Human character topology question (female hip)

AudCavalier

Hello everyone!

First of all I'm kinda new to the forum (or at least just finished being a lurker lol), decided to post because I need some pointers from experienced character artists

Been working on a character as a personal project, so far I made 2 versions of the topology based on references but also while following some online courses, I wonder which one is better or more desirable.

A little bit of context: this character is made with the intention to use in a game engine (although at this point should work more as a basemesh than a final character), I'm trying to emulate technical specifications of games from the PS4/Xbox one era (the complete basemesh is laying around 20k tris) so at one point this should be animated which is why I'm working while planning ahead for deformation. Also style-wise my goal being creating characters with style similar to games like Nier series, Dead or Alive, Vindictus or even Final Fantasy XIV (so not really aiming for hyperrealism, not sure if that is important for topology matters as it is for texturing matters, but still mentioning it here)

Take 1 (basically the entire shape is being handled by quads):

Take 2 (tried to do this poly-strip that goes around the hips and back into the middle):

Take 1 is based almost entirely on online courses (the few I could find that make the basemesh from scratch), noticed they rely mostly on quads but also because they handle a way higher polycount as the courses are marketed as making characters rendering and/or VFX.

Take 2 is based on some references I could find online, also I found this type of topology on 2 game characters (2B from Nier: Automata, Cammy from Street fighter, both which use a leotard type of clothing and have the rear exposed... well 2B without the skirt that is) others either don't have the hips (because of clothes) and a few have the take 1 type of topology which is why I'm unsure which would be either the way to go or the most desirable one (not really thinking industry standard as that seems to change based on platform and polycount)

Thank you in advance

okidoki

Not beeing a pro and not being a 3D veteran but AFAIK:

• The first is the the bash mesh for further sculpting..and 
• the second is the wanted retopologized mesh for animation..

You may also look into this splendid Wiki .. espcially after More Information.. so both are nice so far..

Alex_J

i doubt you find any issues animating with the first one.

the second one looks like the daz topology, which is designed around highly flexible blendshapes (like character can go from skinny to pregnant to obese).

simple is always best so long as it suits your needs.

pior

You could simply have a look at the MetaHuman topology.

AudCavalier

Thank you all for your answers!

everything helps a lot, being self-taught I have rely a lot on observation and still haven't figured out many things

as for this one at least at this step I'll go with the 2nd version as it seems to be flexible enough, can always keep both and as per okidoki's comment use first one as the basemesh for sculpting and once I'm ready to go to the next phase in the pipeline use the 2nd one (thank you zwrap lol)

Eric Chadwick

While all the current replies are good, I would also suggest a slightly different approach. 

Start by deforming your mesh into some poses, and you’ll see right away where it starts to break! For example the Warrior 2 pose from yoga.

Then you can refine your loops to help your model retain shapes. 

Experience is often the best teacher for why certain topologies work better than others.