Character Topology
Before I start topologising the high poly model I need to have a clear idea of the direction, distribution and number of low poly models for realistic game characters, so that I can make my character model as in-game usable as possible. So I collected some pictures of character mesh displays from character artists on artstation, and I refer to these mesh lines to re-topologise my character’s high faceted model.Analysing the mesh of these artists’ low-poly-count models reveals that they processed most of the mesh first and then did some mesh processing on the details and folds to make sure that the mesh distribution of the character is even enough and that a very good fold effect can be achieved through some triangular surfaces to ensure that there will not be any baking errors in the post-baking process.
Topogun is a software specialized in retopological grid that I accidentally found. I tried to learn this software through the tutorial published by this blogger to get more professional topology knowledge and skills. After fully learning the basic operation of this software, I combined the low poly grid distribution of roles analyzed previously to make the process more efficient.
Because I used zbrush’s base human body for sculpting, it saved me some time when doing the re-topology, I only had to switch the high poly model to the lowest level of subdivision to get an okay mesh result, but because the mesh is still a little bit problematic after a lot of sculpting, I still imported into Topogun to do the mesh modifications because I had planned to bind this character in the beginning, so I had to make sure that every joint place mesh was correct or else it would be hard to go back to the step of re-topologising after processing all the post-processing changes. I planned to bind this character at the beginning, so I have to make sure that the mesh is correct in every joint, otherwise it will be hard to go back to the re-topology step to make modifications after dealing with all the post-processing, which is something I need to take into account for the process in this project.
After combining the topology knowledge and software operation skills learned before, I used the quadrilateral drawing method to re-topology most of the clothing in topogun. In the topology process, I need to consider whether the polys of the overall clothing model are uniform. An important point that greatly affects the topological quality is that after ensuring the mesh topology of the joint part is correct, the triangular surface is used to add lines to the fold turning part, which can not only ensure the correct silhouette, but also make the baking effect better. I have never considered this before, which is some important knowledge I learned in the topological stage.I think zremesher is more suitable for the wiring of wrist guards, leather and mantle, because I will add fabric simulation to Unreal Engine for the cloak later, so zremesher wiring is just enough. When carving the wrist guards, because the wrist guards are relatively hard edges, Therefore, when dealing with high poly model, I have already dealt with the problems of hard edge and hem, so the wiring after zremesher can match the high poly model well