All language subtitles for CustomMetahuman_6.1.mp4

I have mentioned a couple of times
in the previous chapters,

that it is not always necessary
to retopologize the clothes.

So what is retopology
and why should we bother at all?

Retopology is about creating a clean, low poly mesh

that approximates a high poly geometry.

With new technology like Nanite in Unreal Engine 5,

this step might become obsolete at one point.

For now, Nanite only supports static meshes.

So for skeletal meshes we still need
to pay attention to the poly count.

So, optimization is one obvious reason
to retopologize our clothes.

But there are a couple of other
maybe not so obvious advantages

of creating a clean mesh.

First, it is a lot easier to work
with a clean topology.

Making adjustments to a triangulated mesh
that comes out of Marvelous Designer

can be a nightmare.

With quads, you can easily work
with edge loops, bevels, and so on.

You have no loose or non-manifold vertices on your mesh,

that could create holes in the mesh
when you animate the character.

Second, certain modifiers
like solidify and subdivision

produce much cleaner and better results.

The subdivision operation
actually requires quads

for its mathematical operations and
does not work well on triangles at all.

Third, UV unwrapping is much easier and more flexible.

You can quickly define your seams
and optimize the UV layout.

And lastly, you usually get cleaner
bakes in Substance Painter,

and can quickly make adjustments
to avoid artifacts in the baking process.

Well, okay...

So what speaks against retopology then?

Well, for one, retopology is
sometimes tedious

and really time consuming.
It's a process that not everybody enjoys.

Second, in many cases,

it doesn't necessarily give better results
in terms of deformation.

Third, you will lose the UV layout that
you created in Marvelous Designer.

So, if you apply materials
and textures in Marvelous,

and want to use the texture maps
that you exported along with the OBJ file,

you cannot (without a great amount
of effort) recreate the UV layout

to match the original one.

And of course, if you are using
the alembic workflow for simulated cloth animation,

retopology doesn't even make sense.

So those are the pros and cons
for doing retopology.

As for the point
that the process is tedious and long,

the tools have really improved
in recent years.

ZBrush, 3D Coat and other tools
even offer automatic remeshing

with quite good results.

Marvelous Designer has some
options as well to make the process fast and enjoyable.

I usually prefer to retopologize my models.

I think it's a time investment
that pays off in the end,

especially if you create characters
for a game engine like we do here.

In the next chapter, we will create a low
poly version of our clothes using Marvelous Designer.