question abouting modeling a character. I need answers please.

[Cronshaw]

Hello I have a couple questions that are pretty specific and I can't find much on Google. I'm relatively new to modeling and I'm starting to model characters now but i have some questions:

Can the head be a seperate object?

A head that I'm working on has a lot of polygons. It was really tough for me to get the correct topology (all the edge loops and stuff) so it unded up with a lot of polygons because i didn't want to add any triangles (i heard triangles on the face are not good?) so i was wondering if the head can be a seperate object so the body doesnt have a lot of polygons too?

When modeling clothes, do i delete the basemesh under?

I am modeling a character that has clothes and armour and i was wondering if I should delete the base mesh under? For example, if i have a character with a t shirt, should i detatch the arms and target weld the vertices to the shirt, or can i keep the base mesh underneath? (So that the shirt and the arms are attatched as one object)

When are triangles acceptable? On Characters?? This ones a big one.

When are triangles ok? Some people seem to say quads only and now i really dont know. Can there be triangles on clothing, and quads for things like his hands and head? I understand that there can be triangles on flat surfaces but can i put then anywhere on somewhere where there are bumps?

When baking a normal map, does the high poly mesh have to be the exact size of the low poly mesh? (Does a high poly mesh always have to be retopologized?) Is it possible to just make a mesh in 3ds max, export to zbrush, sculpt, and then just use the original low poly mesh for the bake?


I hope someone on here can be generous enough to answer some of these questions that I've had for a while. I can't really find the answers and I see that people on this forum have great knowledge in 3D, so i'm asking for help. Thanks.

[Kinrove]

Can the head be a seperate object?

Yes, It's not a problem, unless It's noticable, in the case your character could appear shirtless, you better have to have the head attached to the body.


When modeling clothes, do i delete the basemesh under?


You can indeed attach the arms to the shirt, It doesn't seems to be a problem. You might as well have the arms underneath the shirt as floating geomatry, not attached. Once again It all depends on the way you are going to use this character. Keeping all the base mesh under the shirt is not a solution, It's a waste of polygons. Unless you have the utility to do that.


When are triangles acceptable? On Characters?? This ones a big one.

As far as I know, having triangles is a trouble only if It affects badly the shading of your character, if you use them wisely, It's not a problem at all. However It's true It becomes an issue if you export a base mesh with triangles to be sculpted after in an application such as Z-brush. (It has to be confirmed by others).


When baking a normal map, does the high poly mesh have to be the exact size of the low poly mesh? (Does a high poly mesh always have to be retopologized?) Is it possible to just make a mesh in 3ds max, export to zbrush, sculpt, and then just use the original low poly mesh for the bake?

1)Often they have approximately the same size,so you have to adjust the cage of the low-poly mesh to be sure it envelopes the high poly mesh and all Its details, and you'll get like that a neat normal map, check some tutorials according the software you want to use.

2)It depends on the amount of polygons, but that's often the case, you can't use a little chest made of 10k polygons in a game as exemple... Quite logical. So in this case, you have to retopo.

3) Yes It's possible to do that, but It's probably not the perfect workflow. Unless you are sure about what you are doing. If the low poly mesh changes too much once sculpted in Zbrush, you better have to create a new topology for this one. Otherwise your bake will be totally messed up. The low poly and highpoly will be too much different.


Hope that helps a bit.