Character Topology Study
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Most of my work has been hi-res sculpting up until this point. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I'm ever going to be a successful character artist in the game industry, I'm going to have to know a thing or two about topology. I've spent the last couple of days pouring over as much reference as I can. Here is the result. Hands and feet coming soon!
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And you can check out the completed model via Sketchfab:
BaseMeshF (click to view in 3D)
Anyone experienced with rigging or animating care to comment on the edge flow? Could I make any alterations to make your lives easier?
But, I'd recommend to keep everything in quads thinking with subdivisions. For example, I'd throw edgeloops between the fingers to have diamond quads instead of those triangles. Same for between toes as well.
Specially from the back it looks like the arms are attached to the sides of the ribcage.
Also I don't agree with FortyNights' "all quads" suggestion for two reasons; 1) models are triangulated in game engines by default, and 2) there are benefits in polygon optimization and deformation with tris. There is this basic tutorial that makes some good points: http://www.pig-brain.com/tutorials/tut02-02/
If you haven't you should check out Naughty Dog's character topology, and even Blizzard's Pandaren have similar topology: http://clevermusings.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/uncharted_comp.jpg
For those interested, I dug up the obj. It may differ slightly from when it was posted on Sketchfab. (Does anyone know if its possible to download your own models from Sketchfab?) Feel free to share it and use it for your own work, I just ask that you give credit if you publish anything using it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxIiJ0Luy6DBVUFhT1B2eXlqcEE/edit?usp=sharing
ultim8alex: The model was built as sort of a hybrid between an optimal sculpting base mesh and a final game resolution model. Mainly quads to play nice with zBrush, but clean topology that is quick to modify and reuse during retopo. With that being said, I have learned quite a bit since I made this mesh, and really only use it as a base for sculpting these days. It could definitely use some improvements, I may take the time to give it an update at some point in the future.
Topology looks very good to me. Indeed the butt could use a few more polygons but overall I think it's a really strong base mesh ! I love to see that kind of work, it reminds me times when topology and base meshes were super important back in the days when there was no zbrush yet.