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Sculptable Meshes (also refered to as Multires Meshes) are meshes designed for the purpose of sculpting. These meshes allow higher densities than Editable Meshes while using less memory.
These meshes allow sculpting on them at different levels, allowing bigger changes when working on lower levels and more "detailed" changes at higher levels of subdivision.
Meshes can also be "Remeshed". This feature allows re-creating the existing mesh form, but with an evenly distributed quad topology.
The Sculptable Mesh properties dialog allows you to apply different operations on the selected mesh and can be opened from the top Menu Bar (see image below).
This section controls the amount of detail that can be sculpted onto a mesh, the higher the number of faces/vertices of a model, the more detail can that can be sculpted.
Pressing Subdivide will increase the resolution of the model by multiplying the number of faces by four, whilst keeping the previous (coarser) version of the mesh as another Sublevel. Note that it is possible to step up/down existing levels at any time by using the Sublevel slider..
Note:
Before subdividing Forger will check if there is enough memory available and will bail out if it finds that there is not enough. If this happens and the mesh resolution is still at a moderate level, closing background apps might help.
When working with multiple resolution models, you will find it easier to step down to coarser levels to do big form changes and step up to higher ones to do finer detail edits. Forger will automatically propagate any changes (positions, masks, visibility) done to each level to other levels.
Sublevel: If a model has multiple resolutions, you will be able to step up/down one level at a time by using this slider.
Delete Lowest: Deletes the lowest Sublevel (active only when the current Sublevel isn't the lowest). Deleting unnecessary levels can help out freeing memory.
Delete Highest: Deletes the highest Sublevel (active only when the current Sublevel isn't the highest).
Rebuild Sublevel: If a mesh was previously subdivided in another software and imported into Forger, their Sublevels can be rebuilt by pressing this button. This button rebuilds one Sublevel at a time and it’s safe to press until there are no more levels left to rebuild.
This feature allows you to sculpt and to re-create your model's topology on the fly as you work, it’s meant to be used mainly for concept sculpting as it modifies the topology.
Resolution: This slider defines the resolution of the intermediate volume used for remeshing. The higher the value the more accurate the projection will be and the more polygons will be created (and the slower the remeshing process).
Remesh: Starts the remeshing process.
Warning:
This quick remeshing method creates entirely new geometry and thus will remove any UVs the original model may have.
The icons found at the lower end of the Sculptable Mesh Settings dialog offer various actions to edit masks, vertex colors, partial mesh visibilities and polygon groups, as well as other mesh related commands.
All of these actions are documented on this page in detail. For a quick overview you can also continue to read here:
This section controls the way that Forger deals with symmetry on the selected model.
Note:
Symmetry is also available for Editable Meshes and is documented here.
In order to sculpt a model symmetrically, choose an axis and any edits that are done on one side of the mesh will be replicated on the other side of the mesh along that axis. This assumes that the originating mesh is somewhat symmetrical. If the original mesh was symmetrical but has been "posed", read on for symmetrical topology support.
There is support for posable symmetry, when working with meshes that have been "posed" in external software. You can still work on them symmetrically provided that these meshes are topologically symmetrical. This feature also allows to work symmetrically on meshes that have been moved.
In order to enable this, you must go to the lowest sublevel, mask (with the Mask Brush) only two contiguous adjacent vertices along the topological axis and press Scan Topological. If this is successful, you should be able to set the mirror axis to T (tangent) and sculpt symmetrically even if the model is posed.
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Topological
Enable: If topological symmetry was scanned and found, this allows using it.
Scan Topological: Scans the model for topological symmetry (only active whilst the lowest level of a mesh is active).
To make this possible you have to guide the algorithm by creating a mask of exactly 2 adjacent polygons on the symmetry plane of the mesh. The following images gives an example.
Reapply Symmetry: If the model is topologically symmetrical and the symmetry axis can be found trivially, this allows reapplying the symmetry (only active whilst the lowest level of a mesh is active).
The image above shows the initial project on the left side with a rotated and moved Sculptable Mesh (a simple Sphere in this case). The default symmetry along one of the world's axes would't work here, but as the object has a symmetrical topology (see overlayed symmetry plane highlighted in red) we can use the Topological Symmetry feature. Just mask exactly two adjacent polygons, one on the left side and one on the right side of the symmetry plane. This can be done by using the Masking Brush and masking the individual points of these polygons. After clicking on Scan Topological and enabling Topological Symmetry in addition to the Enable Symmetry option, you can start to sculpt or paint symmetrically (see right side).
Other
Mirror: Flops the current mesh across a given user-specified axis.
Make Symmetrical...: This feature allows users to forcefully make a mesh symmetrical again. iIt will internally slice, duplicate, mirror and merge the two halves. It differs from Reapply Symmetry in that it modifies the topology, or at the very least the point order. This can also be used to make meshes symmetrical that were never symmetrical to begin with (e.g. creating a second eye for a character by having one in place).
There is a videotutorial on "Symmetry" in the videotutorials section.
Masks define how much tools can affect deformation. The more an area is masked, the less it will be affected by tools that factor in masking. In general all sculpting tools will respect masking.
Note:
The process of creating and editing masks is documented here.
Masks can also be painted by using the Mask Brush
Masked areas in meshes will be visually darker than unmasked areas.
You can mask meshes by using the Mask Brush, the masking shortcut or using screen space masking shortcuts.
There is a videotutorial on "Masking" in the videotutorials section.
Sometimes it's useful to hide parts of a mesh to get better performance or get access to otherwise hard to reach areas, this feature allows you to do so.
Note:
The process of creating a partial visibility is also documented here in the context of creating Masks.
Additional actions and commands to work with a partial visible meshes are also documented here.
There is a videotutorial on "Visibility" in the videotutorials section.
Face Groups (or Polygon Groups) allow having some form of persistent "selections" of faces that can then be used for various actions (although they are used primarily in combination with "Partial Visibility" or to limit sculpt brush tools.
Hint:
The process of creating Face Groups is described here.
It is common to use Face Groups to represent different "selections" of parts of a mesh that may need to be worked on in isolation, or may tend to require masking (e. g: arm groups, leg groups, per-finger groups, upper lip group/lower lip group). These groups are transferred across sublevels and will tend to follow the minimum common denominator for face groups (usually set at the lowest subdivision level of a MultiresMesh mesh). This means that if a meshes face is in one group its 4 child faces once subdivided will be part of the same group and so on.
There is support to import/export groups in the OBJ format through the Polygon Group Tag of the format.
Face Groups are represented by a set of random unique colors that identifies each group (visible by using the Colors > Group choice in the Display Settings). The colors only purpose is to visually identify groups.
Note:
Please note that Vertex Colors are used to visually represent Face Groups which results in the borders of these groups not being super-defined (due to linear interpolation across vertices of each triangle), but the faces themselves are either in one group or another. They can't be in more than one at the same time, so the partially interpolated values around the borders of the groups aren't completely truthful to the underlying data.
Vertex coloring allows for a simple and straightforward way of coloring meshes without requiring an additional set of UV coordinates. Whilst this simplicity also translates in reduced opportunities for color variation inside triangles when compared to texture painting, it does allow for greater flexibility at the time of sculpting. It is specially useful for concepting. Forger will automatically remap colors on sub-level change and on remeshing. Vertex colors are affected by masking.
If UV coordinates are available, you can also use a square texture to create Vertex Colors (see Generate automatic UVs and Import from Image").
Note:
Vertices have a pure white color by default. Before starting to paint, it is recommended that users change the material of the mesh about to be painted to a white color since vertex colors are multiplied by the material color. This will allow users to paint and view models properly.
This means, if the material applied to a mesh is pure green, and we paint the model red the model will not appear red. It will appear black, as our "red colors" will only allow the "red" color to go through, but in the case of a pure green color there won't be any red, resulting in a black color. If we change the material color to white, or in the case of a LitSphere we change to a Blinn/Standard or a white LitSphere, our painted red will appear.
Bake Transform: Applies any (old school, prior to v1.6.20) transforms made to the model. Note that this action will flush the undo history.
