First female model critique

Tevin

hello everyone

I am currently working on my first female model or base mesh. I have been following a tutorial online by James Taylor in modelling a female character. My first attempt was..yh it wasn't great but that was because i made the mistake of using a stylised body references and head references.

So I started again from scratch but this time using an ecorche for body reference and using a photograph of a female model. 

I was hoping I could get some critiques and advice on what you think whats good whats bad. I recently got told that more of the detail can be added with ZBrush but I don't have Zbrush and I can't afford it so my closest option is Mudbox.

This was my first attempts and references i used


My second attempt and the reference i used

carvuliero

I am a bit confuse here are first 3 yours or maya screenshots are yours too  ?

Anyway they all have things that need to be corrected [even ecorche reference] so whats the problem exactly ?

Tevin

The first 3 images are the reference I used and screenshots of my first attempt  on maya 2017 which I mentioned I made the mistake of using a stylized body reference... 

so I was told last time I posted here on polycount that I should use a better reference and when I asked if a ecorche would be better I was told it would be a lot better so the second 3 are the ecorche that was recommended and screen shots of the final model 

carvuliero

Ok why don't you post a few more views [preferably orthographic]

This is maya just box modeling right and your end goal is base mesh for what purpose ?

Tevin

Well, this was the first female base mesh that I had ever done and the tutorial that I was following by James Taylor was a base mesh that would be ready for animation. because I want to at some point animate her whether it a walk cycle or doing a more complex movement 
I bought the full version of the tutorial that's not as quick and shows the whole process. but even in the full version, he doesn't show how he turned the triangles on the breast area into quads

but here is a link to his video and channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZekghp78x8

 Here is some screenshot of the model from orthographic views.

Alex_J

This is just a general rule of thumb I've developed for myself after having some simple experience with rigging, but for areas you know will deform, like for instance the glutes, and you don't want them to lose too much volume, I find it useful to make the topology so that a new edgeloop can be inserted easily later if necessary. So, for example, the quad loops around the part where the glutes are going to stretch during running or sitting run all the way along the sides of the body. If you realized during animation testing that the butt is losing too much volume, it won't be easy to insert an extra edge in there. But if you reroute one of those loops so that there is one concentric loop around the butt, then adding in some more resolution as needed isn't hard if you need to.

One great thing about working in Maya is you can do the quick rig to test things out very easily. So if you are wondering, will a 6 sided pole be an issue right here? For a humanoid character it's so easy to test it out within just a few minutes.

carvuliero

Require some tweaking but its ok  for the most part

Tevin

I'm not sure if it's better or its a step in the right direction I used the quick rig and the glutes don't lose a lot of volume but I doubt how much of it is down to the skinning

I'm trying to practice my character modelling to eventually start a career in games or animation and when I was at university we didn't really work on the fundamentals with topology in regards to characters because we had 2 lectures working on their own projects during class time and occasionally taking over our models and telling us what they did. what's worse is they left without us knowing so I'm reaching out to get help...the character was originally in the A Pose and I was told  on Discord i should put it in the A pose but will I was in university I was taught that it had to be in the T pose to make it easier to rig and skin. 

Im sorry if this seems long or essay-like

carvuliero

If you keep previous version I suggest load that up and try to implement changes again looking closely to my notes

Easiest way to learn topology is to look for what big animation/game studios are using and adopt some of their solution [like joints and shoulder topology been the most problematic ]

About the pose doesn't really matter you can model in any pose ,if you in a team and rigger want T pose you can always change it from default

In my experience knowing what model will do is best way to plan in what pose to model it , for example if she is going to keep her arms mostly next to her body A pose will be best if she is going to do some wild stuff and raise her arms a lot T- pose will be best , if character will be using mocap T pose will be best , for retargeting A or T pose depends in what the source is in

Tevin

Hi

Update..

I've been working and reworking on the body mesh but I'm still not sure if it's good or even close to okay to okay for animation as I mentioned earlier. I have tried to make the corrections that were mentioned and carried on looking at photographic references to help me. one of the changes I'm sure you will see is I have added divisions to the mesh and i have slimmed her waist so the body has a more noticeable hourglass.

The part of the mesh that I feel like I'm struggling with, even with the references that I have is the face or the head as a lot of the meshes that I have seen some they look completely different to mine while others have a bit more topology in the back and from some angles it doesn't completely look feminine. So I'm not sure if the topology is okay for animation.

carvuliero

How did you end up with completely different looking model ? Your initial attempts was decent just require some minor tweaks .

Is there anything that you cant understand in my paintover

Topology wise if you need some sort of example this topology seems to give good deformation

Link: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/eNq43

Tevin

I know I'm probably an annoyance by now and I am very sorry.

but I feel I need to do this and ask all these questions and keep posting if I'm going to learn or improve. I took your tweaks that you showed in the Gif and I was contacted on Discord about the model and given some advice for my base mesh by using a scanned photo reference. So far I got a green light from them and they have said that the mesh looks like its good enough to animate or to start rigging now that I have worked in theirs and your tweaks

carvuliero

What channel is that on discord ?

So whats the question exactly ? If you ask about over all look ,pose and anatomy you should be your biggest critic so if you like what you see go ahead if don't keep working on it .If you ask about topology easy way to check your current topology is good enough is to use autorig and test what deformation can get out of it  , if you loose volume or mesh collapse on itself either weights are not good enough or its your topology

I am pretty sure that knee and butt will be a problem with edge loops you have right now, shoulder too

in 1 you have low density and major bending point and 2 you have higher density and no deformation for the most part