3D Character workflow questions

ShinKaiser

I've been a C4D user for about 10 years and am now I'm thinking of getting into Maya & ZBrush as it seems that a lot of animation studios are asking for experience with those two applications. I am a confident modeller and have used the sculpting tools in C4D, so I'm hoping my experience of that will carry across.

One thing doesn't make sense to me however,  It seems the given workflow is to sculpt in ZBrush first and then retopologise. Retopology comes across as a mundane task. When using C4D, what I would do is this:

build the low poly first

Make the low poly mesh into high poly and Sculpt in detail

Project the high poly details onto the low poly.

This method you're building once and sculpting once, with no need for retopology. Is this method possible with ZBrush & Maya and acceptable in studios or will I be forced to use the 'Sculpt in ZBrush 1st' method?

Thanks!

Brian "Panda" Choi

Yes.  Just be cautious that Zbrush can destroy UVs with various operations.

Alex_J

you can do either/or, and I think most of the time you end up doing a mix. Whenever possible I build the low first (or start from base mesh), but inevitably at some point I need to rework it for some purpose.

oglu

Retopo is only needed if you dont have a decent base or blockout. A lot of Artists work this way on private assets but in production its not always the case.

Its a mix and depends on the asset and pipeline. 

Biomag

Good sculpting mesh topology isn't necessarily a good mesh topology for games. As geo increases in games they tend to get closer to each other, but there are still differences. The need for loop density is very different.

ShinKaiser

Alex Javor said:

you can do either/or, and I think most of the time you end up doing a mix. Whenever possible I build the low first (or start from base mesh), but inevitably at some point I need to rework it for some purpose.

Hey thanks Alex for your response - this makes sense to me actually.

Thanks to you all for answering my question, I'm relatively new to this community to apologies if I come across as a novice. They're all great answers and gives me a good insight to industry practises. It's good to know the Zbrush then retopology method isn't fixed rock hard and there's some fluidity to the process - it gives me hope! thanks again y'all!!

NikhilR

Retopo is necessary when you're using scan data, but there are programs that do automate the process.
Honestly I would say that once you're in the role you'll only be doing a part of it depending on the opportunities available to you at a studio (which depends on a whole lot more factors than just how good of an artist you are)

The good way to go about the process is retopologize as you need to. 
For instance I may start with a base mesh but I might need to conform it more, add and stitch additional topology to incorporate more details.
A lot of the studio pipeline reuses assets so most of the time all you're doing is setting up scenes or adding the additional detail needed before you send the model down the assembly line. 

In smaller studios you might have more flexibility in your process.

ShinKaiser

NikhilR said:

Retopo is necessary when you're using scan data, but there are programs that do automate the process.
Honestly I would say that once you're in the role you'll only be doing a part of it depending on the opportunities available to you at a studio (which depends on a whole lot more factors than just how good of an artist you are)

The good way to go about the process is retopologize as you need to. 
For instance I may start with a base mesh but I might need to conform it more, add and stitch additional topology to incorporate more details.
A lot of the studio pipeline reuses assets so most of the time all you're doing is setting up scenes or adding the additional detail needed before you send the model down the assembly line. 

In smaller studios you might have more flexibility in your process.

That's good to know, thanks NikhiR