Character pipeline

zzz7net

Hello polycounters !

1. I'm curious to know is there need to paint with a texture high poly mesh during character creation workflow ? Or there is a chance to paint over the low poly version of the cg character only ?

2. Is it possible to animate high res mesh perhaps for the showreel purpose if
my low poly mesh already has a rig (maybe is there opportunity to transfer rig from low to high poly mesh) ?

Snader

1 - You can make your diffuse and specular map without a highpoly, yes.

2 - I don't think so. You can copy the animation, probably, but you will manually have to make a rig for the highpoly.

e-freak

In 3Ds Max you can use SkinWrap to transfer weights from your Low to your Hi-Poly. Works usually pretty good unless you have some overlapping geometry (it basically works like a projection modifier).

In Maya you can transfer skin weights either by location or by UV-Set, depending which of the two is closer to your low poly!.

In both applications it might be a good idea to clean up the result afterwards, but it will at least give you a good start!

zzz7net

e-freak if so it's pretty well approach to the rig for a film makers. Because it takes much less time to rig up lowpoly and then transfer skin weights instead making the rig for highpoly at once.

Snader If yes, so does it make sense to spend some time on a UV for highpoly and paint both lowpoly and highpoly model instead of paint only low-poly version ?