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topology was more complex, creating face loops that
ran around the armpit and shoulder and around
the arms, legs, and neck resulted in clean, easy-to-
modify topology (see Figure 7-7). Also, because the
mesh was still broadly symmetrical, I only needed to
retopologize half the body and use a Mirror modi-
fier to fill in the other half.
For some areas, like the face, I began to shrink
the polygons in order to pack more into the area's
smaller, more detailed forms. I created loops that
ran around the eyes, nose, mouth, and outside of
the ears (see Figure 7-8). These loops both sup-
ported the forms of the face so that they weren't lost
or softened too much when subdivided and added
extra density to these areas to allow for the addition
of more details with the Multires modifier. (For spe-
cific tips on face topology, see “Head Topology” on
page 106.)
To create a mouth cavity, I extruded back
from the edge loop surrounding the mouth and
filled in the hole (see Figure 7-9). When we return
to sculpt on this retopologized mesh, we'll need to
resculpt this area, but the mouth will now be able to
be opened and posed.
For objects like the wings, where it can be
difficult to see into tight areas, it can be handy to
switch to perspective view ( 5 ), which allows the cam-
era to be moved in and around tight spaces. It can
also be useful to restrict the view with alt -B. This
lets you select a part of your model to show in the
3D Viewport, allowing you to see a small area with-
out other parts of your model getting in the way, as
shown in Figure 7-10.
Retopologizing the Body
With the sculpt decimated and re-imported back
into Blender, I could start laying some new topol-
ogy over it. I began by adding a new plane in Object
mode and applying a Mirror modifier to it. Then, I
turned on Projection in the Snapping tools buttons.
Next, I grabbed my plane in Edit mode and scaled
and positioned it where I wanted to start my retopol-
ogy from (the torso, in this case).
* At this point, I thought carefully about what density
of polygons I wanted in the final model. Scaling the
first plane up or down and working to this scale made
a big difference in the final poly count of the retopolo-
gized mesh. I generally tried to work at a similar scale
to most of the important details of the original mesh.
With a starting point set, I began extruding
( E ) from one edge of my original quad along the
forms of the model (see Figure 7-6), following the
outline of the ribcage and torso muscles. This cre-
ated a face loop that ran along an important form
within the model. By filling in the surrounding
areas and creating further face loops along other
forms, we can work toward completely retopolo-
gizing our sculpt with topology that supports the
forms we have sculpted. This creates a more effi-
cient mesh for capturing the fine details when we
subdivide it and makes it easy to unwrap and rig if
we desire to later.
As I progressed over the model, many of the
same general positions for face loops that I used in
the base mesh were useful again. While overall the
Figure 7-6: Begin by creating a single important face loop quad by quad. Then, move on to others and fill in the areas in
between.
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