Technical Workflow for AAA Game Characters - Vol 1 : Retopology

Introducing my next big tutorial series:

Technical Workflow for AAA Game Characters! Catchy title eh??

The first volume is a big one : RETOPOLOGY ...... (Subsequent volumes [UVs and Baking Mesh Maps] will fill out the skills we character artists need to know to be successful game artists)

To get us started, we're going to go over how to process your Zbrush sculpts into game meshes, particularly the AAA high-res hero style. Anything else would just be an optimized version of this approach. I also go into what makes good topology and what three pillars you need to keep in mind when you're building your amazing meshes. This is a crucial stage for asset creation because it directly effects your UV and baking success. Keep in mind, tech artists/rigging and animators down the pipeline will be effected by your work.

I'm modeling in 3dsmax for this series, however, I do try to keep it somewhat software-agnostic, so we can focus more on good edge flow and other principles.

Due to the nature of watching someone lay out many, many vertices and edges by hand, I did speed up some sections but not to the point where you can't understand what's going on. I use a few tricks here and there in my technique but it's mostly old school hand-crafted artisan retopology work.

11+ hrs of mostly real time non-edited videos with voiceover instruction (I do remove ummmms and silent "thinking" moments haha)

Introduction

Exporting Meshes

Head / Face / Neck (focusing on ideal loops for facial animation)

Hair (solid style)

Eyeballs

Building the Body

Torso Prep

Torso Work

Arms and Hands

Armor

Lower Tunic

Pants

Boots

Accessories

Quiver and Arrows