3001: Ubisoft Art Brief: The Captain Pt. 2 - Retopology (3DS Max & Blender)

Boots #1:

Beginning with the boots in 3DS Max, I'm approaching the toe first, because to me it's where all the poly-loops would merge or tie off. It's also the simplest area and therefore the best place to build clear poly-loop patterns to extend into the rest of the boots' shape.

Since the boots are the lowest area of the firefighter's character model (furthest away from the player's perspective) I can use fewer polygons than I would for a similar shape higher up the model. Other than that aspect, I'm approaching them in a similar way to poly-modelling feet as I have in the past: prioritising tighter and neat retopology in areas of greater deformation (i.e. around the crest of the toe crease and the ankle).

While I've practiced retopology extensively in the past on personal projects and I've developed speed and skill in it, I tend to obsess over perfect poly-loops. While I want to avoid excessive tweaking, I do want each poly-loop to terminate properly and avoid triangles.

Because the soles of the boots are almost never going to be seen, and even then not seen clearly, I'm trying to limit the number of lengthways poly-loops I model there by tying off 3 into two underneath the tip of the toe. As for the edge of the boots' heel platform, I'm going to bevel it once to evidence wear from consistent use (since this firefighter is a captain, his shoes would be far from new).

To jumpstart my progress on the left boot which has a different ankle crease pattern to the right, I'm mirroring the entire left boot and deleting the polygons around the ankle area and retopologised on that area from scratch.

Concerning the transition from boot to trouser leg, I'm debating whether I should branch out the poly-loop from triangles or just add poly-loops outright to the whole boot. I'd prefer to avoid the latter, but the former is what I'd personally consider 'bad topology', but I'm going to retopologise more of the Firefighter before I make a more informed decision.

Teeth:

While I'm generally attempted to work my way up the model, I have a clear enough idea of how I want to approach retopologise the teeth that I want to start sooner rather than later.

If I was certain that this character's face would be focused on in a cutscene, I'd model the teeth separately. However I think I may be able to get away with retopologising them as one mesh. This may not hold up after texturing, but it may also be an opportunity to work on developing my texturing skills later on.

I'm keeping the number of polygons per tooth as consistent as their individual shapes allow, with four faces for the top front, wider teeth and three for the thinner canines etc.

As for how I intend to manage the teeth and remaining lower face regarding separation and merging of meshes, I want to treat them like I would any other character that has a posable mouth: that being a set of teeth that are separate to the face mesh, with an extended grill of bone around them that would become exposed with different facial expressions such as grimaces or speech. For this reason I'm modelling more of the jaw than is visible in my sculpt, using the skull I modelling in the sculpture process.

Hands:

I want to get a start on the hands in Blender, since I find it easier to model the fingers in this program rather than 3DS Max, and I also want to make progress on this area since they're symmetrical it'll mean a big chunk of progress made by modelling just one.

Again, I've practiced poly-modelling and retopologising a lot of hands in my spare time for a few years in Blender specifically. (I hope to transfer those skills into 3DS Max, but since I'm under quite a time constraint and I don't want to sabotage the time I've allotted for the second project in this brief, I'm committing to Blender for the time being.)

Something I'm not familiar with however, is modelling a 3-dimensional transition between hand and burnt glove. Most of the 3-dimensional detail is situated on the back of the hand which is a relatively flat and simple area, but the crook of the thumb and index finger is a less straightforward area.

After tracing the finer poly-loops around the edge of the burnt glove, I've not tied off again above the middle knuckle - where the least deformation will occur of all the knuckles. As for the palm of the hand, I've tied off the poly-loops of the fingers as I did on the top of the knuckles, and continued the remaining loops down toward the wrist.

One area I've always hated retopologising is the root of the thumb that transitions into the palm. I usually manage to create sound poly-loops around the joint, since the thumb is the most flexible of the human digits (at least from my experience), there will always be a position where the deformation doesn't look right. I'd expect that these issues could be solved with a combination of denser topology and shape-keys, but since I don't plan to employ either of these to save polygons and time, I'm going to make the best of working around the gloved thumb joint by staying consistent with my retopology of all the fingers, and hope for the best.

Finishing off the hands with the creased wrists of the gloves. Because it's a very deforming joint, I want to spare less expense with the poly-loops the shape said creases. After retopologising those, I'm going to extend the upper edge-loop into the sleeve and tie it off as a triangulated circle so the hands don't appear to be cut off before disappearing into the sleeves.

Successfully retopologised hands are always a pleasing shape for me, I'm generally satisfied with the new hand mesh. That being said I'm not sure if the complexity of the fingers is consistent in relation to that of how dense I plan to make the face. However that's an uncertainty that's born from my assumption that this character would be in a cutscene of some sort. From the perspective of the firefighter being an adversary in a first person game even if he were to tackle the player, I think the poly-count of the new hand is sufficient.

Trousers #1:

In my first attempt to retopologise the trousers, I found it extremely difficult to model the new mesh in an appropriate shape for deformation; the edge-loops kept riding up the leg, and becoming more diagonal than perpendicular to the leg shaft (which is my desired direction to model in).

Disclaimer: Dark grey legs mesh does not belong to me and was not created by me (belongs to BHVR Interactive, unpacked from Dead By Daylight game files)

After browsing a few assets from games I have installed (e.g. Pathologic 2, Dead By Daylight) using asset viewers and unpackers, I learned how other game developers manage trousers with a lot of creases. They keep the poly-loops as horizontal as possible, but also 'crumple' the poly-loops and triangulate some faces to best mimic the form of the trousers. 

Beginning again from scratch, I decided to plan out the density of poly-loops down the leg as a ring of vertices, then create a matching ring of the same number of vertices lower down, as a guideline for keep the loops horizontal. My next step was to begin extruding faces from the vertex loops down the trouser leg, triangulate the faces and branch the horizontal poly-loops where needed to best fit the trousers' form.

With the most dense and difficult area out the way, I made my way up the thigh to the waist and crotch area. Similarly to how I used single edge-loops to mark my path, I traced a line of vertices between the legs so I had a clear idea of how I should manage the polygons surround said area, and know where I should merge them to maintain clean topology.

To jumpstart my progress on the other non-symmetrical trouser leg, I duplicated and mirrored the right leg, removed the lower knee and shin area, and snapped the remaining polygons to the left leg in chunks until they were all flush with the left leg's sculpted surface.

Harness #1:

Because I ended up poly-modelling/z-modelling the harness, I've realised I can take a shortcut in it's retopology progress by dissolving every few poly-loops until there's a reasonable polygonal density. However, I'm already noticing a problem in an area that I clearly didn't give enough thought to during the sculpture phase: How do the shoulder straps actually fasten to the main belt? They're currently held there by absolutely nothing, so I'm going to devise a solution during the retopology process.

Trousers #2:

Similarly to the harness, I've decided to take a shortcut again by selectively dissolving poly-loops in the trouser buckles as well. And to continue with making the lower legs less complex than the upper body, I'm getting rid of more loops than I plan to on the main belt around the firefighter's waist.

Concerning that dilemma I mentioned when retopologising the boots, I've decided to indeed branch out the vertical loops and adding extra ones to bridge with the existing loops of the trouser legs. To limit how this may affect the mesh's deformation, I've tried to keep to the least deforming area of the legs, this being the underside of the rolled up trousers.

From what I've learned of separate character clothing meshes from games like Dead By Daylight, segments of characters are often tied off as shown.

I'm terminating the trouser mesh in a triangular cross-section as shown because since I plan to make the skirt of the jacket physics-based, I think merging the jacket with the trousers would result in a base mesh that's messy and too complicated. To make each half of the character model more manageable, I'm splitting the trousers off into a separate mesh piece.

Helmet Shield #1:

Because I want to use more of 3DS Max in my work, I'm continuing to retopologise some of the model in that program as opposed to doing the finer work in Blender. That being stated, I'm keeping the 

Helmet #1:

The one important area I think I should spare less expense with on the hat is the outer rim, as it'll be most obvious there if there are not that many poly-loops, and I don't want it to look jagged in comparison to the surrounding meshes.

Collar #1:

I begin with rather thin poly-loops around the peak of the collar's edge, since from the usual angles a character is view from (front and 3/4 front), it'll be obvious here as it would be on the helmet if there are not enough loops to avoid a jagged outline.

Sleeves #1:

I used what I learned while retopologising the trousers to retopologise the sleeves: I began with a singe edge-loop that would dictate the number of poly-loop density of the sleeve mesh. I then duplicated this edge-loop and transposed it lower down the sleeve and extruded faces until each loop could be bridged together.

I want to round off a poly-loop at the shoulder of the sleeve, so the shoulder seam deforms realistically. It will also help in beginning to create the defined edge where the stitch

While the sleeves are actually mirrored and sculpturally symmetrical, I plan to differentiate them as I will the boots by breaking up their surfaces in the texturing stage, since there's going to be soot, burns and general discolouration present in the jacket. The sleeves specifically will also have ash and burned areas which will also aid in making them more realistically asymmetrical.

Jacket #1

I thought it was a good idea to attack this segment of the firefighter's retopology from the front lapel panel because it's the flattest and therefore most straightforward area to establish the polygonal density I should stick to for the entirety of the jacket bust.

I've been wanting to add the iconic firefighter jacket fasteners (the classic hooking mechanisms) to the jacket, but I've felt overwhelmed with how I'd rip the current retopologised mesh open to make room from them between the jacket and the straps. I intend to experiment with how I should approach this issue in ZBrush, where it's easier to finely adjust areas of a mesh.

Jacket - Collar #2:

I debated if I should fuse the underside of the collar with the jacket to limit the poly-count in this area. However I think that it'll be simpler to leave the collar as it is and not over-complicate things, and an unusual mesh underside to the collar could possibly create deformation issues around the neck and head later on anyway.

Redesigning the harness straps:

I wasn't satisfied with the straps at the front or the buckles fastening them, and I mentioned that I should rethink (or rather think to begin with) how they attach to the belt around the Firefighter Captain's waist. Referring back to one of my main influences for this character's design - early 20th century soldier gear and clothing - a lot of first World War soldiers wore a small harness like this. (I did reference this in my initial concept stage, but I'd later defaulted to designing the firefighter's harness after more modern ones.)

I think that this redesign of the harness straps and buckles will also provide enough space to properly insert those classic firefighter jacket fasteners I mentioned. It's been concerning me that they weren't there to complete the jacket as an object and it's otherwise ambiguous how the jacket is held closed.

Other than the planned fasteners and the main belt buckle at the front, I plan to fuse the jacket to the belts to reduce unnecessary topology and to simplify the future deformation.

I also tied off the waist of the jacket as I did the trousers, again so when it comes to applying cloth physics to the skirt of the jacket, there won't be any holes in the mesh while it deforms.

Jacket Fasteners:

I first attempted to model the fasteners in ZBrush, but it proved a very unwieldy shape to make in that program, so I'm transitioning to Blender to trace them from photographic reference.

Something I found of note was that the hoop piece of the fastener always goes on the outer lapel that overlaps with the jacket, and the other images I found where this was deviated from was images that were of non-genuine or knock-off jackets. So I've realised it's important to make sure the hoop is on the outside.

Using one of my reference images and Wireframe mode in Blender, I traced the outer shape of a fastener, extruded it and created the 'head' of the fastener by extruding from there along the local x axis.

I also tested how the jacket and the straps would deform around this fastener in ZBrush, rather than taking my retopologised model apart.

Breathing Apparatus:

Retopologising the oxygen tank was as simple as adding a sphere, splitting it in two, and bridging the resulting hemispheres together. The breathing tube will likely be somewhat less simple.

My plan during the sculpting process was to create a single wrung of a corrugated rubber tube, apply an array modifier and a bezier modifier to create a modular, repeatable and non-destructive breathing tube.

When it came to the melted ends of the breathing tube, I first tried to extrude the ends of a tube after executing the modifiers and proportionally editing the nubs while referencing the original sculpt. I didn't think the result was satisfactory, so after a bit more experimentation, I discovered a solution.

I ended up creating the melted ends of the tube and merging them with this modified tube base, I baked both modifiers with excess repeats of the wrung on the melted ends. I then switched to sculpture mode and used the smooth brush to create a gradation between undamaged tube and melted tube.

The breathing mask was a reasonably simply retopology task, although the thin edge at the top proved to be finicky and tedious. I considered simplifying this area, but I felt my hands were tied because of how close the mask is to the face (the focal area of any character model). It took a longer time than I'd have liked to retopologise this area, but the rest of the mask was relatively easy. 

I also finally modelled some leather straps that are actually holding the mask around the Firefighter's neck. My original idea was for the mask to have had rubber straps that would've secured it to his face with extra leather straps to suspend it beneath his face when he wasn't wearing it.

Head #1:

'Haruspex' Character Model from Pathologic 2 (2019) by developer indie developer Ice Pick Lodge

My primary reference for the face's appropriate polygonal density was the faces of characters in Pathologic 2 that dominate half the screen during conversation. 

I've found that the method that best suits me when poly-modelling a face is to outline facial landmarks like the nose, eyelids etc with single edge-loops and extrude faces from them until I can bridge them to each other in deformation-friendly poly-loops.

When tracing vertices around the eyelid, I started second-guessing my intended polygonal density for the face in general. Again, I'm approaching the complexity of this character from the perspective of first-person interaction and struggle mechanics, to I'm unsure if my current planned poly-count is enough for the character's potential implementation.

'Senua' Character Model from Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (2017) by AA developer Ninja Theory

I decided to research the character model of Senua from Ninja Theory's Hellblade (2017) for how complex her face was. Senua is the only character model in any given scenario for the majority of the game and has an incredible range of expression, often intimately close the virtual camera. While this level of polygonal density is too complex for my character and his intended scenarios, I think that the sensible plan from here on is to split the difference between the complexity of Pathologic 2's Harupsex and Hellblade's Senua. I think that this new idea for my character's facial complexity is more appropriate to my character.

I'm continuing with blocking out the face's landmarks with a more informed plan for my intended polygonal density. I'm making the upper eyelid reasonably rich in edge-loops to facilitate deformation in blinks and such.

I have decided to retain the 3-dimensional depth of the burned temple area. While it is only visible from limited viewing angles and that would normally mean it'd be more appropriate to accent this depth with a normal map, I don't think that would looking convincing from that limited viewing angle or hold up when the firefighter turns his head (which would pull this side of his face away from the hood covering it).

While I'm retopologising the eyelid as a standard poly-looped opening, I'm deviating away from this to better model the melted inner corner of the eye. When it comes to how this will affect deformation, I think it might even help this area warp authentically, considering an eyelid with burn damage as I referenced and sculpted will have lost some of its supple quality and flexibility.

The poly-loops that make up the jowls and lower face of character models usually bow outwards and echo the shape of the lips, my character has neither jowls nor lips. My thinking is: considering how the muscles underneath the eyes that control the mouth and lower face are almost vertical if not diagonal in the perpendicular direction to the average direction of poly-loops in this area.

When it comes to how I'm merging the bone and the remaining face, I'm still keeping the top teeth separate so there's still potential for lip posing. However I'm fusing the lower teeth to the face mesh because there are no lower lips (hence no need for separation) and because the jaw bone is exposed and it wouldn't make sense not to fuse the teeth's lower jaw and the head's lower jaw together.

I'm also fusing the bony eye socket to the rest of the face because I don't expect there to be any deformation that involves the skin lifting away from that eye socket, as I originally envisioned the remaining tissue surrounding it to be melted to its surface.

Something else I've learned from my second year Bounty Hunter project is to think about how I tie off poly-loops under the chin. I've found that two many 'framed' faces interfere with smooth deformation when the head is tilted upwards.

Regarding the more burned eye socket, I'm retopologising it as a simple grid of quad faces because it's a concave area and a normal map will easily be sufficient to add surface detail.

To ensure that there are no obvious holes in the mesh when it deforms, I've chosen to extrude the remains of the upper gums up and behind their front facing surface. My hope is that this will prevent any odd shading issues when the face is animated.

Tongue:

In the end, I made the decision to add a tongue, my reasoning being that since I've been operating with the expectation of rigging the face, a tongue would definitely be needed for an animated face to be complete. To model one quickly and efficiently, I added a cube and subdivided it a few times. I then positioned it in the chamber of his wrecked mouth, removed the rear half of it, and proportionally stretched it and arched the middle. I plan to add any detail in the texturing stage.

Hood:

I've chosen to make the hood a solid shape rather than a 2-dimensional plain because the fabric I intend to make it resemble is thick, and so I can bake realistic ambient occlusion for the rear interior of the hood.

I modelled the hood by first retopologising it as a 2-dimensional mesh, then used the solidify modifier to make it a 3-dimensional shape.

The Decision to Add a Sweater Neck:

For most of their modern history, firefighters have worn many layers of protection. While our current evolutionary stage of firemen have coats that act as all those essential layers, older iterations of protective gear consisted of different items of clothing - undershirts, shirts, sweaters and jackets. My Firefighter Captain currently appears to be wearing only a jacket and his neck is exposed to the elements. Realistically, I think he'd have some manner of undergarment that covers his neck to complete his layers of protection from heat and fire. 

Beginning with a basic cylinder, I inserted several edge-loops and proportionally scaled each until it resembled a woollen polo neck sweater. Another footnote I'd like to add is that the idea for a polo neck came from one of the themes/influences I'm continuing to pull from - The Great War. Since my firefighter captain is from an alternate England and his profession is likened more to soldiery than ours, I think their underwear would share similarities as well.

'Senua' Character Model from Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (2017) by AA developer Ninja Theory

Footnote: When it came to the jacket's bunches and folds evident at the small of the firefighter's back, I thought it would be acceptable to deviate from the established poly-loops and branch them out to better mimic the outer bounds of the creases. While inspecting Senua's character model, I discovered that most of the cloth on her torso is actually much dominated by triangles and lacks poly-loops. This makes me feel a little more confident in my original decision about the rear folds of the jacket.

Helmet #2:

Finally, to add the strange little strap that some mid 20th century firefighters adorned their helmets with, I took the original cylinder I'd started to poly-model in ZBrush, removed the inner faces, bridged the remaining edges closed and proportionally shaped the strap around the ridges of the helmet and its shield.

UV-Unwrapping:

I've tried to manage my material groups and UV maps much more sensibly than I have in my previous projects during my second year, and make sure that any and all mesh sections that are made of the same materials share the same texture maps. Since I have far more control over my texture maps than I did in my previous Bounty Hunter character brief, I found this more straightforward this time.

The trousers, and their attached buckles will share one 2K texture map. The boots will share one 1K texture map.

The hands and gloves will have one texture. I'm not sure if they should have a 1K or 2K map yet. The head and teeth will share a 2K texture space. The eye will have its own 1K texture. I've learned previously during the second year Bounty Hunter brief that a 512 map - while seemingly appropriate in texel density - is too pixelated for a character that will be viewed as closely as I intend the Firefighter Captain to be.

Finally, all the head accessories (the helmet, shield, hood and sweater collar) will share 1 2K texture map.

Final Total Triangle Count: 114,648

Head: 14,198

Head Accessories: 12,558

Jacket: 26,551

Breathing Apparatus: 36,858

Trousers and Boots: 14,496

Hands: 8,362