Model is too clean, need some help adding details (topology)

[MayImilae]

You probably don’t hear that very often :P. But yea, I built a model for a game character, and well, it’s too clean. The topology doesn’t flow with human curves, so it washes out all the details. Sure it’s very clean, but if it can’t convey details, then what’s the point. While it is a non-realistic anime-type game model, it was kind of ridiculous in how detached it was from reality. Way too simplified. So, on with the pics.

Thumbnnail, click for full resolution

This first pic is the original torso design that I created. The idea was it was sort of an undersuit type thing, and we’d never see much else. As the game has evolved, it’s become apparent that we’ll need some more variety in clothing types, and I rapidly realized that very simplistic method was not going to cut it long term.

Thumbnails, click for full resolution

This next one is the progress so far. Modeled boobs, collar bones, and a needing-much-help belly button. This is a stylized game, so the full belly button seemed weird, but I’m not satisfied with the end result. Anyway, this model has much more flexibility with clothing and other tasks that may come up. It’s still a little messy, I need to spend a little time cleaning it, but it’s doing the job, more or less.

So, here are my problems with it so far.

• I can’t seem to figure out how to make the tendon that goes from the pects under the breasts to the shoulder. I’ve tried a billion different things, but they all look terrible. I really need help with this.
• Belly button. It’s anime style, so it needs to be quasi-realistic. Just not sure how to do it.
• Collar bones are messsss-y. Any ideas for better methods to get them to flow with the model?
• There is no way for this topology to do the gentle variations that are in the leg to torso transition and the abs. It just… can’t. I need to rebuild the way the legs connect to the body for that. I have a guess for how to do that though… will try tomorrow. Still don’t know about the abs though…
• Yes I know, the arm pits are too low. It’s on my list.

So guys, what do you think? Remember that it is an anime game model, so I don’t want to get TOO deep into highly complex topology and features. I want things to be smooth. It will be subdivided, cause we need it for shading, so it will share a lot in common with cinema type models. And, as a game model, it goes without saying that no one will really SEE all of this, so that’s another reason for not wanting to go too crazy with super insanely detailed topology. I want to learn though, and it has uses in clothing and stuff. So guys, what do you think?

[Zunova]

Maybe something over on blendercookie could help out?
Female/Male Topology:

CG Cookie

[ridix]

In a Game, detail is added through different texture maps. As for topology, here is example of good copy of topology I have:

[Anathema (Andreas Björkman)]

My advice is to study anatomy (or to follow Jonathan Williamson’s excellent tutorial on the female body), once you know how the underlying anatomy works you can easily build your mesh from that (my workflow is similar to Jonathan’s, I also make the important edge loops first (tendons, muscles and the such) and then I fill in and add detail (Ugh… the reason for this is because when I was still new with blender I watched a bunch of tutorials and most were either made by Jonathan Williamson or Andrew Price, both are awesome, look their tutorials up!))

[maccabbe]

As stated above most detail in games is added through texture maps. A good way to generate a texture map would be to have two models, a detailed model and a simple model and use blender to bake a the map.

To generate a detailed model I just use your current model Add a multiresolution modifier and use the sculpting mode to add the human curves. Again, as stated above you should use references for the muscles. Even if you are making an anime style character you usually want at least a hint of the real structure they are based on. Play around with sculpting to figure out the tools you should use, I would mostly use inflate/deflate, scrape, and draw to make the forms maybe use crease & pinch and smooth it out using smooth & polish.

For the low quality you could use the current model, the result of the sculpt on the low quality model without a multiresolution modifier (if you’re lucky), or use face snapping to align the topology of your current model with the high quality model. Finally bake the normal map of the high quality model onto the low quality model and use the low quality model plus the generated map (to influence the normals).