High poly - model with eyes/mouth open?

hobodactyl

Hi everyone, I'm wanting to start making some decent high-poly characters, and I've looked at several tuts and everything, but just wanted some opinions: is it better to model the high detail with the eyes and mouth shut, and then model the inner mouth seperately? Also, should the butthole be puckered, or totally open? :P

MoP

As usual, "it depends".
What's the character for? Is it going to be seen close-up, with lip-sync and facial animation? If so, modelling the mouth at least slightly open is probably a good idea. Otherwise you are just gonna have to almost backtrack and add an interior.
If the character will just be running around (UT3 style), then you can get away with a closed mouth.

hobodactyl

Cool, so basically having the mouth open just allows you to hide the seams a little more smoothly?

Chai

Since you'll probably make the teeth as seperate mesh, you can get away with making the inner mouth seperate as well (as the teeth will hide the non continuity in between).

If you plan any mouth movements, I'd recommend making the mouth slightly open - will save you a lot of headaches with normalmaps and whatnot.

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