Manual Retopology in Blender- Tips and Tricks

NOTE: This video by Zach Reinhardt is very informative as well, I highly recommend watching: • How to set up Retopolo...
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In this quick video I go over a few built-in retopology tools that will make your life easier without having to resort to any addons.
There are very few good retopology addons for blender, and those that are somewhat acceptable usually cost $$, even though they hardly improve on the existing toolset.
This tutorial is aimed at beginner and intermediate level blenderheads. If you practice these techniques regularly, you can become pretty fast and efficient at manual retopology in blender. Good luck :)

[@vezonialithium4474]

When it comes to modifiers, I usually have them in this order during retopology that helps alot, -mirrior (depending on object) -Subsurface -Shrinkwrap adding the subsurface modifier to be before shrinkwrap grabs more detail from the sculpt while roughing out main loops =3

[@invalidacess]

i'd say i gotten way better at retopo without spending days on something so simple as retopo. I sped my workflow much faster and now i just need to learn a good rule of thumb for how many faces to have on the sides so that whenever they meet they meet without a problem. Thanks for the upload

[@pauljs75]

I'd say it still doesn't hurt to have some add-ons for this process: *Bsurfaces* - does a lot of cool stuff using the grease-pencil. *F2* - a slightly smarter version of the face fill shortcut. *loop tools* - some extra commands for controlling and shaping edge loops. Relaxing flows, etc. Also retopo mesh reworking isn't just for making lower-poly versions of sculpted organic forms, but it also comes in handy for blended and smooth contour hard surface objects. Instead of sculpting, you model out a template object that's smoothed, and then you can model your parts over the template and they all conform and flow into a shape smoothly. This means cuts and various reworking of edge-flows without altering the underlying form. I'm doing car modeling this way and finding it works quite well.

[@RicoCilliers]

quite true :) I've personally tried many retopo addons, but I've always sort of come back to the built in tools, as they work quite well for me. Still, I definitely wouldn't discourage people from trying out some of those you mentioned :)

[@monatsend]

I agree as well. But I wont count F2 and loop tools as retopo addons. They are a very good enhancement for every modeling workflow. I love them so much and cannot think them out of my daily modeling!

[@blenderratt3692]

I've had a dragon that I created in Sculptris a while ago but have been dreading retopoligzing. Now thanks to you it just might get done. Thanks a ton.

[@Zev_Reef]

Don't forget about RetopoFlow being free, also you can use the Grease Pencil to retopologize (Bsurfaces) github.com/CGCookie/retopoflow

[@etchasketch222]

Awesome tips man! That shrink wrap for the rescue!

[@solidvisuals]

Thanks...great tips and tricks, always like seeing someones in depth study of options.

[@uvbakesandbeyond7049]

Thanks so much I did not know about the ctrl + left click on a second vertex to highlight four vertices in total :D

[@MrMiseWixe]

Great tut! Not to long, easy to follow and no off-topic gibberish. Keep it up!

[@bobcoughlan929]

Retopology....an Ancient Alien skill. At least, that's what it seems like sometimes. Even Giorgio Tsoukalos agrees. This video brings it down to earth. Thanks.

[@RicoCilliers]

hhehe yeah! glad if it helps a bit

[@elizabethhamilton1166]

Your video, Rico, has helped me to solidify my retopo skills. Thank you. I subscribed in anticipation of more good stuff.

[@flaviomonteiro1414]

You are a pretty nice sculptor sir... I can only image how time and efort was needed to be that good... Thx a lot for sharing...

[@MaryFazzolari]

Great tutorial Rico! Clean and tidy as always! helpful!

[@spex357]

Excellent tips

[@TheBollocksPictures]

Great stuff bro, keep the videos coming!

[@RicoCilliers]

This tutorial is aimed at beginner and intermediate level blenderheads. If you practice these techniques regularly, you can become pretty fast and efficient at manual retopology in blender. Good luck :) EDIT: Zacharias Reinhardt also made a very informative video about setting up your Retopos. Watch it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJmoeaeBfZpoi9U

[@qwees5457]

Rico Cilliers thank you 💜

[@RicoCilliers]

:) no problem

[@stefanocarlocelsi1705]

rico another trick that i use when making faces is to generate only the edges and selecte everything and click f that works too

[@RicoCilliers]

Stefano Carlo Celsi ah yes indeed. :D I forgot about that one. Great tip!

[@fedormatantsev6109]

Its kind of weird to use bridge edge loops from space bar search; It could be found easily in the "w" menu:)

[@emli5987]

Thank you, great help. I'm a fan of your work Rico, wow, so talented.

[@RicoCilliers]

glad it helps. thank you!

[@IVLIVSCAMILLVS]

Great tutorial!

[@jeremybot]

I like the granular feature by feature breakdown. Helps understand all the little pitfalls that can be encountered using these common practices. Also, I didn't know that the "F" (fill) would automatically find the next pair of verts to make a full polygon. I assumed that was a feature unique to the F2 addon. Good to know!

[@kandysman86]

So glad I found this vid

[@HatBuiNho]

Thanks a lot, extremely useful for me!

[@AlimayoArango]

Excellent video. Thank you.

[@da_roachdogjr]

Very good tutorial thanks man.

[@RaphaelCatossi]

Great tips! Helped me a lot, subscribed!

[@sergeyandreev2599]

Really awesome video, thank you)

[@trikpikmusic]

tanks man, plane and simple! I love it!

[@minsin56]

your puns are horrible

[@BoogerBrain]

Very nice!

[@antapology4502]

Nice tutorial

[@MoiBlackInk]

Thanks a lot man, this video was super useful :)

[@Charalampiii]

Great tutorial, really nice explained! Thanks :-)

[@benjaminrdz6085]

Very good! You save me a lot of work! congrats a very well explain trick

[@Monstah7]

Great vid.. Thanks..

[@MrBlendercross]

... by all the time i am using blender , i didn't know the that f trick ! Cool - thx man !!

[@annatutova]

Thanks) It was useful

[@dirtfriend]

lmfao love the contrast between a metal as fuck dragon skull and happy cheery bouncy background music

[@RicoCilliers]

That's just how I roll. Im a man of many contrasts. ;)

[@CGGroovy]

Great dragon head !

[@RicoCilliers]

thanks!

[@jefffsfff1783]

Damn trolls pressing the thumbs down. A-holes. Awesome video. Thank you.

[@shamanik1320]

Love the Girgio meme picture, and that cheerful music while looking at a gnarly dragon skull felt a bit weird lol. Don't forget for the f fill automatic functionality you need to enable the F2 addon. But good stuff, also was kinda curious if any use to using all the snapping options plus the shrinkwrap modifier. I'll have to try it out since I haven't done a whole lot of retopo yet. I really want to get that retopoflow 2.0 addon from cgcookie someday.

[@twitte0king]

very clear video!!!, i wish i watch it 2 years ago, by i self learnt it, its pretty alright!! may i dare suggest youinclude the mirror modifier for the project invidual element? this should eliminate the screen space projection error. thats how i do it... cheers

[@RicoCilliers]

thanks :) Yes normally I also use the mirror modifier. I should have mentioned that ;)

[@twitte0king]

Rico Cilliers good job all in all... maybe a quick caption about the mirror would be enough!

[@AlanDarkworld]

Good explanation right there. If you had to choose a (semi-)automated solution or plug-in, which one would it be?

[@RicoCilliers]

I would probably go with retopo-flow, it can be found on Blender Market, but unfortunately it's not free.

[@Fellinline]

Question. When retopologizing do you need to follow the creases in your sculpt almost exact or is it not a major concern if they're not being heavily distorted by your rig? I'm retopping an ecorche type sculpt and trying to follow the patterns of the muscles as best I can.

[@RicoCilliers]

in general, it's advisable to follow the muscles as best you can, yeah, but this is not always possible, depending on how detailed you want to go with the retopo, so usually I just follow the creases of the main, large, well visible muscles.. the smaller creases are ignored, because they can be baked onto the lowres mesh using Normal baking. :) I recommend checking out a few retopology images on google to get a rough idea of how it should go.

[@shambach]

Very nice man.. I'm a big fan.. can you please give tips and tricks for a complete character modelling.. I made some.. but it's always a pain.. can you please make it easier.. your the best

[@RicoCilliers]

thanks :) I'm definitely planning more character videos for you guys.

[@othmaneeljacfi3747]

did you try to do the snap technique with individual orign step?

[@commissarkitty3553]

Hey Ricko great tutorial man, I was wondering if you could post timelapse videos of your retopology process plus time lapse of your sculpting (preferably with blender) :)

[@RicoCilliers]

sure thing man :) I'll be sure to upload some blender retopology and sculpting timelapses in the future

[@commissarkitty3553]

thanks, bro you da best :)

[@leatherandpoemscharmyman5774]

rico, when you export from zbrush to blender , you export a zremesher object? or decimated ?

[@RicoCilliers]

that depends. Usually I export it as decimated, and then do the retopology in Blender.. Decimated is best for keeping 99% of the details..

[@leatherandpoemscharmyman5774]

I have some errorrs with the shcrhiwrap modifier with "project" mode...but some areas as arms , and the head use the "nearest vertex surface" and "keep on top" option check, how ever this tutorial is very useful to get practice with all the option. thanks.

[@gregarmstrong4653]

Dankie Rico

[@RicoCilliers]

Plesier man.

[@GreenMagic0]

Are the models on Poly Haven 3D scanned? Please tell me.

[@DEVINESz]

Ctrl+E > Bridge Edge Loops

[@RoboThePanda]

what did you do at 11:19??

[@itsnotbloodborne1237]

u da man

[@fupioma]

Maaaan you so fkn cooll thans!

[@JPfightsLife1]

Howzit man. Where did you learn all this stuff?

[@RicoCilliers]

hey bro! I kinda taught myself :) using KZbin and free written tutorials from various places online.

[@JPfightsLife1]

Rico Cilliers That is just befok! I got hooked for about 3 hours last night watching your work. Keep up the good work, your content is epic. You have inspired me to get in to 3D modelling and rigging for game design. Thanks so much boeta!

[@fghfghggffghv612]

Retopology, aliens did it. *IM OUT BEEEEEACH*

[@RomboutVersluijs]

Isnt there a option to project them according to normals?

[@RicoCilliers]

apparently there is... I confess I wasn't aware of it though :) it seems to be missing in my version of blender. That's what I get for not using the latest version I guess. ;)

[@RomboutVersluijs]

In which version is it actually? you know?

[@RicoCilliers]

I'm using 2.78a, official release in this tutorial.

[@RomboutVersluijs]

Aha, im also using that version. So 2.78c or b has this new option i guess. Perhaps i should upgrade then

[@RicoCilliers]

oh wait. I'm thinking of a different feature :P 2.78 has pretty much all the latest modeling features, but nothing (that I know of) that snaps according to vertex normals. Except of course the shrink-wrap modifier

[@katrina231]

HELP! My model turns black when I'm in edit mode.. WHY?

[@elizabethhamilton1166]

Try flipping the normals.

[@Ugly_Baby_Gaming]

i like to just desolve every other row of vertex horizontaly and verticaly

[@RicoCilliers]

yeah I sometimes do that as well :) unfortunately it's not that useful when you need specific animation-ready topology.

[@othmaneeljacfi3747]

omg the F trick will be a a lot of saved time

[@bobabooey8367]

Dude, is your heater broke??

[@RicoCilliers]

nah lol :) it was just a chilly day I think. Usually it's not cold at all where I live.

[@bobabooey8367]

just playin maan Tanx for the toot

[@bobabooey8367]

Yo, georgio sucrose, sup,sup ,sup

[@Elwonejogamerblanco]

are u german?

[@RicoCilliers]

I'm dutch, but I have German people in my ancestry as well :)

[@bobabooey8367]

Click Bait...thought I was Retopoing some Ancient Aliens

[@RicoCilliers]

Shhhhh! Not so loud.