I then built the mesh in patches according to the reference. As you can see, Reilly rhythms do not translate well to topology, however I still find them very useful for keeping track of all the complexity.
Regarding analogue; pen and paper are still my primary tools for most of my problem solving. The basics transcend technology.
Ears are made. I guess the area partitioning speaks for itself. I find that much of the ear can be thought of as a thick sheet that has been warped and folded into shape. Not how I built it but again a helpful abstraction.
Also got started on the neck. I’ve mapped it out according to major anatomical areas. I think I’ll leave it there for now and move on to the hands.
Not too pleased with the hands but they will have to do for now. In regards to topology I almost find them more difficult than the face. They vary in shape quite a bit between poses, the skin in particular. I was previously unaware of how much the carpals define the shape of the wrist, even in neutral pose, hence I loosely marked them by the orange area in the reference below.
The rig is simple at the moment. In the future I would like to address the issue of wrist deformation.
In hindsight it would probably have been a good idea to paint rhythms on my hands as well. Would’ve made it easier to keep track of deformations.
The model at its current state.
I decided to do a male body first, then make a female version. Part of this exercise is to make the model look as realistic as possible without relying on sculpting, yet still have a topology suitable for that. It will be used as a starting point for future characters and should look decent from the get go.
Had a difficult time figuring out the topology around where the arm joins the body so i decided to take a step back and work out some basic principles. The topology I’d base any clothing on ends up pretty much like a base mesh you’d use for sculpting and deforms well. Glove topology works rather well for hands too.
I’m currently in the process of converting the upper body area of my complex mesh to match the new base and it seems to be working out, however some anatomical features that where defined by topology (clavicles in particular) will have to rely on vertex positioning but it’s a price worth paying in my estimation.
