Decimate Modifier for Trees, is Retopology viable here?

[proc24]

Hey there,

just a quick question to see if I understood content of another one of Grants Blender courses correctly. In the lecture The Decimate Modifier we used the decimate modifier to reduce the face count of the trees we sculpted in the lectures before. My understanding now is that the decimate modifier would be a quick way to reduce the polycount. If we wanted to preserve the shape more accurately and bring down the face count even more, we would go for manual retopology instead, is that right?

I know it might be overkill and the decimate modifier will probably be fine for most games, but I was just wondering if retopology would be applicable here as well.

Thanks!

[FedPete]

@proc24

If we wanted to preserve the shape more accurately and bring down the face count even more, we would go for manual retopology instead, is that right?

Yes! But doing it by hand (manually) is a destructive action. You can not go back, unless you have a backup.
Using a modifier is not destructive, but more procedural.

[proc24]

would it be a destructive action though? I think you can manually create a low poly object according to your high poly tree and still keep the high poly tree as is, thus be able to make changes. What im wondering though is how to bake the textures then, because we are already using a material. Might need to test that out

[FedPete]

@proc24

I think you can manually create a low poly object according to your high poly tree and still keep the high poly tree as is, thus be able to make changes.

Of course, but then why the need for a modifier and then you need to maintain two objects.

You can reuse baked textures if the UV maps are the same in size, volume, and location.

[proc24]

i guess you have a point there. Manual retopology would require me to keep the high and low poly mesh in sync. Thanks for pointing that out! Im still wondering if you could have a high detail tree with a low poly count if doing manual retopology like we did in Grants character creator v2 course for the orc. Ill put that on my to do list and try it out sometime. Thanks for your input @FedPete !

[FedPete]

@proc24

a high detail tree with a low poly count

For this you can use the multi-res modifier.
In steps you can increase the vertex count and add more details.
Basic procedure in sculpting, but also usable when block modeling.

[proc24]

ah right, i forgot about that one. Thanks for reminding me I really need to go over all modifiers again from time to time to remind myself of all the different modifiers