Dyntopo development

Hi,

With the rapidly progressing developments in @pablodp606’s Sculpt Mode Features branch, and the first transfers from those developments to the 2.81 master builds, I am wondering: is Dyntopo development still ongoing or is it at a low ebb?

Pablo’s additions are very exciting, but it seems that the new OpenVDB remesher workflow is getting way more attention than Dyntopo lately. If you look at ZBrush, Dynamesh — comparable to OpenVDB — is essentially the ‘old’ workflow, while Sculptris Pro — comparable to Dyntopo — is the latest ZBrush sculpting workflow addition, offering these advantages:

  • It doesn’t clog small openings, holes and other details.
  • You don’t have to frequently manually re-apply it to get rid of polygon stretching.
  • It doesn’t smooth out the whole model a little each time you remesh.
  • It gives you total, localized control of polygon and vertex paint detail.

When I think of a possible addition to the Dyntopo workflow, I’d love to see a Boolean function comparable with Remesh By Boolean in ZBrush, removing self-intersections for a manifold result. The info about that can be found in the second half of the video.

Next to this, I’d love to see an option to make the Smooth brush use Dyntopo as well, instead of only smoothing existing topology.

I also hope Dyntopo will get the new combined sculpting + vertex paint option, dynamically refining the surface where you sculpt and paint at the same time.

It would also be nice if Symmetrize would respect masks.

Last but not least, I really hope most or even all of the new Sculpt Mode features will be compatible with Dyntopo once they’re added to the main Blender, so the user can choose a preferred workflow without missing out on features.

To name an example, the recently added Draw Sharp brush is not compatible with Dyntopo.

Muchas gracias for taking this into consideration.

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Thanks for moving the topic to the right category, @brecht. I couldn’t decide where it fits best.

Well, where practically possible, anyways. Yes, I’d hope so, too.

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Would be nice yeah, but this may not be an easy task. Remember, even in zbrush, sculptris pro has some serious restrictions… :wink:

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I hope Dyntopo is not abandoned. This feels so good when sculpting, especially the brushes that have the ability to add geometry.

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But this is Blender. We’ve got a team of superhero developers I believe in. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Pablo made a tweet a while ago talking about the compatibility of the sculpt-features with dyntopo and multires:

Here’s the task for that:
https://developer.blender.org/T67518

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@MetinSeven

Tbh Sculptris Pro isn’t as good as the real Sculptris
I’ve asked a Zbrush user about Sculptris Pro before and they said its a bit too clunky compared to Sculptris itself, I’ve tried it a bit too and its really annoying (To me).

Video showing the Detail Slider similar to Blender but with no Text, I keep it at the middle for every sculpt I’ve ever done.
The Reduce Brush is really great in Sculptris, it doesn’t obliterate your mesh with a circular pattern like in blender, Blenders Simpfily Sculpt Brush is honestly too harsh, it needs a softer decimate somehow.

(The Reduce Brush is always set to Decimate, so there is no annoying changing sliders up and down and forgetting what the Detail was set to, its also stronger the closer you go)

The Reduce Brush is at 2:00

Other random videos

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I personally would ask for blender to handle more, i won’t ask for 1 billion points like zbrush but few millions between 50-100, Dyntopo is good for early stages but later you’ll need a good Remeshing and Subdivison workflow.

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I didn’t use zbrush since some time ago thanks to blender, but can it have a mesh of 1.000 millions of vertex? The last time taht I used, to have a mesh of more than 25 millions with the multires was problematic.

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Thanks for the Sculptris examples, @Reoxur, very interesting. Sculptris has a very fluid organic feel.

I’ve hardly worked with Sculptris. Personally, I like Sculptris Pro in ZBrush, but I like Dyntopo more. I guess that’s partly due to Blender’s sculpt brushes, for example the Crease and Pinch brushes feel better in Blender + Dyntopo.

I agree that fiddling with sliders to determine the amount of polygon reduction etc. in Sculptris Pro is cumbersome, and so is the dated and idiosyncratic ZBrush UI, with all the tiny sliders and superfluous leftovers of the original 2.5D features. ZBrush really needs a Blender 2.8 like UI overhaul.

I’d love to see some elements of ZBrush workflow in Blender though, such as the Clip / Trim / Slice brushes, the polygrouping functionality, the volume-preserving alternative Smooth brush and the Deformation ➔ Polish tool.

Yar, I’d really like the Deformation > Polish and such tools, similar to Pablo’s Mesh Filter Smooth, there’s been many times my Sculpts (From Sculptris) were a bit bumpy and unsmooth but no way of fixing it without the Smoothing brush ruining it all.

And yea Sculptris’s mesh is Fluid like in some way, auto relaxing stuff as you sculpt, maybe we need a Auto Relax option (Not auto smooth) in every brush lol.

I guess I like Sculptris because I can leave the detail slider in the middle and never change it and its auto relaxing mesh, and don’t forget the Reduce brush, that thing is extremely important. (Because you can turn a 1 Million poly sculpt into 600 K easily, Blenders Simplify brush is too destructive though.

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I haven’t worked a lot with the Sculpt Mode Features branch, but I seem to remember that the Smooth Mesh Filter is the same smoothing algorithm as the Smooth brush, eating away volume when applied. ZBrush Polish works better i.m.h.o., preserving volume while removing irregularities.

Just tried the new Draw Sharp brush in Blender 2.81 alpha, and it doesn’t work with Dyntopo. :neutral_face:

Really happy with the Topology Automasking option though. :+1:

Wow, and I :heart: the Elastic Deform and Pose brush. :smiley::ok_hand:

By the way, I noticed that Shift + double-clicking LMB to smooth a mask deactivates Dyntopo. I’ve reported that as a bug.

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Since dynamic mesh preview, red dot is snapped to closest vertex.
That is a regression for dynamic topology. Dynamic topology adds geometry where it is needed.
By definition, it is not there, yet ; while user is foreseeing to place a new stroke.

Imagine that you want to create a pattern with radial symmetry on top face of a cube.
Current behavior is useless. Red dots for symmetry will not show up.
The goal of dyntopo is precisely to avoid to subdivide uniformly the model if details are only added on one side.

But that is also a disturbing annoyance to see the red dot, not centered, while making a clay or a draw stroke, for no reason.

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This is how it also works in most sculpting apps, like zbrush etc… I don’t see any issues with that.

The moment you press the left mouse button, the red dots are in the correct place, no matter how your geometry looks, or if its yet existing or not. Try a radial stroke on a simple 12 triangle cube with dyntopo deactivated. So while you are adding a stroke everything is fine. But you are right with that it could show the red dots before drawing at their indivudal target positions.

Zbrush doesn’t do Dyntopo. Dynamesh is not Dyntopo.
Does it work as is in Sculptris ?

The idea is to economize polys. No remeshing with polys useless on a big flat area that is intended to stay a big flat area.

That is the problem. You are supposed to press left mouse button when you are satisfied by locations of red dots.

Yes it does…

So, you mean that you can engrave a pattern on a cube and obtain a resulting mesh of around 5 000 polys.