Btw I like to add hair at a relatively early point. If the mesh is for multiple characters I’ll make multiple hairstyles. Helps a lot to make sure there is a kind of visual unity and everything works together.
When it comes to rigging, I’m not sure what you’re doing for this, but the age old method of hand painting weights etc…has long passed. I find that generally speaking, a Rigify rig works wonders, just with automatic weights applied. I normally do a smooth all to smooth some of the transitions, but generally, I need little to no cleanup on the weights themselves.
Will be well worth looking into getting it setup for your character (Youtube will have an abundance of videos on the subject). I’ve even used Rigify on a raw sculpt before, which isn’t ideal, but whatever works, right?
Sculpting: I think I enjoy the total vertex control too much. Maybe some day, tho… Maybe some day…
Hair: It is a good ideal, but I need to experiment a lot first. Hair adds so much to render times…
Rigging: Rigify lacks some bits I need, sadly. I may try the automatic approach later, but I have become somewhat of a control addict of late… Smoothing is always a win, of course 
I’m getting hands on… ohhh, the PUNS!! Anyway, still missing the thumb, and the fingers are kept simple in this version, since I want to make them easy enough to animate. The textures will be improved when I get around to doing some UV stuff.
The hand is done. It’s a bit boxy and awkward, but it seems to be good enough for this version. I think hands are too compllicated to get right this early, so I am begrudgingly satisfied:
Hi I quickly read through your post and you mentioned that you are solely using poly-modelling, well by chance I found some reference for you, if interested. It looks like it covers how to model the whole body. Anyway good luck.
Modeling The Human Figure
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One thing you can do is once you have your poly model, copy it. Apply a few levels of subdivision, then sculpt it in dyntopo mode (not multires!). Then add a shrinkwrap modifier to your poly model to make it stick to the sculpt.
Btw I find it’s easier to not sculpt the inside of the mouth. I like to do that on the topology model, and use a vertex group to exclude the mouth verts so they don’t snap to the sculpt model.
Btw, a sculpting tool that’s very (very very!) useful for non-sculpting poly modelling workflows is the slide relax brush. In normal use it slides, and if you press shift it will relax the topology (along the surface of the mesh).
I have made a five second demo:
editmode now
back to sculpt, slide relax with shift key down
now you can use sculpt draw brush, or magnet mode in editmode to draw out the breasts
and relax the topology with shift key slide relax brush:
EDIT: Here’s a more practical example: adding loops.
Thanks!!! That’ll come in handy, many joint have really poor reference material available!
Wow. I’m gonna need a bit of visual handholding on that one. It might be second nature to you, but that sounds really black magic-y to me!
And the slide thingy might need some explanation, too. What is the purpose of doing that, as opposed to just vertex sliding/modelling?
It’s quicker and more convenient to use. You can slide in any direction and the shift relax mode lets you fix any squished geometry that results.
I’ll have to test that out at some point. It does seem like what I already do with other tools, but maybe there is something there I haven’t noticed, thanks!
Getting my legwork in for the day while my kitten tries to eat my armpit for some reason. Going slow on the hip as it needs to be rig-ready. The rigging is not progressing as nicely as modelling, sadly…
It is done, at least for now. The feet look very wrong (and not just because there are no distinct toes; the “skin socks” look is a choice, since toes are nearly never seen), and I will revisit them at some point. But for now, I need to readjust the entire rig to fit the slighty adjusted model, and then get the rig expanded and WORKING RIGHT. I just need to switch off for a few hours first. I am soooo tired right now…
The reason I don’t use those tools is because I can’t expand on them. I use store bought ketchup, yes, but if I wanted to learn to make better food, I would probably use something better. And the plan is, indeed, to make things first, then make them pretty after. It’s a production model I am experimenting with and want to explore the limits of, so it’s kinda locked in. It looks sloppy and ham-fisted because it’s not done. Hopefully, I can build the skillset and tools to move beyond that.
So I hope and believe that you are wrong about most of what you wrote, but who knows. Maybe I am just wasting my time being needlessly different. It has happened before, so why not. But if I don’t try it out, I will never know if it works. Thanks for the warning, though. I think I will skip work for today and just digest that round slowly, just to not depress myself too much…
Edit: Feel free to list those tools from Blendermarket, maybe I missed something useful!
Rigging… is still a problem. The horrendous topology of the character mesh makes things a lot worse, but overall, my experience in complex rigging is the limitation holding me back. I learn as I go, on many of the issues, athough I have rigged (simpler) characters before. For this version, all I need to do is get a character rig somewhat working, and have it transate between multiple characters well. The rest is for future me to build upon. But the current situation is basically “nightmare fuel”:
EDIT: A few hours later and some minor improvements have been made, while the entire body is now also rigged. Problems persist in the usual places: Hips, shoulders, and throat area, all where multiple things meet and have to go in several distinct directions. I am seeing how far I can go without adding helper bones, but I think there will need to be some serious redesigning at ome point…
Did some work on the legs. It’s clearly still bad when it gets pushed, but I am accepting my limits with this version. It will (hopefully) do for the coming work on the trailer, and maybe even later work, but it is still in dire need of another overhaul. I guess that’s a “roadmap” for me.
Arms and upper body rig still need fixing, badly.
I got the rest of the character model more or less rigged. There is still some work to be done, and fingers need rigging entirely, but I am reaching the end of what I seem able to accomplish with this version. So very soon, I expect to start using it in the trailer, instead of continuing development of it. I hope that actual use will show the problems more clearly, allowing me to do a better version 6 at a near point in the future.
(Don’t ask me what the guy is doing. Let’s just say… jogging and being surprised by a car)