Skip Retopology

Question

Hi Guys!

Just finished my first model using Blender and my sketches:

INHILD MODELO 4D.png

After that long step I have a lot of layers and things result of the process fllowed in Introduction to Character Modeling course, but... my surprise came once teacher mentions that is needed to retopo to posing... After a lot of work modeling I have no time to spend on that phase... My intention is to create an introduction, making this character with stone texture, create some lights in an dark background + some fog around while the camera is moving around in some parts, etc... No animation for the charcater needed, because I thought it as it was a statue. My thoughts at the begining were to pose the character in some cool postures but seeing what implies my doubts are as follows:

1) Can I do what I want without retopo?

2) Could you list links to the courses-videos to follow a crhonological process for achieving my goals mentioned to create that "introduction video"?

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Reply
  • Dwayne Savage(dillenbata3) replied

    Yes you can do what you want without retopo, but know that render times will be longer, because of higher polycount. If you only need to pose the charater and not animate them you can use the armature brush in sculpt mode. It does take a little getting use to so be prepared to play around with it for awhile. If you already have the pose you want then you're good. 

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  • Carles Quero(leo_buit) replied

    Thank you for your reply dillenbata3. Is there any course that explain that amature brush in sculpt mode? Before that, should join all parts in one? In this point I have no idea which way I should take... Any thought about the path I must take to get my goals?

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  • Martin Bergwerf replied

    HI Carles,

    Yes, you can skip the retopology if it's going to be static, like a statue and you are not going to pose it. Posing can indeed be done with the Pose Brush, but make an Incremental Save of your .blend, before trying that...It is not ideal and takes a lot of practice and you'll need to manually correct a lot.

    I'd recommend to use a Procedural stone Texture, so you don't need to UV-Unwrap it (which would be a horror, because the model is not retopologized).

    For the moving Camera, I'd recommend watching: https://cgcookie.com/courses/directing-the-camera-in-blender 

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  • Carles Quero(leo_buit) replied

    Thank you so much, Martin! Is there any course to follow and learn Pose Brush & adding the texture you mention? 

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  • Carles Quero(leo_buit) replied

    The question I have now is before adding texture: should I join all parts in one?

  • Martin Bergwerf replied

    It is not necessary to Join all the parts. (but you might need to pay attention to your Texture Coordinates.)

    The Pose Brush has a harsh (or no) Falloff and you'll have to re-Sculpt the joints...You can have a look at how it works here: https://cgcookie.com/lessons/posing-2-8

    For procedural stone,it depends on what kind of stone you want. The Shader Forge series shows how to make a lot of Procedural Materials and has one on marble:

    https://cgcookie.com/lessons/marble 

    2 loves
  • Martin Bergwerf replied

    There are also a lot of YT videos, that make Procedural Materials.

    2 loves
  • Carles Quero(leo_buit) replied

    thank you, Martin. I just found one. A lot of thanks for your patience!

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  • Dwayne Savage(dillenbata3) replied

    For parts that aren't seen/hidden by clothes etc. I'd recommend using the mask modifier and saving as a separate blend file like spikeyxxx suggested. Then apply the modifier and and join all objects. Otherwise you'll have to pose them all separately. I don't know of any videos on the Pose Brush. As for the materials you can adapt a material from one of the other course like the concreate in Creating a realistic industrial enviroment or the Sand (around 12:00 mark) without the displacement. 

  • Omar Domenech replied

    Well I'd say that after you're done with the goal you have right now, that you go the extra mile and continue with the pipeline process of your character. If it's sculpted, then retopo it, so you have a clean mesh, then UV unwrap it, texture it, rig it, etc. etc, just so you have a full real useable pipeline ready model, plus all the leveling up you do along the way. It's the best of practice and the goal is to get to a super master computer artist level anyways. 

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  • Carles Quero(leo_buit) replied

    THanks, Omar. It is a good advise. I as wondering why this process to retopo is existing after all that effort sculpt detailing... After all that work all details creasing, clay stripping, etc is not shown if retopo mesh is the one what remains at last...??? Maybe I am missing something but it is a lot of work to finishing in a simple mesh... Also, it is so weird that a powerful program as Blender has any tool that make this process automatically or at least morre friendly... I am not complaining, uh? It's just I am very surprised about that

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  • Dwayne Savage(dillenbata3) replied

    The answer is that the high poly is used to bake a normal map that will make the low poly look like it is high poly. So the details are used and seen thru a texture(normal map) instead of a lot of geometry. 

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  • Carles Quero(leo_buit) replied

    Thanks to clarify dillenbata3. You all are so kind teaching us. I supose I will understand better applying it in practice, but as I understand now sculpt model still is underneath creating all volumes you created when sculpting... Is that correct? 

  • Omar Domenech replied

    Your sculpted model is not very usable, the mesh is just a mess of polygons. You sculpt because it's a great way to free flow a concept and translate it into 3D, but it's not the final model. After you're happy with your sculpt or in a production if the model has been approved, you need to optimize the mesh and go through the phase of retopology to make a clean version of it. Kent goes through all of that in the HUMAN course:

    https://cgcookie.com/courses/human-realistic-portrait-creation-with-blender