Clipping Meshes After Retopology. How do I fix this?
Hey guys,
So I’m making this 3D character that I intend to animate, but I’ve been having this issue with retopologizing my sculpts from Zbrush. As we know, bad topology means great fun later right? Hehe.
Anyway, after I retopologize my high poly meshes, I always seem to get some form of clipping from underlying meshes.
Examples:
Is there a solid way to fix this? I’ve tried a few suggestions from the internet, but I also feel like there are some drawbacks to some of these methods.
I have also been theorizing a method, but I don’t know if that method is a valid option to take.
Notes: I plan to bake a normal map from my Zbrush sculpt, so my low poly retopologized mesh needs to be accurate. I also don’t think this is a clipping plane/ camera issue. The model looks like this when I bring it into Substance Painter too.
Here are some suggestions from the Internet that I have followed:
- Try to make the mesh on top follow the topology of the mesh below.
While this make sense, sometimes it’s too time consuming to pull off. It’s not bad, but it isn’t good either. Moving verts around can get tedious. Also, in some cases, it isn’t possible. There’s got to be a better way.
- Increase the resolution of your meshes.
This would be good if I didn’t intend to keep the mesh fairly low poly. But I do, so that sucks.
- Delete the parts of the mesh below that you won’t see.
I do this all the time. It makes sense. However, for certain parts of the body that I still need the mesh below, this doesn’t work. For example, if I have pieces of armor that break off, I can’t have anyone seeing an empty void, lol.
- Add thickness to mesh on top.
I am not sure if this is a valid option. I haven’t tried this, but I’m not sure how adding thickness helps as it ruins the silhouette I tried so hard to make. Plus, map baking must be a little funny.
My theories:
- Retopologize, texture, and bake maps like normal, adjust later.
Pretty much what the title says. If I retopologize, texture, and bake my maps like normal, theoretically, I should be able to adjust any clipping with other meshes later, right? I would probably use soft select in Maya and adjust verts as needed. My mesh might look a bit different and some of the texture could be slightly warped, but it should be okay in the long run…. but is that even allowed!? This means I haven’t stayed true to my Zbrush sculpt. However, If I need to cheat, I wouldn’t mind.
Am I going about this wrong? I know this is a lot to chew, but I would love to hear anyone’s suggestions. Thank you for your time in advance.
Replies
Maybe try ro add some "supporting" edgeloops/faces to retopo mesh near the "problem-area, so that the touching mesh can "flow and bend" better to avoid that "clipping"
That is what i would try
If you move verts after baking your normals, you need to bake your normals again
Also, how is that less work than the first option?
in general, if you have the need for layers, you want them to align as close as possible, because they will deform in animation. If they do not line up, they will deform differently, causing clipping that you might not have seen in the modelphase.
usually instead of adjusting them after the fact, you would use the original body topology, project it onto the clothes and go from there.
After doing my textures and baking my normals, the intent was to adjust verts and to not do my normals again; I would use the maps I had already finished. Thinking about it again though, I presume it probably isn't a good option as it can lead to many other potential issues later. I'll see what I can do in regards to moving verts. I just possibly may need to add more resolution too.
It seems like moving verts and adjusting the mesh to conform better to the model is the clear option here. What you say makes a lot of sense. If they don't line up before, when deformed, they won't line up then.
Also, I kinda get what you mean about projecting the topology from the body onto the clothes, but I'm not sure how I would go about doing that. My first assumption is Zbrush's Projection function, but I feel like misinterpreting something.
My base mesh was retopologized. After Retopology, I extracted the clothes from that retopologized mesh. After extracting the clothes, I zremeshed them. The only time the clothes had similar topology to the basemesh was before I zremeshed. If I wasn't supposed to do that, I'll note that down for next time.
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All in all, Thank you, everyone, for providing me with some suggestions. You have all been a great help. I'll tinker with the model more in hopes for a better result, and I'll keep doing it until I get it right.