Repology: Dazed and Confused

Mazz8

Retopologizing is one of my biggest weaknesses right now. I have been trying to make friends with but it never feels like I'm doing it right. I have a challenging time understanding where loops should go, what shapes I should be outlining and shapes I should just leave to the baking goodness. 

What is wrong with this topology and why? How can I approach it differently if I were to re-do it? I'm using topo-gun and manually adding vertices. 

Thanks in advance for the help.

Note: If you happen to know a resource that has really helped you understand topology/retopologizing, pleeeease guide me its way. 

Neox

this is where actual modelling experience will help you, but odly the youngsters seem to prefer to skip that step nowadays

i'd suggest you model a few characters, no zbrush allowed, as in the old days

Mazz8

Neox said:

this is where actual modelling experience will help you, but odly the youngsters seem to prefer to skip that step nowadays

i'd suggest you model a few characters, no zbrush allowed, as in the old days

This is true for me, I'm sure it is a huge gap in my learning as Zbrush was the first thing I started doing.

I'm with the idea that If I can pull off everything that I need to do in Zbrush and be able to retopo it, I'll be good. Is this delusional? 

Francois_K

Yes , that's delusional.

There's also a wiki with tons of information about retopology http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/ReTopologyModeling

Neox

Mazz8 said:

Neox said:

this is where actual modelling experience will help you, but odly the youngsters seem to prefer to skip that step nowadays

i'd suggest you model a few characters, no zbrush allowed, as in the old days

This is true for me, I'm sure it is a huge gap in my learning as Zbrush was the first thing I started doing.

I'm with the idea that If I can pull off everything that I need to do in Zbrush and be able to retopo it, I'll be good. Is this delusional? 

you want a job in a studio? then yes this is pretty delusional

ScoobyDoofus

Also...your topology exists to support animation deformation & texture usage. Not just to define the shape of the model.
I'd recommend rigging & skinning some things. Take those pants...rig & skin them. See how badly they deform...then retopo the "right" way and see how well they deform. This will be a major lesson in the "why" not just the "how" of topology.