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Darksiders Style Weapon/ retopology question

polycounter lvl 6
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travisdreams polycounter lvl 6
Im currently working on a weapon for a female character in one of my classes. This is it's blockout so far. I plan to lengthen the scythe in general because it seems too bulky for a female character. Though one thing im questioning is retopology. Which i plan to do after this. My question is how does the industry take this? Because a general workflow i tend to follow is base model, bring into zbrush, sculpt into a high res, and retopologize it to a more comfortable and fitting geometry. Does the industry have something against retopolgy? because it seems that retopologizing can lengthen the time in your workflow?

scythe.jpg

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  • SuperFranky
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    SuperFranky polycounter lvl 10
    As far as I know, by talking to various professionals, retopology used a lot in CGI and game industry, but it really varies on studio from studio basis. Often artists don't even use base meshes, taking preference in creating everything from zspheres and dynamesh and doing retopology at later stages of production.

    TL;DR It's cool to be efficient in using retopology tools
  • daphz
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    daphz polycounter lvl 13
    base model, bring into zbrush, sculpt into a high res, and retopologize it to a more comfortable and fitting.

    In my experience this is pretty much exactly how things are handled. I like doing a basemesh (instead of starting 100% in zbrush) because If you treat it right it can serve as a starting point for your retopo. There are lots of useful tools out there, like 3coat or Topogun. You can even stay in zbrush for the retopo, or use the tools in Max or Maya.
  • travisdreams
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    travisdreams polycounter lvl 6
    Ahh sounds good, thanks guys! it's good to know that the process i had in mind in approaching isnt necessarily full of mistakes. i'm trying my best to get comfortable with retopologizing as im seeing more and more artists out there are using this rather than saying committed to a evenly distributed base mesh and creating the baked maps off of that same mesh instead of retopologizing a better silhouetted mesh. Though im definiately going to commit to this workflow because it seems more comfortable in my opinion.

    Any feedback towards the actual weapon i posted here is greatly appreciated also though.

    Thanks in advance!
  • artquest
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    artquest polycounter lvl 13
    Ahh sounds good, thanks guys! it's good to know that the process i had in mind in approaching isnt necessarily full of mistakes. i'm trying my best to get comfortable with retopologizing as im seeing more and more artists out there are using this rather than saying committed to a evenly distributed base mesh and creating the baked maps off of that same mesh instead of retopologizing a better silhouetted mesh. Though im definiately going to commit to this workflow because it seems more comfortable in my opinion.

    Any feedback towards the actual weapon i posted here is greatly appreciated also though.

    Thanks in advance!

    It's important to note that even the pros iterate! pre production is a huge deal in our industry but depending on the studio you work at it may not stop at 2d. There is often times when changes come down the pipeline and the 3d needs to be redone or adjusted to fit the new purpose.

    For me retopo is a key part of this process because it allows you to just dnya-mesh and sculpt for quite some time. Why worry about the topology of something that could change tomorrow? Once the design is locked down then get your topology sorted out. There are times where this workflow doesn't work so well(hard surface modeling) but the freedom it allows if you are able to do it is quite awesome.

    On a side note, 3D coat is one of the best retopo programs I've used yet so I highly suggest it! :)


    As for the weapon itself:

    It's a good start, however I'm not sure where to look. It's lacking a focal point. I would suggest picking 3 elements and really beefing up the shapes to to be the focal points of your model. The human eye is drawn to areas of contrast (lights and darks, but also contrasting shapes like hard edges next to curves) Try guiding the eye around the weapon using contrasting shapes and composition. Making the skulls more interesting on the main piece of the weapon will really help sell it I think. Right now they are hard to read as skulls and the shapes seem kinda soft(unlike bone). Try adding some harder edges to define your skulls. Don't be afraid to exaggerate either! It is darksiders afterall. :D

    Keep up the good work! Looking forward to seeing more.
  • travisdreams
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    travisdreams polycounter lvl 6
    artquest wrote: »
    It's important to note that even the pros iterate! pre production is a huge deal in our industry but depending on the studio you work at it may not stop at 2d. There is often times when changes come down the pipeline and the 3d needs to be redone or adjusted to fit the new purpose.

    For me retopo is a key part of this process because it allows you to just dnya-mesh and sculpt for quite some time. Why worry about the topology of something that could change tomorrow? Once the design is locked down then get your topology sorted out. There are times where this workflow doesn't work so well(hard surface modeling) but the freedom it allows if you are able to do it is quite awesome.

    On a side note, 3D coat is one of the best retopo programs I've used yet so I highly suggest it! :)


    ahh yes, that is very understandable. i'll just have to be careful not to be attatched to this workflow then and make sure im open to changing it up if necessary :)

    though ive never tried topogun/3d coat. Ive only retopologized in zbrush so far but if everyone's recommending it, i'll give it a try! :D Thanks!
  • artquest
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    artquest polycounter lvl 13
    ahh yes, that is very understandable. i'll just have to be careful not to be attatched to this workflow then and make sure im open to changing it up if necessary :)

    though ive never tried topogun/3d coat. Ive only retopologized in zbrush so far but if everyone's recommending it, i'll give it a try! :D Thanks!

    3coat happens to be much faster than zbrush (atleast for me!)
  • travisdreams
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    travisdreams polycounter lvl 6
    artquest wrote: »
    3coat happens to be much faster than zbrush (atleast for me!)

    oh O_O well you got my attention already hahaha i'll get to it possibly tomorrow :D
  • travisdreams
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    travisdreams polycounter lvl 6
    here are some updates of my weapon:

    Turnaround.jpg

    Close_Up.jpg
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