hello! i modeled an animal, for an animation, whose low poly of departure makes 30000 polys; the animator would like an even lighter mesh; currently, all the maps are made, color and displace, etc… is there a way to reduce the number of polys, while remaining in quads, without losing the work on the textures? thank you for your help !!!
Hello @marcel ,
Yes! You would need to convert your textures to polypaint information on the mesh, and then project the color information to a retopologized version of the mesh at high resolution. You can then derive a new color texture for the new topology/UVs as normal. Note that new topology will require new UVs. There is more than one way to do this but the easiest would be with the Freeze Subdivision Levels feature.
You would need to subdivide your current textured mesh high enough so that it can capture the color detail from the texture (polypaint quality based on mesh resolution). The applied texture can then be converted to polypaint with Tool> Polypaint> Polypaint from Texture, after which the applied texture is no longer needed.
At the highest level of subdivision, then press the Tool> Geometry> Freeze Subdivision Levels button. This will drop the mesh to its lowest subdivision level and remove all higher levels. You can then edit that mesh or retopologize it as desired, for instance with ZRemesher. This will become the new base level topology.
When satisfied with the base level topology, press the Freeze Subdivision Levels button again. This will restore the subdivision levels and automatically re-project the detail (sculpting and color) from the original mesh. This process actually switches off Polypaint display, so you would need to toggle the paintbrush icon for your mesh back ON in the subtool’s entry in the Subtool palette to see the polypaint.
New UVs can then be created for the new base level topology, and a new texture created for that topology based on the polypaint with the usual process.
Good luck!