# Topology
Nomad is a polygonal software, it's using triangles and quads to handle the geometry. By topology, we refer to both the number of faces but also the way points (vertices) are connected.
It's important to keep track of the topology, especially if you want to sculpt or paint fine details.
How to keep track of your topology?
You can display the Wireframe or simply disable Smooth Shading.
For now there is three main way to edit the topology of one object:
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Voxel Remesher | Recompute a new topology with uniform density |
| Multiresolution | Go back and forth between multiple resolution of your objects |
| Dynamic Topology | Add/Remove faces locally in real-time when sculpting or painting |
# Voxel Remesher
When using the Voxel Remesher, the entire mesh will force the topology to have an uniform resolution, meaning all the polygons have more or less the same size.
This is very useful when you don't want to think about topology and simply do free-form sculpting.
A typical sculpting workflow can start by using the Voxel Remesher to block-out a rough shape with a low resolution.
Simply hit the Remesh button once in a while when you are stretching the mesh too much to avoid too much distortion.
Voxel?
As stated above, Nomad is a polygonal software, but the Voxel Remesher is one exception where another approach is used (temporarily) to perform the remeshing.
One big difference is that the voxel approach won't accept self intersection, so these will be resolved. Also it doesn't support mesh with holes in it.
By holes, we don't mean the genus hole (hole of a donus), but instead mesh that are not watertight/closed.
Typically, what it means is that before applying the remeshing, every holes will be filled, similarly to the Trim tool or Hole filling feature.
# Boolean
Because we are using voxel for the remeshing, it also means you can easily merge two objects into one or subtract one from another.
You can learn more in the voxel booleans section.
# Multiresolution
The multiresolution feature is useful for mostly two scenario:
- The smooth subdivision algorithm to increase the polycount of your object
- handle multiple level of resolution so that you can alernate between small and large scale edits
# Subdivision
The Subdvide button will increase the number of polygons by 4, so make sure to keep an eye an the polycount as it can increase very quickly! One important aspect of Subdivision Surface is that they will converge to a Smooth Surface. To understand how it works, you can try the Subdivide button on an object with only a few polygons.
You can disable this Smooth behavior by checking the Linear option.
# Multiresolution Workflow
One important aspect of the multiresolution is that you can go back to a lower resolution, making change on your object and then go back to the highest resolution without loosing the high resolution details.
All the high resolution details will be projected automatically.
WARNING
If you are using a tool that alters the topology of your object, you will loose all the other resolutions of your object! You should always get a warning in case it should happen, for example when you are using:
- the Voxel Remesher
- the Dynamic Topology
- the Trim tool
- the Split tool
# Dynamic Topology
# Brush
When you enable Dynamic Topology, most sculpting brushes will have the ability to update the topology under your brushes in real-time.
See the video below in action.
# Level of detail
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Zoom Level | The level of detail will depend of the camera position |
| Brush Size | The level of detail will depend of the brush size |
The option Use pressure radius is only relevant if Brush Size is activated.
When it is activated, the level of detail will always reflects the brush size, even when the brush size is affacted by pencil pressure.
# Quality/Performance
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Speed | Favor performance |
| Quality | Favor quality |
When you favor Quality, the 2 main differences are:
refinement is applied before sculpting, so you will get less interpolating artefact when painting or sculpting very small details
refinement is running until it converges to the correct level of detail, in contrast to an incremental behavior.
That way, if you sculpt very small details or do quick strokes, the topology will always be refined as expected
# Global
You can remesh the whole mesh by using the same algorithm. Usually you should prefer the Voxel Remesher for full remeshing.
However one advantage over the voxels is that the masked area will be protected, so you can have a better control on where to put more or less density.
# Settings
Whether you are using Dynamic Topology on your Brush or Globally, you can choose in which mode it operates:
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Uniformisation | It can add and remove faces, this is the mode used in the video above |
| Subdivision | Add new faces only, it cannot remove faces |
| Decimation | Remove faces only, it cannot add new faces |