[Character Art] Where do I go from here?
polycounter lvl 2
I'm trying to get into character art for games as a hobby. I'm not really sure where to go from here. I feel like I've got a pretty decent blockout with most of the major features. I know at some point I need to have better topology to start sub-d sculpting. Here are my questions:
- Should I be taking this into Blender to retopologize or is the next step to zremesh the whole thing?
- Why would you pick one over the other? For example, I know I'll need to retopologize for the low-poly mesh to eventually bake the high poly details onto, but in order to get my high-poly, do I need to subdivide it from my retopologized mesh or would zremeshing get me the same result to bake from.
- How do you know when to go to the next step?
Pretty sure this is my first post here, so if this type of question should be going elsewhere, please let me know and I can take it down.
Replies
Hey!This is my personal workflow so take it with a grain of salt,but I don't work like that.I mean going from a low poly base mesh to full sculpt to bake the results on the same mesh.I just sculpt in Zbrush and do the retopo after.It's easier,you don't have to worry about deformations of the base mesh,you just sculpt without restrictions.To answer your questions,if your mesh is ok to subd,I mean it doesn't have tris or nGons so you don't get artifacts,just subdivide and sculpt on it.If it has issues you can do a Zremesh,it usually gets good results.Also you can experiment with curves so you get an even nice topology.
Next step is when you like the result,then you can retopo.You can do that in Zbrush if,maybe,Blender doesn't support that much polycount,I have no idea,I don't use it yet.And I really like to retopo in Zbrush,again,just a personal opinion.
So just sculpt,get a nice result,and don't worry about topology for now! 😉
Your questions are a bit broad and hard to answer without additional information You can go any number of ways base on what you want to achieve All this options are viable and eventually will lead to the same result
What you have right now 100k dynamesh can easily hold so why would you need clean topo ? High res topology doesn't matter when you bake down to texture only low res do
Next step will depends as I said but I would fuse parts, clean the whole thing and try to improve on it before thinking about any technical specifications so amazing model first then everything else !
Nah, this is a wip so here is a good place to post.
1/ Nope there is still a load of stuff to work on before retopo, but when you get there Blender is super for that (retopo). Try to make a generic character. Good examples with a bit of swish you can find in this thread: https://polycount.com/discussion/79578/character-things-watch-out-for-nudity-3/p1
2/For characters I think its best to complete the high poly in your sculpt prog. For me that is usually zB, but not always. Retopo and uv the low poly in a DCC. Blender is more than capable.
3/ Easy. Go to the next step when you cant go further. BUT! never be afraid to go back and improve stuff. ALSO dont get addicted to making changes late in the process and never finishing.
Nice work, I like the forms and proportions you've blocked in. From this point, any two approaches will work. You could either:
A. Complete the sculpt first and retopologise last. This would allow your retopo mesh to be "made to fit" for the sculpt from the very first poly.
B. Retopologise the block-out and complete the sculpt afterwards. This would allow your retopo mesh to be "one size fits all". After completing the sculpt, how much you would need to adjust your retopo mesh is entirely dependent on how much is changed in its final sculpt. Like a save point, this retopo mesh could be used to springboard successive models from block-out and if enforced, could help unify your topology and UVs across similar characters and pipe into an omnirig, or scalable all-purpose rig. Creating a complex rig and a set of animations for it takes time. Reusing a rig and its animations saves production costs multiplicatively. This can get advanced, the choices made here benefit from experience and one can easily get lost in the weeds, costing more time than gaining. It's worth noting, you can just as well springboard from another completed character mesh, rather than building one that integrates into a production pipeline.
Thank you everyone for the responses. It seems like I should just keep going with the sculpting process and then worry about retopo at the end. Gonna circle back in a few days to try and post some updates.
That sounds like a great idea!
If you havbe an extra screen, you can use a free app like Daz to place a generic model that you can zoom and rotate around for reference while you sculpt. Stylized is good but if you are beginning try nail a generic sculpt first.
I agree with everyone's comments here.
1. If you are happy with your sculpt, I would get it ready to be retopo'd.
2. I usually work from high -> low
3. When you think its done, you can move forward, the highpoly isn't actually too "precious" and you can always go back and make minor changes to rebake.
It could be a good idea to move ahead through the pipeline and try to finish making a game ready asset. Your sculpt could be improved and polished, but since you are doing this for practice, I feel like going through the pipeline is important to learn.