Hey, this is my first time ever doing some retopology, I'd just like another artist's opinion on how I'm doing, I feel like I've been adding too many poly's, i've got no limit this is just for practise.
Even if it is for practice you should have a poly limit. If you are practicing for game models then you should keep to the limitations that comes with them. Yeah you are right the lp mesh is way to dense. Start over and go more light on the poly count and put a poly limit.
There is no such thing as too dense or too low - It just depends on the intended use of the model. What you are doing at the moment is pretty much in line with what one would see in a realtime ingame cinematic made for a project like Uncharted or StarCraft II.
There is no such thing as too dense or too low - It just depends on the intended use of the model. What you are doing at the moment is pretty much in line with what one would see in a realtime ingame cinematic made for a project like Uncharted or StarCraft II.
I'm pretty much trying to aim for a game model, for something like this what would be an ideal poly limit say if you wanted to get as many as these as possible on screen but still be able to maintain nice visuals. Like in a first person perspective, IMO I think it's best to keep the detail in the front because that would be the most visible 9/10, right? Right now if I added a symetary to it, that's 1540 poly's, by time i've done the legs i'm GUESSING it will be around.. 5000ish.. if I'm carefull with my noobish skills xD.
There is never really an arbitrary number to aim for without context, in order to get an idea of where you should be aiming you have to think about a number of factors: How big is it/ at what scale will this be seen by the player? Is it intended for realtime or cinematic? Is this a 'hero' asset or something that's going to appear again and again?
Setting yourself a limit like, 'I want to limit myself to 4K tri's for the whole thing' is a good way to learn and challenge yourself. However if someone comes along and says something like, 'horses are 8K so ants must be 2K, fact', then they have no idea what they're on about; it's all about context.
IMO I think it's best to keep the detail in the front because that would be the most visible 9/10, right?
In fact, no. Really what you want is a consistent polygon density across your mesh, there are exceptions of course but for something like this your probably going to want to keep the level of detail across the whole mesh fairly consistent. You have honestly no idea from what angle something like this will be looked at in the context of something like a game.
The general rule when it comes to retopology is whether or not something affects the silhouette, if it doesn't it's not worth additional geometry.
I would say though that you should just give it a go and see what you end up with, this is your first attempt and you should really just think of it as practice. Just try to resist the urge to put loads and loads of polygons in one small area (i.e. the head) and then next to nothing anywhere else, try to keep your polygon distribution sensible. The sooner you get used to that the easier you'll find it.
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Anyone think they can just show me a tutorial or give me a quick example on how I should be managing the poly's?
I'm pretty much trying to aim for a game model, for something like this what would be an ideal poly limit say if you wanted to get as many as these as possible on screen but still be able to maintain nice visuals. Like in a first person perspective, IMO I think it's best to keep the detail in the front because that would be the most visible 9/10, right? Right now if I added a symetary to it, that's 1540 poly's, by time i've done the legs i'm GUESSING it will be around.. 5000ish.. if I'm carefull with my noobish skills xD.
Setting yourself a limit like, 'I want to limit myself to 4K tri's for the whole thing' is a good way to learn and challenge yourself. However if someone comes along and says something like, 'horses are 8K so ants must be 2K, fact', then they have no idea what they're on about; it's all about context.
In fact, no. Really what you want is a consistent polygon density across your mesh, there are exceptions of course but for something like this your probably going to want to keep the level of detail across the whole mesh fairly consistent. You have honestly no idea from what angle something like this will be looked at in the context of something like a game.
The general rule when it comes to retopology is whether or not something affects the silhouette, if it doesn't it's not worth additional geometry.
I would say though that you should just give it a go and see what you end up with, this is your first attempt and you should really just think of it as practice. Just try to resist the urge to put loads and loads of polygons in one small area (i.e. the head) and then next to nothing anywhere else, try to keep your polygon distribution sensible. The sooner you get used to that the easier you'll find it.