Triangles

mrlemonyfresh

Hi.

I'm making a character for an assessment and although it doesn't seem to be mentioned in the requirements doc, the teacher is really stressing against having any triangles in my work. I'm making a low poly character suitable in density for the half-life 2 engine, and I need the right shape and low density where I can as is appropriate. I see low poly hands with triangles in them and think 'well that can't be right, won't that be an issue when taken into zbrush/mudbox? so I have no triangles, but then looked at poopinmymouth's low poly hands and notice they have normal maps.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45853

What's the deal with this? is it all quads until after zbrush/mudbox where some parts are triangulated to give better shape? what about all those (sphincters?) that appear after subdivision due to the triangles?

r_fletch_r

Most folks sculpt on a quad mesh and then make a lowpoly once thats been finished.

cryrid

What's the deal with this? is it all quads until after zbrush/mudbox where some parts are triangulated to give better shape?
what about all those (sphincters?) that appear after subdivision due to the triangles?

Quads help a lot for subdivision (and subd sculpting), but even then triangles aren't always going to cause an issue depending on where they are placed or what you're trying to achieve. The meshes you're seeing in that post don't seem like they were meant to be subdivided anyway. Once you get down to the final game asset (especially the lower polygon range - I think HL2 was around 5k-7k for most NPCs), then some triangles can help control the loops and deformation.

I'd still try to keep as many clean quads as I could until the very end as I find them easier to work with (like being able to select loops and ranges), but I don't see why anyone would try to avoid any and all triangles as if they were the plague.

Ace-Angel

Poop never mentioned anything about triangles and be sculpted with triangles, also if you look at the last images, you will see the hand was Sub-D modeled, and not really sculpted at all.

Honestly, you should be creating a very simple low poly model and using ZB to sculpt on that, basically a model without any real details, just basic forms, all quads, less than 2,000 or 500 polies pending on your needs.

Triangles have become much easier to deal with since the inclusion of the new smoothing brushes. One of the major issues with Triangles was if you sculpted too much in the area with a triangle and/or smoothed it, it would start becoming pointy or jagged. But with weight brush's and smooth brush's like Valiance, you can get away with a few triangles.

Either way, you should be really sculpting on a very low poly model and getting in some robust forms before retopologizing it sculpting the more miniscule details.

mrlemonyfresh

Yes, in my experience it seems that zbrush is better at dealing with triangles. My first work in zbrush was a mesh made up almost entirely of triangles and it came out really nice. Mudbox on the other hand gave me problem in that regard, although I guess it could have been avoided.

The only problem is that I won't have time to create a subdivided version and redraw toplogy. So I'm thinking I should be of the opinion that triangles are good for ending edge loops in problem areas?

Ace-Angel

Yeah, it should work. If you're cut down on time, or aren't going after a hero/main piece, then I don't see why you can't save time on a model which has some triangles here and there which aren't noticeable.

So yeah, go ahead, although I would like to see the piece you're making progress on.