Looking for topology feedback on a base model for a character customization system

halbe

Greetings! This is my first time making a model that will utilize morph targets, and it seems that once I set them up I won't be able to easily touch up the model since verts can't be added or removed, so I'd better get it right at the beginning. Not only that, but the base model is to be androgynous so that it can be morphed between male and female. I figured I'd start with female since it will be easier to turn breasts into a male chest, and for the sake of future sliders I've been modeling what stuff would look like (such as fat/muscular limbs) then toning them down. It'll need to support males, females, skinny people, fat people, muscular people, old people, and children. Does this seem like the right way to do it? If so, I'd like some feedback on my topology setup.

There will be 3 LOD levels, a 5k tri one (which I'm modeling at), a 20k tri one (subdivided from the former), and a <1k tri one which I'll make later. The game is normally in first person but can switch to behind the shoulder third person which is why the back of the head is pretty detailed.

Here's the model right now: https://skfb.ly/6yvQo

I'll take feedback on any area, but the one I'm particularly unsure about is the torso, front and back. Specifically the topology of the front and the amount of detail on the back. I'd like to save verts where I can but maybe I was a little to overzealous on the lower back. The upper back stretches out a lot when I make it shaped like a muscular guy so I didn't want to remove much there. Thoughts?

carvuliero

Is this going to be cartoony or asian hand painted character ?
Do you really need to work that low ?
Do you need toes ?
How are you going to support character with bigger breast or fat character with this topology ?
Are they going to be nude all the time ?
Most form are not anatomically correct and topology is all crooked and at places wont support proper deformation
I will suggest you try your topology on extremely obese female and bodybuilder male and if it can hold those two  extremes than you can be pretty sure that  it can be wrap shrink to anything

halbe

carvuliero said:

Is this going to be cartoony or asian hand painted character ?
Do you really need to work that low ?
Do you need toes ?
How are you going to support character with bigger breast or fat character with this topology ?
Are they going to be nude all the time ?
Most form are not anatomically correct and topology is all crooked and at places wont support proper deformation
I will suggest you try your topology on extremely obese female and bodybuilder male and if it can hold those two  extremes than you can be pretty sure that  it can be wrap shrink to anything

1. The style is supposed to look realistic.
2. Yes, but I won't have them modeled on the sub 1k tri version.
3. When I modeled the breasts and stomach they were a lot bigger then I scaled them down.
4. Not all of the time, it's a game where you can choose your clothing/armor piece by piece but you can also wear nothing (you'll have to wear some underwear though, but I won't make it a part of the model so that it can be different on different characters)
5. Do you have a good source on how to fix this? I modeled it to a body I found off of google images originally but changed it to be more average as I made additional features.

Thank you for the feedback!

Alex_J

Do a quick rig, put into the most extreme poses you'll need. Touch up the weighting as necessary. That is a fast way to answer questions about the topology. So if it's a shooting game, make sure you can kneel correctly. If its a fighting game, make sure the leg can go high enough for a roundhouse kick, etc. Also, the way you do your skeleton influences how the model will deform as well. Another good reason to jump ahead and try things out. Just save your model/scene out, and no harm is done.

Also, check this out if you haven't already : http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/SkankerzeroModularCharacterSystem

carvuliero

To fix your forms you can use something similar to image below she is pretty balanced
For topology itself check the link and second image
Link: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/eNq43

halbe

Ok I've followed all your guys' advice (or at least attempted to) and got to this: https://skfb.ly/6yBEA

I completely redid the torso topology, most noticeably giving the stomach a lot of tris after realizing how bad it looked on really fat characters. Then I shaped it more to the female anatomy pic posted here and stole topology ideas from other models. I also managed to remove all the tris so it should scale pretty well.

If anyone has more feedback do let me know!

Alex_J

Nice work. 

I am working on rigging and animating (using purchased animations) some characters right now as well, although my models have a lot more vertices than this. I've learned a few things so far that I can share. 

1. The topology is one factor among many that are going to determine how well you model looks during animations
2. A workflow designed for back and forth look development between final product in game engine and your rigging app is key. 

So the setup I have right now is to have a scene in Unity with duplicates of my model running a loop of animations with a time slider so I can pause or slo-mo the animations. On my other screen, I've got Maya open with the model, and so as I pinpoint the problem area's in the animations, I fix them with weight painting and re-export the model. This is a pretty fast way to fix the vertices weights for a beginner like myself.