How would I retopo a spiky dragon like this?

meejeebee

I'm modelling a spiky scaled dragon and I'm going to retopo this later. Then it's going to be baked, textured and rendered to look as realistic as possible. 

With the retopoing, should I retopo the spike scales as well or can this all be done in displacement maps? Just not sure how detailed/complex the retopo has to be.

kanga

Why are going to retopo? Does it meed to be animated?

Start by telling what you want from the model in the end. Yes you can retopo all the scales (and the rest) and yes you can displace the entire thing. They both work. What result do you want? Is it personal research, is it a job, is it for your folio?

meejeebee

This is for a portfolio. I'm doing the whole retopo and bake and texture method because I want to show the employer I can do all these and end with a realistic result.

Fabi_G

With such overhangs, looks like quite some work when re-topologising.

A possibility I would explore, would be just slightly protruding scales so easier to re-topo but possible to stick in separate, instanced "hero" scales.  Probably would do some tests before, to evaluate the option (does it save time?, possible to hit quality target?). But I'm lazy

Good luck!

kanga

Ah ok. So like Fabi_G said, the first thing to do is get your character into a neutral pose for baking. The pose isn't impossible to retopo but it is fiddly. Just retopo the scales with normal undercuts and if you gave trouble with artifacts then experiment with ray casting distance. Open mouth, eyes, teeth, tongue separate meshes.

Klunk

what's the target face count for the new topology ?  then decide how that target is divided up on head, body, wings, claws etc
(it should probably be in the same ratio as the high). Then it's, as above, a testing process to see what works best to achieve the goal... it'll probably be a combo of trad normal mapped geometry with carefully placed "quad" scales. It's not going to be trivial for sure.