Retopologizing help

hannya84

Hey there, I'm a Environment Art student and I made an account to ask this but.. What's the optimal way to retopologize basic assets?

I'm fairly confident in my skills in sculpting, modelling, unwrapping etc. But I'm always pretty fuzzy on how to retopologize well. It's generally the step where the quality of my assets tends to drop drastically.

Generally my workflow goes Sketch > Whitebox > Sculpt > Retopo

Using Michael Vicente's throne as an example (I love the Blizzard style). How would one go about retopologizing it? Is it acceptable to decimate a mesh within Z-brush to use it as a game ready asset, or is that only acceptable for Dioramas? Is it better to use the freeform modelling tools in Max/Topogun/Z-modeler? Should I just start with a better low poly mesh?

And as a side question. Are triangles acceptable on low polys? Assuming the mesh would just be static. The course I'm on is annoyingly vague on the details as to what's acceptable in games.

musashidan

Certain assets can indeed be decimated. Or you can use any number of Zbrush retop tools: topo brush/zremesher/zsphere topo/a combination. A lot of people don't rate Zsphere topology, for example, but it's simple, quick when you get used to it, and you can stay in ZB without having to decimate/export.

Obviously Max/Maya retop tools are more powerful as there are many more options and the ability to mix it with standaed modeling tools.

On the other hand, starting with a basemesh is a very viable route and one that can save a lot of time. It's simply a matter of optimising the silhouette. So this eliminates the retop stage as you already have the game-res mesh built.

So learning when to use what tool is something that comes with experience, by doing. Nobody can tell you what tools to use. You should test and try all the methods and see which fits your workflow best.

And yes, triangles are acceptable. In fact, using tris strategically is key to low-poly modeling. There are reasons to use quads where you can for easier modeling and uv-unwrapping/rigging down the pipeline but, the mesh will be auto-triangulated by the game engine anyway. So, triangulating your mesh before final export to game(or map baking) is an important step so that you have full control over edge direction/normal shading.