Making a female base mesh.
Hello, better artists. So, I'm making a female base mesh for the first time, and I'm full of doubt. I think the issue is that I don't have the experience to affirmatively decide what's wrong and what isn't. I'm nervous about a lot of things, so I'm looking for some seasoned wisdom to guide me. If you see anything wrong -- anatomy, topology, whatever -- I'd be grateful to have your input.
And here's a couple areas that are really bothering me:
Lower breasts.
Shoulders and armpits.
And here's a couple areas that are really bothering me:
Lower breasts.
Shoulders and armpits.
Replies
Legs are pretty good, I can imagine you wanting this to be stylized slightly? The breasts need a little bit of influence from gravity. bring them down a tiny bit at the ends.
If you're unhappy with the back area, bring out the shoulder blades and pull the edges near the spine inwards. It makes for a nice (albeit innacurate) aesthetic.
Sagged the breasts a little, raised the crotch, shortened the neck, and fixed the arms.
I'd say the thighs sort of set me off, but to be fair they look correct. If you're worried about what your character looks like, just find references. Is this built off of a reference plate, or multiple plates? If that's the case and the plate is accurate you shouldn't illustrate doubt.
http://www.3d.sk/
http://www.fineart.sk/
http://the-blueprints.com/
a.) create a basemesh.
b.) Sculpt the high-poly details into that basemesh.
c.) create a new animation ready mesh that matches the silhouette of your high-poly sculpt.
d.) bake the high-poly information down into a low-res mesh.
Right now you are at step A. The basemesh you are creating at step A is different from the animation mesh. Right now, your job is to create as good a mesh as possible to sculpt on.
The best possible sculpting mesh follows proper topology, especially in the face. But it ALSO has evenly distributed polygons. You want your polygons to be as square as possible. So for instance those loops you removed in the bicep have created long rectangles. Long rectangles do not respond as well to sculpting because they are non-uniform.
Those super long rectangles in the forearm are also bad.
My advice would be to keep creating this mesh, but instead of worrying so much about conserving polygons, try to make the mesh as good as possible for high-res sculpting, use extra loops if you need them. This is for a program that uses polygons in the millions, so extra in the very lowest level are not going to hurt at all, but uneven ones might.
Anyways, it's always great to learn this stuff. Lots of people skip right to the sculpting, but this polymodeling stuff is super important even for organic modelers.
Good luck, hope all the above made sense.
a.) create a basemesh.
b.) Sculpt the high-poly details into that basemesh.
c.) create a new animation ready mesh that matches the silhouette of your high-poly sculpt.
d.) bake the high-poly information down into a low-res mesh.
Right now you are at step A. The basemesh you are creating at step A is different from the animation mesh. Right now, your job is to create as good a mesh as possible to sculpt on.
The best possible sculpting mesh follows proper topology, especially in the face. But it ALSO has evenly distributed polygons. You want your polygons to be as square as possible. So for instance those loops you removed in the bicep have created long rectangles. Long rectangles do not respond as well to sculpting because they are non-uniform.
Those super long rectangles in the forearm are also bad.
My advice would be to keep creating this mesh, but instead of worrying so much about conserving polygons, try to make the mesh as good as possible for high-res sculpting, use extra loops if you need them. This is for a program that uses polygons in the millions, so extra in the very lowest level are not going to hurt at all, but uneven ones might.
Anyways, it's always great to learn this stuff. Lots of people skip right to the sculpting, but this polymodeling stuff is super important even for organic modelers.
Good luck, hope all the above made sense.
Very good point, though I must say for an area like the bicep you might as well put the extra loops to use as opposed to having them just sitting there.
Personally I just throw the loops on there to keep the mesh in even quads so that I don't have poly stretching while I sculpt, but it seems like his goal is to have a proportionate and anatomically accurate model before he takes it someone else.
My own meshes look like someone tried to make a stickman out of cardboard tubes.