modelling clothing

imk

Hi, i wanted to model a game character that is a nazi soldier but i have a few questions regarding the clothing. Here's the ref

http://cdn4.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/CoD-zombies.jpg

I am wondering what's the right way to model it. Should i model it in one piece and use textures to create the collars and folds or i should model it in detailed?

Thanks

David Wakelin

There are several ways to model a character; and each artist is different - however the general pipeline is:

1. Model a base mesh.
2. Import into mudbox or zbrush and sculpt on that base mesh the detail of the body - i.e. muscle
3. Back in your base mesh file block out pieces of clothing; - a easy way of doing this to duplicate your base mesh and use parts; i.e. a foot and turn it into a boot - once you've blocked it out import into the sculpting program and zbrush the detail onto this, and move it ontop of your character.
4. When you've finished all the clothing, export out the high poly mesh from the sculpting program.
5. Retopologise a new mesh from the high poly mesh (make a new lower poly version using retoplogy techniques) - this will make all your clothing/body 1 single mesh rather then meshes all ontop of each other, yet still look realistic and asif the character is "wearing the clothes" - this is what I found hard to understand at first
6. Bake the detail from the normals of the high poly mesh to the low poly mesh - this will decrease polygon size, make it able to be used in games with the right loops in places for animation and make it easier to texture.

imk

I see, thanks for the info ;D

Then how long does it take for the whole process.??

GeeDave

Just an FYI, but the whole "import into sculpting software" is not a requirement, it depends entirely on what you're going for.

A good general rule of thumb to keep is to "define the silhouette", things like pockets/creases/stitching/zips/buttons can generally be taken care of with bump/normal maps, or even just a good diffuse (again, depends on what you're going for). More exaggerated details that you'd expect to literally poke out like collars or general "baggy" stuff will need geometry to emphasise it.

Here's a great example from Ben Mathis in regards to what you can do with a pretty "flat" mesh:


And again from Ben, with more poly's:

David Wakelin

As previously noted; it all depends on your objective; whether you want a low poly or high poly character; generally game platform is more the rule of thumb to depend on here.

Again, as most on here; I'm still learning myself, and it can take a very long time until it becomes more natural and gradually you increase your knowledge in anatomy, and the creation process;

an interesting read, I've gone over it several times:

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98115&highlight=ROGUE

Ace-Angel

In L4D series for example, they don't use any Normal Maps on the Zombies for their folds and such, they make clever use of Diffuse and Specular, so as said, it all depends.