The first stage: preparation of basic forms and sculpting.
You probably know and have seen the technique of creating a character, in which, on the basis of reference, the process of modeling and creating a topology immediately begins. In this post, I will show you a slightly different way to create a character. This method, in my opinion, is more pleasant and natural. You better feel the shape during sculpting and better study the topology in the process of retopology.
The algorithm of work looks like this:
- create a sketch or find a suitable reference
- prepare the workplace, create tabs for modeling and sculpting
- create meshes in necessary places based on the reference
- in the sculpting mode, change the shape by the reference
- merge meshes into one mesh using bool operation
- use the "Remesh" modifier to then avoid problems with holes in the mesh when smoothing.
- start sculpting. add topology if necessary using dynamic topology. bring the shape of the character to the desired. I recommend trying to work first without a dynamic topology, and do "Remesh".
- save the finished result in a separate file
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The next steps:
start retopology. Create a character topology for your task. Look at the topology of difficult places on Sketchfab!
save the result in a separate file
create materials and work with nodes and textures
prepare to create animations. Create bones and save to a separate file
make the necessary animation
As a result, you get a ready-made sculpture of your character for further work. This work step can be saved separately. And in the future, for your various tasks and desires, you will create a different topology in the process of retopology. As you gain experience, your topology will get better. You will have your own personal base of sculptures of different characters and creatures. And you can train on them and use for different tasks.
Next time I will show you the process of retopology and tell you what it is worth paying attention to.