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CGCookie / retopoflow

A suite of retopology tools for Blender
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Customizable Symmetry #1227

Open vxlcoder opened 1 year ago

vxlcoder commented 1 year ago

we've had similar feature requests before, but it would be great to have a way to localize symmetry. this is different from a global mirror-modifier-like setup. instead of mirroring everything across a global plane, this is a temporary symmetry setup which can be adjusted as needed. imagine working on a model where the head is turned to the side rather than straight on. the head has it's own symmetry that is different from the body. this also can apply to creatures with multiple tentacles, where each tentacle would have a line of symmetry.

this could, in fact, be used to duplicate retopo as well. basically, we would set up a custom mapping of surfaces (similar to UV unwrapping) where geometry changes in one space would have similar effects in corresponding / mapped spaces.

also, symmetry is based on target origin. if the artist created the target at the wrong origin, adjusting it requires jumping out of RF, moving the origin (which isn't straight forward), then going back into RF. I can imagine a contours-like tool to set up symmetry planes.

vxlcoder commented 1 year ago

in this screenshot, the chest has one symmetry plane, but the head has another.

image

vxlcoder commented 1 year ago

see The Complete Guide to Retopology with RetopoFlow 3 in Blender

jlampel commented 1 year ago

It would be a pretty nice upgrade if we moved away from the mirror modifier. "You're on the wrong side of the symmetry line" solves quite a few new user confusions. Mesh symmetry in Edit Mode is woefully incomplete (it doesn't even handle creating or deleting geometry), but I think it's closer to the right idea and what I think you're suggesting: every action on one side is immediately and destructively applied to the other side. This would allow us to have an arbitrary symmetry plane that could be moved around while working. A Symmetry Transform tool could make that really easy.

A side benefit would be the ability to bridge strokes across the symmetry line, not having to always have vertices in the center, and temporarily turning off symmetry to make edits to one side and then enabling it again. Sounds like a dream!

Also related to this issue is the fact that the retopo overlay in 3.6 doesn't display the effect of modifiers except when On Cage is enabled, which results in annoying behavior if working on the opposite side of the mesh.