Post 02 - Refining the proposed idea

After a couple more discussions with Darren Wall about the possible areas I could look into, I initially decided to go with Re-topology in ZBrush and learning how to rig in Maya. The rationale behind this was that there are many games companies which use Maya for its ability to be customised as well as being flexible and intuitive. Although rigging in 3Ds Max can be done with CAT rigs and so on, I feel that it would be a good opportunity to learn Maya.

I did start to look into and use the re-topology tool/s in ZBrush and came across an insightful video. The technique so far seems to be very straight forward and would help in reducing the size of my semester A model. This is however, still subject to alterations.

Demo Head Re-topology

However, both myself and Darren agreed that whilst learning how to rig (intermediate - advanced hopefully), re-topology could be a project in itself and felt that it would be somewhat of a hurdle before I would be able to immerse myself in the rigging. It is for this reason that I have decided to concentrate on learning how to rig, by looking at several methods of rigging in both 3ds Max and Maya. This way, I am able to learn how to rig, but can use my knowledge of 3ds Max. I would also be able to compare various techniques and aim to explore advanced techniques.

Unfortunately, this would mean that re-topology and the use of ZBrush would be put on the back burner for now as I plan to use standard models. These could be from Maya, ZBrush or downloaded as it is the rigging which is most important.

I could incorporate research what makes good topology for animation, and research the pipeline, but again, I feel a lot more confident knowing that it will be rigging and rigging only which I wish to explore.

The next phase will be to form a proposal document for next Friday. This will need initial research and findings as to why I feel that this would be beneficial. At this stage, the end product or artefact will be a series of rigged full figure models (stock models). These will be rigged using several methods (such as biped and cat in 3ds Max, and others in Maya).

Retopologising in ZBrush - LINK