2014f Day 3

Human head modeling tutorial
SwitchResX to turn off "HiDPI" modes on Retina Macs
http://www.madrau.com/

MESHLAB/MUDBOX SETUP PROCESS
EXAMPLE FILES

I. Scanning options:

1. Advanced Media Studio
   
2. Kinect Fusion (Windows)
   
3. ReconstructMe (Windows)
   
4. Skanect (Windows, Mac)
   
5. DIY (Processing, oF, Cinder)
   

**II. Cleanup in Meshlab:**
1. Import your **original scan mesh**:
_File > Import Mesh_

2. Select and delete faces you don't want. For a rectangular marquee:
_Edit > Select Faces in a Rectangular Region_
For a paintbrush selector:
Click the paintbrush icon and choose the red selection brush.
...then press the delete key (fn + delete on a Mac keyboard). This can handle deleting huge numbers of faces at once, beyond what would crash Maya.

3. Export the **cropped scan mesh** as an OBJ file:
_File > Export Mesh As_

4. Start a new document and import your cropped scan mesh:
_File > New Empty Project_
_File > Import Mesh_

5. Simplify and close up holes with:
_Filter > Remeshing, Simplification, and Reconstruction > Surface Reconstruction: Poisson_
(There's a lot more you can do in Meshlab to clean up a mesh, but this is a good start.)

6. Export the **simplified mesh** as an OBJ file:
_File > Export Mesh As_

**Your simplified mesh should now be usable in Maya/Mudbox.** (Check the file size...I bet it's at least _100 times smaller_ than the original.)

**III. Prepare in Mudbox:**
1. Import the simplified mesh:
_File > Import_

2. Go to the Select/Move Tools tab and correct for scale and rotation. (Many meshes will come in 10 or 100 times too large or too small.)

3. Retopologize the simplified mesh:
_Mesh > Retopologize > New Operation_
If you don't know the polygon count you want, choose 1000. You can experiment with different values later.

4. You will probably get some errors about problems with your new **retopologized mesh**, but the operation will complete. Confirm "Keep Mesh" and "Ignore Errors" if those dialogs come up.

**5. IMPORTANT: Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you no longer get any errors. It should usually only take one additional try.**

6. For the next step, the retopologized mesh needs to be at what Mudbox calls "Level 0" of complexity. (If that's confusing, just go with it for now; we'll talk more about what that means next class.) Go to:
_Mesh > Step Level Down_
or press Page Down until the viewport displays "Level 0."

7. Last step--you need to create a UV map. Go to:
_UVs & Maps > Create UVs_

**You should now...finally...be ready to paint and sculpt your retopologized mesh in Mudbox.**

IV. Sharing files with Maya
1. You can send any Maya mesh directly to Mudbox:
_File > Send to Mudbox > Send as New Scene_
or
_File > Send to Mudbox > Update Current Scene_

2. Or go from Mudbox to Maya:
_File > Send to Maya > Send Selected as New Scene_
or
_File > Send to Maya > Update Current Scene_


**A note on using Photoshop to paint 3D objects:**
Photoshop is easily available, has been able to paint 3D objects for some years now, and doesn't do a bad job at it. It has its fans but I prefer Mudbox personally (because you can sculpt and paint at the same time). _However_ Photoshop alters the geometry of any mesh it exports, and in my opinion much for the worse. So it's usually best to:
1. Set up using a process like the one above.
2. Bring **a copy** of the prepared, UV-mapped mesh to Photoshop.
3. Paint in Photoshop.
4. When exporting from Photoshop, use only the textures (which correspond to the UV map you've already made) and throw away the altered model it gave you.