Master the Remesher: Ultimate Guide to Hard Surface Art in Blender

[@ChamferZone]

⚠Important follow up note: Here's another way to increase the resolution on our voxels: i.imgur.com/r5wJn4W.jpg ⚠ This was pointed out to me by ChamferZone Discord member "renderer9880". Thank you very much!

[@ScarletwingRuri]

KZbinr just recommend this video to me, watch your model face count that I really fell I need a upgrade guidance. May I ask GPU CPU and memories which is the most important thing when come to high poly modeling. And if its ok could you share your PC hardwares set up.

[@ChamferZone]

@ScarletwingRuri Hey there, you can see my laptop specs here. It's a Lenovo thinkpad and I am very happy with it i.imgur.com/0quiV7f.png I am using a laptop at the moment because I am currently living life as a digital nomad who likes to remain flexible with my location ;) A useful tip to reduce lag in Blender could be to lower the undo history settings. If it's set too high, Blender consumes a lot of memory, which might be causing your lag issues. Also, try to minimize running other heavy programs in the background during remeshing. At the moment I'm experiencing no lag at all despites having multiple remeshed guns in the scene. It also seems like the remeshing process has become faster compared to the time of the revolver tutorials. This speed improvement in remeshing has been noticed by others too, especially in the newer Blender versions like 4.0. Worth giving it another try now.

[@WhoCares-vi1vk]

You should absolutely post more of your stuff on KZbin or make courses. Your revolver course is something Ive rewatched at least a few times to really get a good grip on this workflow. I bet you have way more knowledge/ techniques to share. So do make more content for sure. Thanks to you I went from watching tutorials on modelling back in November, to making 15 AAA guns for my FPS game. Thank you either way my friend, your knowledge and experience are much appreciated

[@ChamferZone]

I am really happy to hear that my tutorial was useful to you. Sounds like you've been very busy with the guns! Good luck to your project :) Yes I'd also like to share more on here.. always thinking about ways to do that. I uploaded some KZbin shorts episodes recently too but it seems as if those went a bit under. Anyway, more to come for sure.

[@WhoCares-vi1vk]

Yes I have been busy indeed, but it's all thanks to you my friend. I was watching mediocre tutorials on KZbin, then saw your course trailer on my recommended and got it straight away. I did watch your YT shorts, but I don't think that format really suits you if I am going to be honest. You have over a decade worth of actual 3D Modelling experience, you can easily become the Tony Robbins of tutorials with full fledged tutorials, they don't even have to be free if I am honest, I would happily pay for another course of yours :). Maybe make a course on sci fi guns, and how you make them when you don't necessarily have all the right sizes/parameters like you did in the revolver course, that might be very useful for many of us. @@ChamferZone

[@eobiri]

Now, I have to plan to get the course... Thanks for mentioning the course!

[@OnMars3D]

This is fantastic, I was just looking into the Blender vs Zbrush workflows for hardsurface objects. Can't wait to give this a try, thanks for sharing Tim!

[@ChamferZone]

Hey there, great to hear from you! 👋 Yes, Zbrush is always an option too and is good at being fast and handling a high amount of polycount but in my scene here in the video I have multiple guns all remeshed and I don't experience any lag or performance issues either asides from the initial scene loading time. In my opinion always best to keep things within one software throughout the whole process makes changes more fast and flexible and most importantly keeping it modifier based and non destructive 👍

[@raisonhomme]

Glad to see you back at it, Tim. I followed your revolver tutorial - it covered a lot of ground but the remesher workflow was the biggest takeway for me, I'm glad you dedicated a separate video to it.

[@ChamferZone]

Thank you, I'm glad to hear that. 🙂

[@ironblooded_ch]

Bro you are legend, you make my life more easier with this method, thank you so much

[@ChamferZone]

Hey my friend, thank you very much! :) Glad you find the content useful!

[@ferasabdallah7655]

Thank you so much, I've watched your revolver course and it made me a better artist.

[@ChamferZone]

I am really happy to hear that!! 🙂🍻 Keep up the good work! 3D Art is just such a beautiful thing to do. For me it didn't get boring in almost 20 years of doing it. Every new project is always a new book to write.

[@TheBaquajean]

Oh, I remember the Revolver Course. After completing it I made a Ruger Mk IV using the techniques from the tutorial and it kind of landed me a big contract on Upwork :D

[@ChamferZone]

Hey there, that's fantastic news! I'm happy to hear it. I hope the contract is a great one for you! 🙌🙌

[@Eroktic]

This is amazing, thanks for showing us this sorcery! :D

[@ChamferZone]

Thank you for tuning in! Don't hesitate to give this magical method a try. For me, there's simply no turning back now! 🪄🔮

[@BuyTee]

!!!! I AM SO HYPED UP TO TRY THAT! Thank you for informing all of us!

[@whizkid2000]

Hey Tim, great tutorial! I'm pretty beginner but I'm eyeing your tutorials in the near future (probably start with the flashbang then revolver-really excited). Turns out you can copy modifiers even faster than one by one. Select all the objects to which you want to copy modifiers, then lastly select the object with the modifier, and Copy to Selected. Just did this with a character I'm working on. Cheers.

[@Xathian]

It's an interesting workflow. I tried this method out on the last couple assets I made. Certainly a viable choice and great for offering something free and within Blender but I still prefer ZBrush, I find the granularity of control there much better, the initial Dynamesh takes much longer but it's FAR faster to tweak the sizes of your edge smoothing because it takes like 1-2 seconds for a Polish Crisp Edges to calculate, then you just ctrl+z and try another value if it's too sharp or too smooth. Accomplishing the same in Blender by using a dummy object and copypasting then scaling your parts up and down in size to get the right edge smoothness just feels janky as hell in comparison.

[@ChamferZone]

While ZBrush offers speed, it's important to consider its destructive, non-modifier-based workflow. It requires importing and exporting meshes, and you can't edit lowpoly models directly within ZBrush. Keeping everything within a single software streamlines the process and generally offers better manageability. In my experience, there's no noticeable lag with this approach. Larger objects might take a bit more time to remesh. On the topic with the scaling for the resolution; I was made aware of a feature in the remesher modifier that greatly improves voxel resolution control, simplifying the process even further. Check it out here: i.imgur.com/r5wJn4W.jpg

[@draudeky4508]

nice tutorial, a good expansion for my remasher knowledge

[@thesomantics]

that's crazy you're doing this, a month ago I was exploring the exact same setup except the remesh and smooth were in a geo node setup that I applied as a modifier. The performance was so slow thought that I abandoned the process and went back to Zbrush dynamesh except now I use "Z-repeat it" to run through every mesh and do the same process of dynamesh/smooth. Hopefully Blender can improve the performance and the jagged issue you were talking about

[@artbybruno1734]

You 3D modelling beast! 😋 Excellent stuff buddy! ❤💥

[@ChamferZone]

Hey Bruno, cheers my friend!! 🍻😃

[@cristianm.figuereofeliz3501]

since I could follow your course to make the revolver for video games I always look forward to every new project you publish about blender since my economic situation does not allow me to pay a license 3ds max you have become my hero

[@ChamferZone]

Hi Christian, glad to hear from you! Absolutely, Blender is amazing. I've become quite a fan myself. I do wish though, for a robust free texturing solution comparable to Substance Painter. Fingers crossed, maybe one day we'll have it. Until then Substance Painter remains the undisputed king. 👑

[@kizhaband5632]

i still use the subd workflow from the ak47 tutorial and only use remesh method for some parts that are a little tricky to do the subd on

[@ChamferZone]

Hey there, yes that makes sense and there's really nothing wrong with mixing and matching different workflows and sub-d can still work very well on its own in a lot of cases too. 👍

[@kadircelen3308]

this guy is a legend

[@schlossgleichenberg1400]

Ja, super, bestimmt! Vielen Dank!

[@lewisthompson933]

King Tim Returns

[@schlossgleichenberg1400]

Genau, König!

[@32Concept]

Thanks so much for this video. I was using this workflow on my last project and was struggling to find more info on it.

[@ChamferZone]

Glad to hear it :) Hope your projects shape up well with it. 👍

[@jp6228]

Thank You for this I've been needing a good guide to the best remesh work flow of a while now. #CHAMFERGOAT

[@MrXBJonte]

Looks like a nice workflow, I mostly use bevel modifier but this looks like it's more versatile on how smooth an edge is

[@ChamferZone]

Yes the bevel modifier in combination with subdivision is pretty much what I also did in the past. In 3ds Max it's the Chamfer modifier and Turbosmooth for it. Remesher however simplifies this process a lot and looks just great. Bake ready highpoly geometry.

[@AzraelArt]

is there a way to control the amount of smoothing you get on different parts of the mesh like you can with bevel weight or masking in zbrush? maybe with vertex groups?@@ChamferZone

[@homelesstaco959]

There isn't which is the main downside to it, i tried using vertex groups but you sadly lose the information when remeshing so the smooth modifer doesn't know where to only apply it.@@AzraelArt

[@c2mikel]

nice, i would add that some would still prefer zbrush since it can still handle the poly count better. but this is definitely something that will make my workflow easier than the zbrush method.

[@ChamferZone]

Hello Mikel, you're right that ZBrush's strong suit is certainly at managing a high polygon count. But, I've got to say, Blender holds its own in this area as well. The scene in my video, which includes the weapon I'm focusing on and all the others from the start of the video, is a prime example. All these models, with the remesher modifier applied, add up to a significant polygon count yet the only real wait time is the initial scene load (about 4-5 minutes), but after that, I don't face any lag. For those concerned about potential lag (which I haven't encountered yet), a simple solution is to toggle the modifiers off and only activate them when exporting the highpoly 🙂 The downside of Zbrush is having to import and export, no ability to edit the lowpoly mesh as well as it being a non modifier based workflow.

[@rexthegamer6860]

I totally loved this workflow but am facing one problem with it . i have mesh where i want some edges to be sharp and some edges to be smooth, is there any way to control different edges on single mesh btw i love your videos and specially that revolver tutorial learned so many new things about this workflow

[@gdog8170]

you can just set different edges with a value different of 1 in the crease if you want to get varied edges in a single mesh

[@zrinatab4999]

Hi, I watched your video, you did great. Please show me how to bake everything in 3ds max without third-party programs using corona render for texturing

[@Rohan1s495]

Please make more WEAPON Tutorial courses ( various weapons ) , i have bought your Revolver course & it was great .

[@ChamferZone]

Hey there, thanks for the enthusiasm! :) I will certainly be working on another in-depth tutorial at some point and whenever I have finished my current projects for the marketplaces. Glad you liked the revolver tutorial!

[@Rohan1s495]

​@@ChamferZone Thanks , Very good to know that you'll be making more tutorial courses , i have sent you infinite number of mails for a Tutorial request with a Reference image . Please check your mail inbox .

[@Rohan1s495]

​@@ChamferZone Thank you sir , good to know that you'll be making more tutorial courses , i have sent you mails for a tutorial request with reference image , please check your inbox .

[@PSYCH0S0CIAL5]

Do you plan to make some game asset course using hardops/boxcutter/meshmachine ? If low poly is gonna end up with lot of triangles anyway, there is nothing against using those addons

[@memnok9980]

Yesss!

[@GroovyVHS]

I agree. I want more content with these addons.

[@ChamferZone]

Hi Mateus, thanks for bringing this up. The truth is that I tend to stay clear of such plugins because, in my view, they change Blender too drastically almost turning it into a different modeling software. That's not supposed to mean that these plugins aren't worth their money but I prefer to work with plugins that are free because otherwise It would also complicate it for me to make tutorials where everybody can follow along without having to invest in additional plugins.

[@HONDOMACLEAN83]

@Chamferzone @Tim Do you have a crazy PC or something? If I have this one more than 1 or 2 pieces in a scene in a single scene it just makes the scene chug to death

[@Pdexterness]

Hows performance when you need to export for baking? Does it take a long time? Do you need to export the weapon in separated parts? Thank you so much for making this video, Tim!

[@zigglershow5383]

Export to FBX is okay, only took few seconds, depends how many objects you have, you can export all the parts just fine.

[@MrEbawu]

Amazing workflow! Are you baking this hp onto sharp edges with zero bevels?

[@rajendrameena150]

How your modifier stack is so well araanged

[@alanlavery]

It is called the "Modifier list" addon, look for the fork that works with blender 4.0 - 4.1. I will share a link in a follow up comment but I find sometimes it doesn't let me.

[@2Dead2Live]

Have you tried using decimate modifier since geometry is getting huge over time?

[@asterixus]

Hey Tim! I loved your revolver course, i learned so much from it 😄 and i wish to also follow your other two weapon courses, but I'm trying to recreate the 3ds max part using blender. Since you've been experimenting with blender for some time now, do you think it's better than 3ds max? (Or however your feelings are in their comparison)

[@YakoBlast]

is a new course coming? i would like a shotgun or an automatic weapon course

[@Guu_3DCG]

I bought your revolver tutorial and I am a big fan of your modeling technique! I want to buy your Mech tutorial, but I wonder I can follow the tutorial with Blender:)

[@graphixworld7190]

Hey Tim Amazing Video Very Helpful...Do U use Bevel Modifier with bevel weights for round edges & then Subdivide? What do u think about it?

[@ChamferZone]

Hey there! Thank you :) About your question: With the remesher workflow, I've found that using the Bevel modifier isn't really necessary, thanks to the level of control we already have over edge sharpness and rounding. The thing about the Bevel modifier is that it often doesn't fit into my process. If I bevel my geometry I do so as a "hard committed" modeling action and it becomes an integral part of the lowpoly, fixed with that specific bevel. In contrast to that if I use it as a modifier and then disabling it often leads to a significant mismatch with the underlying lowpoly, which I aim to avoid at all times. In short: The goal is to keep the lowpoly as close to the highpoly as possible so I prefer to use beveling primarily as a modeling action for shaping my geometry from the start but not as modifier.

[@graphixworld7190]

@@ChamferZone Thank you

[@MrEbawu]

Hi. I rewatched this workflow again and wanted to ask about your cpu and gpu. Im looking to build a new pc and your viewport feels pretty snappy when it comes to handling big geometry so i think ill look for something similar to you. Could you tell me what components do you use?

[@bhargavk.2144]

Would you use this method for something large like a Mech? Or would blender hang. Great method for complex pieces.

[@flo5856]

Hey, I've been using this method ever since I saw it in the revolver course. I am wondering about a few things if you could possibly share your feedback about it. In particular because making high poly in this way you always need a closed mesh which can sometimes lead to a lot of unecessary tris count. The way I've been doing it is by removing those faces after baking/texturing is complete and making sure those unseen faces are basically non-existent on the UV map. I'm wondering if there's a better approach to this if saving a lot of triangles is necessary or if you would also do it this way? Cheers!

[@artsakhmen]

Thank!

[@MrEbawu]

Also shading even on flat surfaces is slightly jagged. Is it something that I need to worry about?

[@rundown3D]

Super!

[@jakewhite9952]

I am definitely going to use your pistol course. Very impressive. Heads-up your artstation link is broken.

[@ChamferZone]

Hi Jake, very happy to hear it. If you are ever stuck along the way feel free to join the Discord and you can even open a thread in the work in progress section where I (or others too) can offer help :)

[@stormk-1130]

Where did you learn?

[@kmanL3G3N3D]

So this method is optimized for game asset workflow?

[@55Psyco]

How much RAM are you working with? I understand that this kind of workflow is meant for high poly models, but what should be a decent amount of RAM for this? I have 32GB, & sometimes I have remesh my models, but I try to limit it to around 10-15 million polygons, more than that just causes my system to lag & sometimes crash.

[@ChamferZone]

I'm currently equipped with 64GB RAM on my laptop, though I had 32GB back when I did the revolver tutorial. A useful tip to reduce lag in Blender could be to lower the undo history settings. If it's set too high, Blender consumes a lot of memory, which might be causing your lag issues. Also, try to minimize running other heavy programs in the background during remeshing. At the moment I'm experiencing no lag at all despites having multiple remeshed guns in the scene. It also seems like the remeshing process has become faster compared to the time of the revolver tutorials. This speed improvement in remeshing has been noticed by others too, especially in the newer Blender versions like 4.0.

[@55Psyco]

@@ChamferZone I think the Undo limit is the main reason for blender becoming sluggish for me. I'll check it out. Thanks for the insight.

[@danielokuya3348]

Could you create pistol tutorial something like a Glock 17 in 3ds max

[@Nik2ki]

Hello ChamferZone. I want to ask you. What are you thinking about the quad remesher Plugin by Exoside? I already have 2 versions, for 3ds max and blender.

[@ChamferZone]

Hey there, at the moment I can not say anything to this plugin. In general I try to stay clear from paid plugins and I prefer to seek solutions that are possible with just the default tools or with free plugins. Of course if there is something absolutely ground breaking that only exists as a plugin it would be worth it to check it out. I am gonna take a look at this too. 👍However, for my tutorials it would complicate things if people would have to get paid plugins first in order to follow my tutorials which is the main reason why I prefer to stay as default as possible when it comes to tools.

[@nevalyashkaneva2310]

How did you make that your modifier list addon work with blender 4.0?

[@gamejizz20318]

Nice workflow, but for me it works only with smooth and sharp, voxel mode not working on the remesher. Is there something to consider in voxel mode? i use a low poly imported model.

[@roquet11]

I have a doubt, I started to use this workflow, but I have several problems. When I set the modifiers it takes several minutes each time I make an adjustment, or when I open the project it takes more than 10 minutes to open, I know it is a lot of polygons but in the video it seems to have a better performance. Any idea what could it be? My pc has an i7-10700k, 32Gb RAM and a Nvidia RTX 3080. I'm using blender 4.2

[@souharmhammed766]

Merci beaucoup, j'ai une demande, s'il vous plaît, je veux que vous travailliez sur une maquette d'un kayak Fenn. 

[@vylicer]

Still learning 3d modelling, just asking, you basically do this so that you could bake your normal map to a lower poly object?

[@ChamferZone]

Hey there, yes that's correct :) We require the highpoly to make a bake of maps most importantly the normal map and the curvature map to "mimic" the look of the highpoly on our optimized lowpoly. If you wanted you could watch my free tutorials here on KZbin such as the flashbang tutorial for Blender which will walk you through the complete process.

[@vylicer]

@@ChamferZoneThanks for the response. I was wondering what was the point of this workflow now I see it. A quality looking quad high poly mesh would be ideal for baking normals. Awesome vid. Thanks again.

[@ELA-xg4iv]

object size matters ? beacuse whenever im adding remesh to 0.01 value blender crash ?need solution

[@TemporaryVoid]

I would 100% BUY a course making an asset with this technique while sharing your updated knowledge of Blender (shortcuts included), baking it in marmoset and texturing in substance.

[@BoyBacon5051]

He put the revolver one out that's this but as a full length coarse. Its really good.

[@TemporaryVoid]

@@BoyBacon5051 Thx for your reply, That was 2 years ago, he was new to blender, his knowledge of this software was suboptimal + it was the first time he was using Remesher​. I need to get back to blender and I still think there is value in a recent course.

[@ChamferZone]

Hey there you can take a look at my latest youtube short tutorial where I go over my mouse configuration for Blender. kzbin.infov-3G3LgIeOQ Whenever I make a new tutorial I'll make sure to share my key config file too.

[@BoyBacon5051]

@@TemporaryVoid I followed the coarse and looking between this and that there doesn't seems to be really any difference in workflow. He probably learned a couple things in that time but it's not enough to make that last coarse obsolete.

[@rajendrameena150]

I think conjuresdf addon is better for such hard surface work.

[@edgreig17]

I imported from Maya to quicken my workflow but nothing works properly, I assume this is something that works best with Blender models?

[@eduardo0250]

Your list of modifiers is different, is that an addon?

[@alanlavery]

It is, It is called the "Modifier list" addon, look for the fork that works with blender 4.0 - 4.1. I will share a link in a follow up comment but I find sometimes it doesn't let me.

[@dervitz9753]

there are course on "artstation learning" about this workflow and guy using it for production so ye, same thing like zbrush high poly

[@SerhiiChebas]

😢 cool

[@GameDeveloper-nq6zi]

The highpoly looks kinda " blurry" compared to zbrush polish workflow

[@darkcult99]

👍👍👍

[@Astrobers]

Can you share your pc specs? Please. Because i wandered why my pc can't handle so much topology 😅

[@ChamferZone]

Hey there, you can see my laptop specs here i.imgur.com/0quiV7f.png (I am using a laptop because I am currently living life as a digital nomad who likes to remain flexible with my location ;) A useful tip to reduce lag in Blender could be to lower the undo history settings. If it's set too high, Blender consumes a lot of memory, which might be causing your lag issues. Also, try to minimize running other heavy programs in the background during remeshing. At the moment I'm experiencing no lag at all despites having multiple remeshed guns in the scene. It also seems like the remeshing process has become faster compared to the time of the revolver tutorials. This speed improvement in remeshing has been noticed by others too, especially in the newer Blender versions like 4.0. Worth giving it another try now.

[@Astrobers]

@@ChamferZone Thank you!

[@ЭльмирРин]

I have the same problem, I set your parameters and my blender freezes (i7 rtx3070)😢

[@Vertrucio]

Zbrush decimate is still better, and with a good import/export GoZ plugin can be fast. But going between apps is its own problem. I think that changes when Blender finally makes this remesh, smooth, and decimate modifiers use multiple threads on CPUs and even GPUs. Those curved areas can be made a lot better with the Sharp or Smooth remesh type, but it's even less performant than voxel remesh.

[@pioterekl]

Thanks for Email

[@ChamferZone]

I am glad you received it because my statistics show that only 20-30% actually open my emails. Most of them end up in the spam folder because google and microsoft perceive gumroad as spam 😅

[@medokage]

BLZ, make course like the AK one or the revolver, but using this technique, I'm tired to see others who make guns using this technique while I'm suffering with subdi.

[@Azzazel_]

Nice seeing blender trying to imitate zbrush, hope it gets better so i can stop paying for zbrush, despite there's a long road ahead

[@Vincent_Do]

T

[@巨山超力霸-w]

I suspect that 99% of computers will freeze when the voxel size is set to 0.01cm

[@JordanMossy]

Biggest downside to this workflow is blenders complete lack of performance in highpoly geometry, especially on more complex shapes that need more remesh divisions.

[@ChamferZone]

Thanks for watching! In this video, you'll see a scene with several weapons I'm currently developing. I find it efficient to work in one file, as it allows me to easily copy and paste reusable parts, and I'm not experiencing any lag and I am working on a laptop. I don't think that this does Blender justice to say it's a complete lack of performance. Plus, you have the option to toggle the remesher modifiers off, turning them on only when you're ready to export the highpoly.

[@axelkarsten9828]

what pc are you using? i work with blender everyday. my scenes always have between 5 and 15 million polys, because usually need a loot of folliage and photoscans, but i have top parts.. 4090, i9... etc, maybe thats your problem and its not blender fault

[@JordanMossy]

@@axelkarsten9828 i9 13900k, 128gb ram Nvidia rtx 4090. I don't think my PC is the issue. I work in games and have for the past 10 years, blender handles high polycounts substantially worse than other applications. Yes it won't turn off, yes you can import high geo and manipulate at the object level, but anything at the sub object/mesh level at million polycounts and it crashes frequently. This method gets ok results at a distance, for close geometry expected of the industry I'm working in much denser geo is necessary to keep those edges from turning to mush.

[@biriani2855]

Not everyone can afford that😢@@axelkarsten9828

[@nyx8026]

This is way too performance heavy

[@keithtam8859]

to be honest, I thought the tutorial would lean more to the retopology side...

[@JabagaDenanza]

Everything is very cool! Make a course on AR 15 using the boolean method and then I will become the happiest person on earth!

[@UNR3al1st1c]

I want to say that you will need a powerful computer, at least 32 gigabytes of RAM. And something like 8 cores processor. My computer i5 9400f 16 gb RAM, unloaded the project about 2-3 hours. Now I have i5 13600KF, 32 gb DDR5-6000 unloads the project in 5 minutes. In zbrush this method worked on my old weak pc, in blender it was very very very slow. But unfortunately zbrush interface makes me uncomfortable.