Advice about base mesh and sculpting

jackalope

i am about to take my first character into mudbox so I can sculpt it. ive used mudbox before, but not on a character, this will be my first from scratch character so I want to do it right.


after looking at that image it looks like my edges are kinda poor in the breast area, and the one edge on the leg isn't following the contour of the leg.

She is also missing a few articles of clothing, but i can add that later. Clothing is one thing i have questions about, If i wanted to give her boots, and a tank top, would it be best to sculpt that into the existing mesh? I created the base mesh thinking that is what i was going to do. What is the best work flow for adding the scarf type thing, and the hood? am I doing it right by keeping it a separate mesh?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

haikai

There are a lot of ways to approach this, and it kind of depends on how you like to work, but it looks like you either have too much geometry in the head or not enough in the body. Of course, you will want more definition in the face, but if you subdivided this mesh a few times the face would get super dense while the body wouldn't be able to hold up any comparable detail. Some people separate the head so that it can be subdivided independently of the body.

I personally wouldn't recommend defining your base mesh in the face area as much as you have here. Some artists do work that way, but that works best if you're REALLY confident with what you have already and only need to sculpt fine details. Otherwise you're going to be stuck with topology that isn't going to be easy to manipulate.

I also recommend keeping your divisions as evenly spaced and square as possible so that it will subdivide predictably. You've got some long rectangles in there that may be problematic later.

Keeping objects separate is recommended unless you have a specific reason not to. I would be careful with surfaces that do not have thickness because the edges can be a major pain to deal with while sculpting. I personally like to add an extruded edge or just sculpt form a solid shape with thickness. This should be perfectly fine especially if you're going to be baking it down onto a plane and only one side will ever be visible in the normal map.

jackalope

ok, thanks for the reply. To add thickness like you said, extruding an edge, would i just extrude until it clips with the body? thank you again

haikai

jackalope wrote: »

ok, thanks for the reply. To add thickness like you said, extruding an edge, would i just extrude until it clips with the body? thank you again

I extrude a generous amount because I can always hide unused portions by pushing them under the body or something like that. Some people work just fine sculpting on a plane though. You should try out both ways and see which suits you.

jackalope

thanks, ill do that

jackalope

I dont know if anyone else has this problem, or if someone knows a solution, but in mudbox if i zoom in close to the model the mirror function screws up. It is either in the wrong place, or gone entirely. im going to try to scale up the model and import it again, see if that works.

EDIT: i just scaled it up in mudbox and it is working properly now, thats just bizarre though.

jackalope

started sculpting, not really sure about the face. something about it bothers me