Whats your program workflow for game character modeling?

kreativ

This is about characters which will be rigged and animated later for games/tv.

Do you build a low-poly base model with correct topology in maya/3dsmax/modo and then go to zbrush/mudbox to sculpt at high res, and bake maps and back to low-res in maya/3ds

OR

or is it quicker to start in a program like zbrush (which has more brushes, people share their custom brushes, easy to apply to lot of effects quickly, etc), and get things done fairly quickly. And then Retopologize?


PS - I have just started and can model basic props and cartoon characters, but now want to move onto modeling detailed characters and with a better, QUICKER workflow. ATM my workflow is the first one - Modeling in maya/3ds (considering topology at all times, especially around eyes and mouth), then moving over to zbrush for basic sculpting as by now I normally have 99% of the character built in maya/3ds, texture/paint/bake maps, then back to low-res for rigging. However, I was wondering whether starting the whole model in brush and then retopologizing would be much quicker since zbrush can be very powerful especially for organic modeling. Pls Help!

Neox

it depends on the character, the style, the plattform, the genre etc. isn't that simple. Just like the average character polycount it depends on so many factors, its impossible to say anything about it without knowing what you would like to achieve.
Bot methods have their pros and cons

kreativ

would appreciate if you can find the time to state the pros and cons.

At the minute I dont have a specific project. All I know is that I will be modeling characters that need to be detailed like warcraft characters, but will need to be game-ready.

This guy here has great tut on 3D Character Art for Games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbCl66NFTSs
But he seems to be working mostly in zbrush for modeling. I wondered whether it would be faster for me to do that instead of starting in maya/max

Neox

Warcraft sounds a lot like classical handpainted lowpolies. But League of Legends goes a similar route and they use sculpts for their textures. Which is a really valid approach.
Especially these days when classical texturepainters are rare and people who can sculpt are around every corner. Anyways okay pros and cons.

1. lowpoly first, highpoly after

pros:
- you have a game ready mesh really quick, you can rig it up and test it in the game early
- usually very quickly made, super fast to iterate on
- easier to match low polygoncount limits, you see early what part of the concept might not translate well into the lowpoly due to the limits

cons:
- The meshes might not be the best for sculpting
- you are somehwat limited in the sculpt phase, you can't just change stuff on the fly without breaking your lowpoly


2. Highpoly Retopo workflow

pros:
- lots of freedom in the formfinding stage

- meshes are made for sculpting, so its overall much cleaner and easier to sculpt this way

- these days as an employer its easier to find people who are used to this workflow

- sculpting is much more fun than modelling (to me)

cons:
- on current gen polycounts this might not apply anymore that much, but hitting the right polycount can be tougher if you just sculpted away and in the end find out that you will have to join details etc.

- takes longer to be in game, ready for rigging, animation etc.

- in the early stages easy to iterate, at one point starting over will be quicker than a new iteration. Meshes can get so heavy that bigger changes might be a problem.
Of course you should plan things out.

there will be many other pros and cons but i don't have the time, really it comes down to your project and your personal experience. i can work both ways and use them both or mix em in different production environments.

kreativ

THANK YOU so much for sparing the time. You have no idea how long I have been searching the net for some ideas. probably over 18 hrs. Much appreciated. Really is. (Danke.)

Aabel

If you start in Zbrush consider making some scale reference object in a real 3d program first so you can build your character to scale from the beginning and save yourself some headache down the road.

The reference object can be something as simple as a cube with the rough dimensions of your character.