints
#ASUS #ProArt #ProArtist #Creator #Intel

[@golemtabak1183]

Your way of explaining and showing what is said is exceptional. Thank you for the video!

[@AlernandExtra]

*For people having trouble in **4:10* If you want to snap the vertices like that you have to select Vertex Snapping (Hotkey = Ctrl + Shift + Tab), then you have to press G and X to lock it to that axis, and while holding Ctrl you have to put your cursor directly on a vertex in the Y axis (above or below the selected vertex). It should snap with that vertex but just in the X axis, then you repeat that with the Y axis, putting your cursor on a vertex on the X axis. I think it's important to always explain kinda this stuff since it can go unnoticed, I personally had to learn it by trial and error and took me like 10 minutes with some help from another comment. 😅

[@aniginaaa]

Lord bless you ❤

[@acceptablecasualty5319]

I remember when i discovered i could lock axes. Felt like a million bucks.

[@user-zw6gv3cu9u]

I love the blender community man thank you so much

[@serenelychaotic]

Very helpful and informative for this intermediate newbie. Thank you!

[@bassemb]

Thanks for another great video on topology. Your early videos on topology were a huge help in demystifying it to me. That laptop looks very interesting!

[@son12509]

Thank you. Loving these tips lately. Stuff I never thought about consciously before.

[@jamesc5801]

Fantastic. One of the few YT videos I've seen so clearly described on this topic. cheers

[@chuctanundaspiderbone5407]

This is excellent, Thank you. I failed to learn these concepts when I started out with Blender. It made my learning journey that much longer. Now I'm having to go back and unlearn lots of bad habits, so your clear & specific explanations are very useful. Thanks again.

[@CaritasGothKaraoke]

Except his philosophy is all wrongheaded and founded on the idea that poles are OK but tris are bad, which is just plain backwards.

[@mrlightwriter]

Aren't tris bad most of the time?

[@Ebani]

@@mrlightwriter Though engines like Unreal have their own solutions for quads, any game engine will transform any mesh you throw at it to tris meaning it doesn't matter for the most part, poles aka ngons are bad bc the game engine doesn't know how to deal with them as it can only deal with quads/tris so if you don't place them in flat topology they may be imported wrong bc the engine didn't know how to convert the ngons to tris and did it wrong.

[@carlosheraldosanchez8025]

Thank you. The finger's part is really useful, in fact, today I was thinking about different uses for the inset tool. I'm new in blender.

[@phischphood]

You can easily checker deselect by alt selecting the outer ring in vertex mode, checker deselect, then select the middle vertex, switch to edge mode, ctrl+x

[@lee2key]

2:00 You need to select vertecies around, then checker deselect them, then also add center vertex to the selection with Shift. And now press 2 to go to edge mode. Done

[@michaeltyers7336]

This way is better than my suggestion.

[@synapse349]

I learn more from your videos than i ever did in class. Thanks

[@michaelmckenna2462]

This is exactly what I was looking for, You are the only one who has it. Thank You so much.

[@My2Cents1]

Excellent tutorial that I never even though I needed. I swear it was just a random click on my KZbin feed. Thank you alghorithm. And thank you Decoded.

[@gumball1328]

The knuckle tip was actually very cool.

[@prestonparish]

Topology, pole theory.. really innovative, elegant concepts here, very cool

[@Geektownusa]

Super useful info. I’ll be using the tips in Lightwave.

[@CertifiedDoc]

1:46 You can also use *Poke faces* (Ctrl+F -> P) with the cap selected to make a triangle fan in one step. Poke Faces adds a vertex to the center of each selected face and creates a triangle fan around it.

[@alx7581]

Really helpful tips! Thank you for making this video!

[@LKDesign]

Another great submission. Though, you should really make use of the various shading models people also use for sculpting. These help you judge the surface of a mesh much better.

[@mopozuJIko]

Great tips! Always welcome to learn more ways to create correct topology when you need one:)

[@maryelljazz]

AMAZING STUFF THX!!!

[@josephparry]

2:00 after you inset the second time (the circle you collapse), just select the inner edges with circle select tool, then do checker deselect, ctrl+delete, then collapse the middle, much faster!

[@amruzaky4939]

Okay, that bit about joint is actually excellent. Thanks.

[@thepseudowhite]

Agree, but he missed 2 Edge Loops on Subdivision, so I will note what best, what not.

[@amruzaky4939]

​@@thepseudowhiteokay, then. Show me how it's done.

[@gbaroriquelme]

The joints tip is so useful!

[@michaeltyers7336]

If you create an inner ring of faces, Ctrl-Alt select the edges of that inner ring, then checker deselect and dissolve edges, you can then merge the remaining vertices and get quads in the middle.

[@WeyounSix]

Elaborate?

[@ubertcoolie8694]

Thanks 4 the great video

[@FunDumb]

So many handy tricks.

[@user-ro1cc8tz6d]

this was informative. thank you!

[@Jonah_Anthony]

Thank you so much! Your content is awesome.

[@Free90Fly]

When this showed up on my feed I was like "Oh here we go again, another random dude explaining basic stuff". I am so glad I still, those are very helpful tips and examples, really well done!

[@ThatAlexGuyIST]

I swear I've learnt more from this one tutorial about topology than all the others 😂

[@lolathepinky4857]

Tysm !!

[@sassuskrassus3166]

good information didnt know at all about the finger and face topology things

[@Valitzu777]

Funny that< I've come across this video now, recommended, WEEKS after I've searched youtube for the EXACT same thing, and no results, or subpar results. These tips are a GOD SEND, thank you so very much... having said that, two weeks later, and I've built a lot of models for my project, without these tips, sooo... :) Im in Engon hell :)

[@Mawral]

This was incredibly useful, thanks.

[@elbadrey]

Very useful, thank you, I had changed my style.

[@iataman]

great one

[@iulian_98]

Thank You

[@nicholaslarson3778]

Good stuff, thanks!

[@savagesauron4147]

Thanks for sharing. :)

[@Psyda]

Very interesting. I'd like for extra clarification between working topology, subdivision compatible topology, and final topology. Low poly optimized game assets also use a ton of obscure tricks to keep poly count down.

[@DEV_STUDIOS_3D]

Thanks a lot!

[@4115steve]

Great video, thank you.

[@DECODEDVFX]

You are welcome!

[@None32100]

2:00 you actually could bevel the middle vert(Ctrl+Shift+B), use edge ring (either any selecting method you want), checker deselect, dissolve, merge middle beveled ring at center. Much less frustraiting

[@husaruser6594]

great! make more topology tips !!

[@JorgeGarcia-ix7er]

the last tip is so usefull thanks

[@Joenyoshua]

Uff bro thank you i learned alot a things dude 😃🖐

[@matslarsson5988]

Excellent! (Said in the voice of Mr Burns)

[@nicholasspidel1471]

Maybe I just missed it, but I don't think he mentioned where E and N poles get their names: the letter E has 5 edges while the letter N has 3 edges! That always helped me remember which was which.

[@christyisacunt5103]

im so happy i found this video! this stuff is the hardest part to grasp for me

[@Tiki_Media]

I feel like it is necessary to call out a little gem of a tip that I didn't know about and maybe others don't either. 4:10 to snap the vertex to align to the ones around it, select the vertex, use G, X to constrain it to the X-axis, then hold CTRL and hover over an aligned Y vert. Behold, it snaps!! Repeat for the Y direction using G, Y, then hold CTRL and hover over an aligned X vert. All these years I didn't know about this handy trick. :-} Thanks Mr. D!

[@DECODEDVFX]

Yeah ctrl snapping is great. I use it constantly. It works in object mode too, if you want to align objects with another surface. 👍

[@AlernandExtra]

For some reason when I'm doing this the snapping works weird. It snaps, but not with the vertices, it remains a little crooked on the Y axis

[@angryvaginasfromspace7718]

you can snap with ctrl what? WHAT??

[@user-vr8nd4iv4i]

Nice video

[@raymobula]

Great video. Any news on the laptop. Been eyeing this one, or the equivalent by MSI. Thx 😊

[@theulfhednar2655]

3:26 Seeing how to make a screwhead already haha. Just need the screw's bottom part :D

[@MonsterJuiced]

Here's a topology tip that saved me a ton of time and my UV's Instead of doubletapping G to slide the vertex or edge. Triple tap G and get full freedom of movement then use any axis to lock your direction if required. This is also nondestructible to your texture/ UV's

[@threadlington3430]

But pressing G three times is just the same as only pressing it once!!!

[@MonsterJuiced]

@threadlington3430 no it isn't. Pressing it once just moves, which warps the texture. Twice is slide mode. Three times is free-form slide

[@threadlington3430]

@MonsterJuiced It really is not! There is no third mode. "g" to freely rransform. "gg" to go to edge slide mode. Pressing g a third time just goes back to free transform. There is not an extra mode! (Edit - I was wrong. There is a third press of g which works as the tip says!)

[@MonsterJuiced]

@@threadlington3430 But there is though I use it. Do you have loop tools plugin enabled? I'll check what allows me to do it because this thing has been a life saver for me for the past few months

[@MonsterJuiced]

@@threadlington3430 I think youtube removed my comment because it has a link in it. Trying again: watch?v=ZyrZZqpbFNA That video will show you the third G option

[@stermangor]

Very great video

[@WyMustIGo]

At 2:00 you say that "Checker Deselect" will not work, but it DOES work. What you need to do is select that ring, and then go into vertex mode and use "Checker Deselect", then SHIFT select the center vert and you can dissolve the edges.

[@user-od2ld3jg9z]

Easy way to choose every other edge: 1. Choose 1st edge 2. Choose 3rd edge 3. Press Ctrl + Shift + Numpad(+) That's a shortcut for the "Choose Next". This also works for choosing every 3rd, every 4th and etc

[@mach16j]

In terms of making a standard cylinder there is actually nothing wrong with a triangle fan. When you subdivide the structure at 2:00 will be generated by the subdivision anyway. It's much faster to use 2 control loops instead of selecting every other edge and dissolving them. It also uses less geometry than some of the other methods which will start adding up fast in your high polys.

[@Thermo_D]

remember, edge and vertex creasing is also good if you dont want to add extra edges to your mesh.

[@MrOiram46]

That’s only if the model stays in Blender. If you need to bring it into other softwares, the creased parts will not look creased in other softwares.

[@ianmcglasham]

Hello Geordie! I use 6-poles all the time. I think they are optimal in several circumstances. (I'm from South Shields!)

[@carlosfranca2602]

For which circumstances you use them most? Which would be the recommended moment to use them? Truly curious noob here.

[@ianmcglasham]

@carlosfranca2602 Howdy carlos. There are some cubic forms (like dice with rounded faces) which use 6-spoked piles on the corners. When extruding a checkerboard arrangement of inset faces they are the best topology and they are the only sensible topology available when 3 axes are extruded in 3 separate directions (happens all the time). There is one type of sphere - kind of half way between a uv sphere and a quadsphere which uses them too. They do crop up occasionally(normally on corner of less than 90 degree angles which use them very efficiently too. Their usage is generally a little more advanced but sometimes they are the best solution!

[@fortheloveofcheese5723]

does loops always have to flushed to x,y,z? can you manually place them?

[@TheLofren]

Remember topology depends on final use, dont blindly follow rules and instead learn to adapt Perfect square quads are not the only right way to model and oftentimes tris can be good

[@Ebani]

Quads aren't as important as the edge loops themselves but this only applies for "organic" movement, background/props or anything inorganic can use any kind of topology for the most part.

[@foreverkurome]

Blender is fun, you can make stupid mods like play as your fav character in your fav game. It's stupid until you realize some places think it's neat on a job app. Had no idea fooling around in game would be quite this beneficial. Eye opener for sure.

[@gottagowork]

I sometimes use triangle fan to top off a flat end of a cylindrical object, without the points being merged, in order to have the easiest to work with (square) UVs for tangent use when dealing with anisotropic shading. How would you approach getting good tangents and seamless transition on such a work piece using more "proper" topology? Note that UV driven tangents are *NOT* smoothed across the seam like normals are. And according to developers, "it's a feature, not a bug" 🤦There are procedural texturing reasons I need UVs in this weird layout too, so just assume the tangent has to be UV driven. How would you approach this?

[@hamzathewalkingalive2714]

Usually i start with a 6sides cylinder when i know i am going to SD anyway, keeping the typology simple to deal with and the final result will stay the same.

[@mitopaler5574]

Very useful even if am a max user

[@ephexa]

Oooh getting sponsored by the big ones eh? Congrats :) 🎉

[@MightyElemental]

Very interesting video. Shame I know nothing about modelling and have no use for this 💀

[@boisbois2947]

Hey, I'm learning how to use Blender and making 3D graphics in general and this might be a dumb question, but should all faces be quads and if so why? From my personal experience it makes it harder to apply materials to faces that aren't quads, but is there something more to it and how to avoid doing it when making complex models (like human characters)?

[@bronchiel]

i've just started out myself, but from the many mistakes i already made, i noticed that having quads is good because there won't be weird unnecessary sharp edges when you subdivide it, and if you decide to transform quads into tris at some point, it won't cause that problem either. i think they're just good because they make way for clean and smooth surfaces, plus what you said about easier application of materials

[@odinniereece4096]

@ 2:08 u can select 2 edges and then press CTRL+SHIFT+"numpad+"

[@lois3356]

How about good CONE topology? the tip has many lines converging

[@Ig_ma]

Спасибо большое

[@algi1]

Wow, this is magic.

[@Levi_Zacharias]

Remember, an inset is just an extrude being scaled instead of translated

[@ianmcglasham]

No it's not.

[@Levi_Zacharias]

@@ianmcglasham im genuinely curious what the difference is. I learned it in blender, but transferred to maya for work. Maya doesn't have an inset function, so I've been using extrudes exclusively and cant think of a case where it didn't work

[@ianmcglasham]

@Levi_Zacharias it's a complicated area! An inset is the scaling of new vertices relative to the individual vertex normals of a periimiter (or to the average of the normals of attached edges when edge rail is used but it would cloud this already complex discussion too much for a quick answer!) Whereas an extrude and scale calculates the new positions of extruded vertices In relation to the median of the area selected. Consider taking all of the faces of the letter "S" and insetting them. A border will be created with new edges travelling along the original vertex normals. Now consider extruding and then scaling these faces. It doesn't work because of changes of direction around the shape. Maya handles it bizarrely by having the offset option in extrude, but it is not nearly as powerful as blenders method. Max can do it but maya cannot. In advanced modelling it becomes really important to understand the various methods of insetting and there are some clever ways of forcing blender to do a hybrid of the two by creating temporary angular non manifold constructs which force overflow conditions in the code. As I said, it is complicated!!! I'll make a video at some point!

[@eitantal726]

@@Levi_Zacharias Practical difference: Insets may apply to individual faces. Extrude applies to all. Imagine a cylinder: select all its faces. You can inset them all together, effectively creating a thinner cylinder, OR, inset them on individual mode, effectively creating a ribbed Greek-column-thing

[@jwalster9412]

If I didn't use Blender before I would have definitely had an idea what you are talking.

[@spooderderg4077]

Funnily enough, the ngon was the best topology for a flat circular surface. All these other methods create unnecessary triangles whereas an ngon will always simplify to the minimum required. All those other forms are only better if you change the shape in some way or enable subdivisions without using creasing. Also quadding up a triangle fan is objetively always a bad idea. If you want a flat shape just use an ngon, and if you want anything in the shape to deform then replacing the triangle fan with a rounded grid is better.

[@noyz-anything]

what if you have a square texture that you want to put on the cylinder without much distortion? (that's the only use case i can possibly think of)

[@CaritasGothKaraoke]

people need to stop with the “all quads” rubbish. Triangles aren’t a problem in a mesh; POLES are. sticking a vertex halfway along one edge of a tri doesn’t make it better topology just because it’s a quad now.

[@8p8c50]

Why do you think that's rubbish?

[@SparnaOfYomi]

@@8p8c50sometimes it isn’t worth the effort. Like in hard surface modeling, it’s not AS important, especially if you’re just modeling a quick concept. Soft body modeling and “final drafts” of hard surface modeling should definitely prioritize quads though. Working with quads is generally easier. Tldr, quads are more or less important depending on the case, so you shouldn’t rip your hair out over every little tri or ngon. That being said, quads can make a major impact.

[@sanoruuransu]

​@@8p8c50 some times triangls give me less shading issues than quads

[@lt.facepalm9566]

sometimes you specifically need to arbitrarily declare where the quad should fold otherwise youll get inconsistent results in mesh deformation or game engine imports, different programs interpret triangulation differenly, which isnt a problem if your quads are flat. but sometimes it cannot be that way. and creating quads with vertices too close to one another is a recipe for clipping and z-fighting. i had it once where I had to do this for a low poly chips bag for it to be smooth throughout towards the corners

[@Bleak1302]

what are poles

[@TridentTrue101]

I dont know how I got here but now Im interested. Why are triangles bad? I thought computer graphics was all about the number of triangles.

[@fael097]

wow, none of the thumbnail examples are good topology solutions for a cylinder cap. good job /s

[@vk8a8]

1:55 why not select two and then ctrl+=?

[@user-bp4kf5zd2q]

buenazo

[@Structed2]

Whenever your using gridfill to get rid of those n-gons just fill it normally and poke faces.

[@lbpdluis]

i have seen so many 3d artist making videogame assets with the most unoptitmized polycount ever because the "all quads mindset" so: hard surface non deformable object: yes, use triangles character or object meant to be deformed in any way: no, avoid triangles

[@user-wh4wm3mw7l]

Sometimes I cant delete a vertice or edge without afecting other faces. Why this happen?

[@bastionshadowpaw]

aight im sorry to be this asshole but... I bought their previous version of the proart studiobook. The graphics card had quite some problems on nvidia's side keeping up with updates and their keyboard broke down really quickly. apart from that, hardware wise is the finest machine I've ever used and if they ever thought of stocking the keyboard parts i need it would be a 10/10.

[@pauliusmscichauskas558]

While knowing how to get a nice quad flow is a nice skill to have, consider that in most cases, doing topology that looks good is a huge waste of time and work has to get done. Especially if your work doesn't leave Blender. Just keep an N-gon for the cylinder and move on.

[@Sodomantis]

Just keep the tips coming, you beautiful polygonal god bear!

[@Anonymous_giraffe]

1:40 Or just use the Poke Faces command

[@DECODEDVFX]

Yes, that's another way to make a triangle fan cap.

[@marcapouli7805]

I knew these tricks for years know, but I'm still unable to create anything because of topology. I guess I can create a cube

[@DavidSalamanca]

best fucking video in the world, bro you are literally Jesus Christ

[@davidjacobs8558]

polygons with odd numbered sides can not be converted to quads, so don't even try. you will need to merge vertices or divide segments to make them even numbered polygons before proceding to convert them to quads.

[@Pockeywn]

the second solution for the cylinder is 😬 in this specific case the cluster in the middle won't be a problem because it's on a flat plane but that's not a habit you should get into edit: oh ow he actually got really in depth with poles later in the video I should've watched further but dude? still whyd you show them that? that'll confuse people

[@DavidBichoHasBeard]

"so, I'm just gonna use the Snapping Tools to align this with the other vertices." BOOM. What kind of magic were you doing there? The snapping tool icon wasn't even activated?

[@DECODEDVFX]

Set snapping to vertex and hold ctrl

[@trelligan42]

#FeedTheAlgorithm

[@djtomoy]

I’m already a pro

[@spiralhalo]

I feel like I'm missing the memo. What's the point of quads if they aren't rectangular?

[@mrlightwriter]

Edge flow?

[@fadedtiger3181]

Topology is pretty hard to get a handle on.

[@Mr.McWatson]

Dumb questions: what happens if a ngon is in the model? What happens if tris and quads are in the same model? Why do we want to avoid them?

[@SeonasStudio]

Blender is excellent at handling ngons and other non-quad topology, but if you import the model into other software like zbrush or a 3d printing slicer for example, you’re going to run into issues. Error messages, holes in the mesh, printing failures etc. Best practice is to avoid non-quads from the start.

[@Mr.McWatson]

@@SeonasStudio Thanks. What about mixed tris and quads, why is that bad? Just due to unwrapping issues?

[@SeonasStudio]

@@Mr.McWatson well technically every quad in a mesh that gets imported into a game engine or so gets converted into tris, the issue is tris that aren’t part of a quad can lead to strange lighting artifacts. Sometimes they’re impossible to get rid of, so you can hide them in less noticeable places or bits that don’t move with a rig so they’ll have less effect on the appearance.

[@secondskins-nl]

@@Mr.McWatson I'm a noob as well but if you're modelling and you use nice quads editing a model is also way easier since you can select loops etc. If your model is a bit sloppy and has also lots of tris they break the loops you can select so easily and it's harder to change anything. I don't do any commercial modelling but I try to work as nice as my current knowledge is. If I now sometimes get old models I wanted to change a bit it's most of the time faster just to start over.

[@noobandfriends2420]

4:50 You really need to emphasize that it's not that "poles aren't necessarily bad," but that they're necessary and to not be afraid of them. You even go on further into the video to talk about the face and joints and how you should add edge loops, but you don't make mention of the massive number of poles that creates. For example a single finger with proper edge flow will have 14 poles. Ignoring the feet, you have 280 poles from just the fingers alone. I've felt like I can't figure out topology because all the meshes you see online to try to learn from are filled with a massive amount of poles. If I'm being told to avoid poles but all I see are poles, then I must conclude those meshes are wrong. When in reality the "avoid poles when necessary" advice an impediment to learning when I don't know what's necessary to begin with. A proper human base mesh should have over 320 poles with proper edge flow. This is a significant number.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

4:45 I always get annoyed by the use of the term “pole” for this. “Pole’ denotes some kind of discontinuity, but there is nothing like that here. The mathematical term is “extraordinary vertex”, which you can shorten to “EV”. Also note that you can hide any EV, not just 3-verts and 5-verts, by moving them to a flat area of the subsurf.

[@DECODEDVFX]

I know what you mean but pole is the industry term. 🤷‍♂️