retopo clothes?

Ruz

so having made a spanky zbrush pair of trousers or a shirt and finding out that the lowest level subdivision is not dense enough to bake a normal map from, I guess I have to retopo the mesh at this pont.
My question is which is the best approach, auto retopo like in 3d coat or manually build a new mesh wth topogun or similar?
My problem with this is that once I have decided to retopo and then at a later stage decide I am not keen on my orignal cloth folds I would have to retopo again.
I often go back and change stuff as I go along, so ths kind of kills my workflow somewhat. Any suggestions?

cryrid

and finding out that the lowest level subdivision is not dense enough to bake a normal map from, I guess I have to retopo the mesh at this pont.

How dense does it have to be? You could always go to the second or third subdivision level instead of the lowest.

If you find yourself changing the sculpt a lot, it might be better to keep the retopo clean; topology aimed more towards sculpting instead of edges that lock in the current shape of the folds. UV it in a way you deem close to your target / final specs (regarding the layout and texture/uv size), subdivide it, and project the sculpt detail back onto it. Then you'll have something that will give you a general approximation of what the end result will look like, and something that is still easy to sculpt and change for the time being. Save the final retopology for last once you're ready to sign off on things.

Ruz

cheers cryid, yeah that's generally how i kind of work, the 2nd subd level s generally a little dense to work with, but at least its easier to visualise how my cloth is looking in max if I just export the second or 3rd level.

generally though its only when i have to normal map the cloth that any problems in the bake become apparent ie how it translates and works as a lower res model with a normal map.

perhaps I could just make the lowest level a bit more dense so it captures more of the higher res silhouette? whch is kind of what you were saying in a way, though this stuff confuses me a bit

Mongrelman

Could GoZ maybe let you alter the geometry how you want and retain the sculpt?

Ruz

well that's not really the issue Mongrelman, its more baout getting the lowest sub divison level to much the highest level without too much retopo, though i just thinking of adding quite a few more loops the base level.

I am startng to thnk the issue is also about the cloth am doing is not that great also