Retoplogising Floating Geometry - Help Appreciated.

David Wakelin

Hi guys,

currently working on a university character and retopping my first character via zbrush. I have a quick question on how id approach this... would i retop OVER the belt or would i go under the belt and retop over it... if you get my drift...

Advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

Cheers


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ZacD

The first thing you need to figure out is if you have enough polygons to have the belt as a separate object, or if you can get away with just baking it onto the character.

When retopoing a character with separate parts, its easiest just to topo them one at a time. So retopo the shirt without the belt, just pretend the belt doesn't doesn't exist, and then do the same thing with the belt and pretend the shirt doesn't exist. You can topo the object separately by hiding the other objects, or doing them each in their own scene.

Ace-Angel

That's because you're using ZB's old retopo tools, which don't account for freeforming or spline workflow with other mesh sets.

They'll stick to the current mesh you have, so as Zac said, either simply use a cage push to bake the detail on the body or make a separate retopo for that piece.

David Wakelin

Ah understood!

If i retop in seperate pieces, will i have to connect them together somehow regardless? or would it be floating geometry? Will this floating geometry still bake even if it is seperate parts..

would i bake each thing individually and place it on a texture map or is there some way of baking them all onto 1 map despite not being connected

ZacD

You don't need to connect geometry, you can leave it floating.

For baking you'll put all the objects onto one UV map. You don't have to worry about merging the floating geometry until you are getting it into a game engine.

David Wakelin

So I'd just combine or group the objects and put on 1 uv island.... ok kool - cheers Zak appreciated very much

what if i wanted it in a game engine? would i have to merge floating geometry?

ZacD

It depends on the engine and how rigs and characters are setup, I haven't really messed with that kind of stuff.

almighty_gir

for things like belts though, remember that if it's floating geo in your final lowpoly, you need to make the topology match the body underneath it as close as possible, ideally it should be exactly the same.

for baking, if it's floating geo, you should explode your mesh while baking normal and diffuse maps, and then do two AO bakes, one exploded and one not exploded.

David Wakelin

Ok,

heres where im starting to get confused.

Im about to work on the belt; its slightly underneath a tshirt thats creased and overlaps half of the belt.... how can i get a topology similar to a an uneven shirt? I was going to make retop the high poly then just shove it there seems i cant?

Please explain!

cheers

ZacD

Basically you want to wires on the shirt to match up with the belt enough that it will animate well. They don't need to be exact, the main thing is you want vertical edges in roughly the same place.

David Wakelin

If ive finished retopping, and retopped in several different scenes. i.e. boots in 1 - belt in another... how do i ensure theyre EXACTLY in the location i wanted?

is it literally bring all in baking program - maya being an example and placing everything over my hi poly?

David Wakelin

And also a quick question... if im only seeing half the belt - would it be pointless to retop all of it?

Mark Dygert

ZacD wrote: »

Basically you want to wires on the shirt to match up with the belt enough that it will animate well. They don't need to be exact, the main thing is you want vertical edges in roughly the same place.

Yea you want to avoid doing the left example, and have the topology match so it deforms properly, like in the example on the right.

David Wakelin

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So im guessing this is a bad example but i cant get the detail of the grooves etc without the additional topology ;\ any suggestions

Mark Dygert

Well the belt is a lot higher poly than it needs to be. If I was resurfacing that I would probably just edge extrude/copy the torso down over the belt making it conform to it, like saran wrap and bake the belt into the final mesh. I wouldn't bother keeping them separate pieces or trying to get them to match. The shirt tail would be just a few simple cuts and maybe an extrude of its own to give it a tiny bump to the silhouette.

David Wakelin

Will give it a try.

Cheers Mark.

trebor777

or you can make a HighPoly belt in max, , all square-ish, as in flat on the ground; sculpt it if needed.
do a quick retopo over it with something like a long thin box.
Unwrap that in your final UVs, bake.
Duplicate that "retopo", or do another mesh whose UV's will match the outlines of the Retopo'UVs that has been baked and place it on the final mesh. you'll probably get some stretch here/there but the result will be pretty clean