So, I’ve tried to google the guide to retopology of human body for animation and find completely different answers. I’ve watched some of the Chris Jones’ stuff he has one way of retopology and holding loops(image 1), watched breakdown of Alberto Mielgo’s “the Witness” and it has different topology(image 2), found some random images online and it has another way of topology(sorry, don’t know the author(image 3)), stumbled on some models from Cyberpunk 2077 and they have a lot more holding loops around muscles like biceps, forearms, etc(image 4). And some topologies I’ve seen don’t have holding loops at all for example.
And while I was doing a retopology of my character(and using all these images as a reference) I’ve ended up with something in the middle(image 5). So as I understand there is no “right” version of topology for characters and it depends on your needs and preferences. So how to understand my needs and preferences?
I’m sorry if this is dumb question, I’ve been drawing 2d stuff all my life and only a couple years ago decided to try 3D.
A little more complex answer ( just a little little ):
It depends…
…no (or better yes ) …really… for a low poly game there is properly no need to build up all the details and there is also a reason why there are triangles at specific bending points and for a cinematic closeup ( like gollum when he is talking with himself) someone has to build up every detail (even the skin pores… which are indeed made in geometry before baking… even if with sculpting).
Also for all the different forms of people… some have more butt some more belly other have muscles… so for a “proper” topology it is wise to “extrude” the polygons at certain areas… but this all is not needed for some other appearances… or (now finally) in short:
Oh boi, this one is mine from a WiP thread here ='D
It just so happens that I’m remaking my base mesh right now (again!), so to support what @Okidoki says with current experience: it really depends…
I find that my old topo doesn’t work for what I usually have in mind: as a base mesh for sculpting it had too many poles in weird places, and as mesh for final retopology… well, it was too difficult to adjust to specific cases
This time I’m going for much more dense, but very simple topology.
hello again!
I have a question for you: why in your example you have holding loops and in demo files from blender for example where is no holding loops at all?
I understand that holding loops are needed for, but in some examples people have them in some don’t.
Hi)
Wish I could pretend that I knew what I was doing, but the simple truth is: I was just experimenting and hoping to stumble upon answers eventually =D
You can see some of my thought process here:
Originally this is a relatively low poly model and it was to be used as a basis for final topology. The loops are meant to support lowpoly shapes, to follow the curves of the body, otherwise you’d get jugged edges in some areas, where quads would have an uncertain shape. The more pronounced the curves of the body are (biceps, abdomen muscles, trapezoid, etc), the more likely you’d want loops defining them.
Also, with lower polycount you must be more mindful of how the topology would deform when animated.
However, if the model is supposed to be used as a base mesh for sculpting then these loops can prove to be more of an obstacle than help At least it was this way for me, so I dropped most of them in latest version.
In other words, my takeaway from this is: you must consider how the model you’re studying is used in its particular case. Is it an important character from a cinematic game? Does it take advantage of complex armature or blendshapes? Does it only work, because it has 20k triangles? Is it for non-real-time animation? Or is it just a basis for a sculpt?.. that sort of things.
):
):
) …really… for a low poly game there is properly no need to build up all the details and there is also a reason why there are triangles at specific bending points and for a cinematic closeup ( like gollum when he is talking with himself) someone has to build up every detail (even the skin pores… which are indeed made in geometry before baking… even if with sculpting).
At least it was this way for me, so I dropped most of them in latest version.