I just can't figure out the flow..

TheBigT

Hey ladies and gents,

I am new here and hope learn and help as much as possible!

My question lies in topology. I have been asked to make this character into a 3d model. I have sculpted it and I am ready to move forward. I was in the middle of my retopo and I realized I have no idea how this should flow for animation. The problem area I am facing is the nose/nostrils (nostrils closed). I have attached the sculpt.. I would love some feed back!

http://www.pasteall.org/pic/78917

Thanks for taking a look at my thread.

Cheers!!

TheBigT

http://www.pasteall.org/pic/78919

what i could come up with ughh that stupid nose..

Stromberg90

not a character artist myself, but I found this using the google.
http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/tips-tricks-related-facial-modeling-animated-productions/

Looks like pretty solid documentation from my view.

TheBigT

Hey Stromberg90,

Thank you for your post! I have read through that article and about a million others :P I just can't seem to figure out how to get good edge flow on this character. The nose really throws me off...otherwise this would be a piece of cake. I have looked up other models but can't seem to get one similar to this to compare. I hit a wall unfortunately.

SuperFranky

Nose is a nose, why do you need anything special for it? Just cover it with quads, it's a pretty simple shape and it probably won't be moving or doing anything weird anyway.

jfitch

The important part is to notice where those termination points occur, the vertices with 5 polygons surrounding it. Essentially what you'll want to do is just make sure you have a couple loops going around the eyes, then hit that transition point at the bottom of the eyes where it starts to flow over the nose and down around the chin. Make sure you have a couple good loops, then hit the termination point at the upper corners of the mouth muscles and loop around the mouth. Hope that helps a bit.

TheBigT

Awesome, Thank you jfitch!!

This is exactly the type of direction i needed. I am currently trying out 3d coat for the retopology. Just out of curiosity.. is there a reason the modeller of that image decided to use tri's in the top left temple area? I heard that you want to avoid these.

TheBigT

Also having a pole by the mouth like that.. is it possible that it would cause pinching.. or is there no way to get around that?

jfitch

The pole would only really be an issue if the model is going to be sub divided in zbrush or something. If you think about it that part of the mouth shouldn't move too much, and when it does the muscles will bunch a bit there.

The triangles are there so that the back of the head has less Geo than the face. A lot of artists will do this if the charter will have hair covering that area just to reduce vertex cost a bit. If I were you I'd keep it quaded and don't worry about it.

TheBigT

K that makes perfect sense.

http://www.pasteall.org/pic/79132

Here is the progress so far. I have two poles right beside each other under the eye. I can't seem to figure out how to do the nostril area.

TheBigT

http://www.pasteall.org/pic/79133 Here is the underside. Do you have any suggestions? I have tried finding models that are similar to this but with no luck.

TheBigT

http://www.pasteall.org/pic/79137 I have a feeling I am doing this wrong

Mark Dygert

This is another good resource for facial topology.

http://www.hippydrome.com/MeshDesignFace.html

jfitch

Honestly man it looks good to me. I find that with topology it's never going to be perfect no matter how much you want it to be, and you'll always run into moments where you think "am I doing this right?" but you have to push through. The other good thing to think about is that none of it is permanent. You can change and modify it until you feel its good enough, at least at this stage if you're not on a deadline.

jfitch

Mark Dygert wrote: »

This is another good resource for facial topology.

http://www.hippydrome.com/MeshDesignFace.html

Also that is an awesome resource!

TheBigT

Thanks guys, I really do appreciate the help!

That resource was awesome!