Sculpt first or last?
polycounter lvl 18
As I have been reading over the last few days I have got myself a question. The last time I was involved in game art (yes it was a long time ago) the low poly would be built first and then the high poly would be sculpted, normal mapping would occur etc. etc.. It would appear that now sculpting is done first and then the low poly is generated (retopologised) from the sculpt. Anyone care to weigh in on which way round they prefer to do things and why? Is it different for different assets - organics, hard edged, environments?
Replies
When an asset just needs to have some normal map details so it doesn't look like I stole it from 1997, I build the low poly first and then buff it a little with nDo or some quick kitbashing, and move on.
but rarely is this my low poly model ever returned to its just a base to work off, then I proceed once I have the high poly to retopo or poly reduction whatever is needed, sometimes I will go Base-Medium-High-Strip the Medium to Low then bake High to Low.
Then more Organic heads it seems easier to go, Base-Sculpt-Retopo to low then bake.
But there are many different workflows and it all falls to personal preference and what works quickest and gets the best result.
But the problem with that is that since you come from a lowpoly background, you are very likely used to working with extremely responsive scenes (running at over 60fps at all time, allowing you to easily cut and merge models, applying materials to faces to test out color schemes, and so on). All these operations are usually very slow to perform in sculpting packages (example : no way to select two "subtools" at the same time in Zbrush), thus most likely causing frustration.
Regular, non-sculpted highpoly is another beast altogether. By nature it is much more flexible than straight up sculpting, and has many of the advantages of lowpoly modeling : fast response time, a flexible 3d environment to work with, and so on.
My advice would be :
- If the design is 100% locked, then I can see cases where one can jump straight to highpoly, even sculpting. But concept artists are not machines, and if any edit is required down the line you might have to roll back quite a bit.
- If there is *any* loose end on the design being worked on, use the most flexible technique you are confortable with. It could be straight up box modeling, primitives mashing, or even some very rough sculpting to validate the design before going forward.
At the end of the day, the way I see it is not so much about which tool pushes the more polygons, but rather, which tool/approach allows for the fastest response time and maximum flexibility. The ideal environment is the one allowing to work non-linearly, on all fronts, at any time, without slowdowns. Giving priority to these factors will allow you to pick the tool that fits you best.
A traditional 3d modelling package with a module allowing you to also sculpt freely is probably the way to go in your case.
Good luck !
of subd work these days