Autodesk Mud Box – Retopology

1. Load a very dense Mesh as .fbx or .obj, select it

Mudbox cannot retopologize a mesh with discontiguous areas (islands).

To separate out a mesh island for retopology, choose the Face Select tool and double-click to select the island.
Then use Mesh>Duplicate Selected Faces to copy it to a separate mesh.

NOTICE: Retopology command does not reduce faces, but only

Automatic

2. MAIN TOP MENU> Mesh> Retopology> New Operation

3. In the floating Window:

– Target Base Face Count: for example 3000 faces for a videogame character

– Use Curves to Control Topology Flow: UNCHECK

4. ‘Retopology’

Using Curves

2. BOTTOM LEFT> Curve Tools> Create Curve, create curves

3. MAIN TOP MENU> Mesh> Retopology> New Operation

– Target Base Face Count: for example 3000 faces for a videogame character

– Use Curves to Control Topology Flow: CHECK

4. RMB over a Curve in the Viewport, select Soft Constrain or Hard Constrain

5. ‘Retopology’

Very dense Mesh -> Reduce -> Adjust -> Retopology -> Export

1. Load a very dense Mesh

2. MAIN TOP MENU> Mesh> Reduce Mesh> target Face Count: for example 3000 poly, ‘Create Reduced Mesh’

3. You need to close the holes:

a. BOTTOM LEFT> Select/Move Tools> Faces> select the adiacent faces of the hole

b. MAIN TOP MENU> Mesh> Patch (benda, pezza, tappa il buco)

c. Keep the previous selection> MAIN TOP MENU> Mesh> Tighten selection (modifica le facce nuove per renderle più continue con il resto della superficie)

d. Keep the previous selection> MAIN TOP MENU> Mesh> Fair selection (modifica le facce nuove per renderle più continue con il resto della superficie)

OPTION 1

4. MAIN TOP MENU> Mesh> Retopology> New Operation

5. In the floating Window:

– Target Base Face Count: for example 3000 faces for a videogame character

– Use Curves to Control Topology Flow: UNCHECK

6. ‘Retopology’

OPTION 2

2. BOTTOM LEFT> Curve Tools> Create Curve, create curves

3. MAIN TOP MENU> Mesh> Retopology> New Operation

– Target Base Face Count: for example 3000 faces for a videogame character

– Use Curves to Control Topology Flow: CHECK

4. RMB over a Curve in the Viewport, select Soft Constrain or Hard Constrain

5. ‘Retopology’

Export

1. Press on the keyboard PGDOWN to se the lower level

2. BOTTOM LEFT> Select/Move Tool> Select the Object

3. MAIN TOP MENU> File> Export Selection…> yourobject.obj

4. Inside 3DS Max> MAIN TOP MENU> Import> yourobject.obj, you will see 2 object, the Reduced model and the Retopo model.

Official video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpVCvgvzR_I