artist toolkit 3d - topology, uvs & texturing

 Character Topology, UV and Texturing

This blog contains all my process of topologizing, UVing and Texturing my model, ready to be rigged and rendered later on! This was the section of the modelling process I was most worried for, as I didn't really understand how most of it worked still. Nonetheless, there is nothing a YouTube tutorial can't fix!

 I also created a second part YouTube Video showcasing a timelapse of my process doing this:

Fixing Topology in Maya

When I imported my model into Mata, the first thing I did was begin fixing the topology. Upon researching, I found out that the average polycount for a game ready model was between 50k-100k polys for a high quality model. When I used ZRemesher, I managed to get my model to roughly 190K polys so I wouldn't have to drastically change and retopologize it.

in Maya, there is a tool called Retopologize under the Mesh category which is what I used to retop my model. This feature allows you to choose a designated amount of target polys and automatically retops your model for you. I followed this process for each of my subtools/parts of my model and ended up with around 60K polys, which I felt happy with. I probably could've gone lower is I had done this manually, However I felt that the automatic feature worked well enough for what I wanted. If I was to do this again I would manually retop my model, but it is much more time consuming.

I Researched into the average poly count for character models within games, and found out that they usually vary from between 10k-100k. For higher quality triple A games, these poly counts may be higher whereas for smaller games like mobile apps, poly counts are usually much smaller to help games run smoother and perform better.

Here are the before and afters of topologizing my model. Before, there were lots of polys in areas that defiently didn't need as many as there where. One of the only areas i kept a higher poly count in was around and on the face, as I didn't want her face to loose any detail. In the future, if I were to recreate this model and wanted the poly count lower, I would manually do it. I could also experiment with baking on details, to keep the model looking like it has depth and detail, while remaining with a lower poly count. Baking is a technique commonly used in 3D modelling when a higher poly models details and features and projected onto a model with a lower count, allowing the model to perform better while maintaining detail.

Creating UVs

After I was happy with my models topology, it was time to begin creating the UV's. UVs are incredibly important for a model, as they show how the textures of the model will display and be placed upon the model.

Originally, I was going to just use the automatic UV tool within Maya. However, after testing this, it was incredibly messy and I felt that for a good quality result the best way would be to do it manually.

I had never manually made UV's before, so it took me a while to understand how to do it but after a few days of working on it I managed to get a better understanding! To make my UV's, i selected a part/a few parts of my model and pressed UV > Planar to create a 3D projected view of my model in the UV Port.

Then, Using a tool called the UV Cut and Sew Tool, I manually created seams for each part of my model. The seams are essentially the borders of a face on the UV. Seams must be put in discreet locations (which I learnt later on) as this is where textures across the model will join up. For example on my model, her skirt has a waffle pattern with a chocolate drip pattern on top.  You could tell where abouts the seams connected as the patterns where slightly off-lined with one another. This could be fixed by changing the placement of the seams, or creating a better mapped Topology making it easier to align the patterns, as my Topology was slightly off centered meaning I couldn't mirror the pattern and things would line up.

After placing the seams, I then Unfolded the UV, and manually moved it around in the UV grid until I was happy with I. I kept most of my objects/subtools as separate UVs to maintain a high quality of each texture, but it is very common for 3D models to have all of their textures on one UV sheet depending in the quality and detail of the model. Learning how to make UV's was something that took me a really long time, and they are still far from perfect. But, I personally think they are some of the best I've done so far and I'm really happy with how they turned out. I'd like to see how my skills will improve in the future though as I practice more and get a better understanding of UVing.

Making Textures and Applying to Models

It's time to texture! After I created my UV's, I had to start making the textures for them! Textures for UV's can be made in many different ways, such as in different drawing softwares, or specific softwares made for texturing such as Substance Painter. I attempted to use Substance Painter, however as I don't have a drawing tablet it was hard to use and get the level of detail I wanted in certain areas, so I opted to use my iPad and drawing software instead.

I saved my UV's by going into Images > UV Snapshot, and importing them into my software sao I had the layout in front of me. I then painted and textured within the UV's guidelines! This took a lot of trial and error in certain places, as the method I was using didn't allow me to project the texture onto my model in real time so I was unsure of the result. This is why softwares like Substance Painter are more commonly used for these type of things! Below are a few examples of the texturea I Made:

To apply textures to my model, I created a material for the tool, and then went to material attributes. I then selected the specific texture and it projected onto the model! I actually had a few problems with getting my textures to work, such as them appearing wrong, them not showing up at all, Them appearing on all my subtools and more... but with a few google searched and some testing and messing around I managed to fix it all! Hurray!

Finalised Textured Model

When I had Retopologized, UVed and textured everything, my textured model was complete! Overall, I am really happy with her so far! There are some areas of the textures where certain patterns don't line up, or the seams can be slightly obvious as certain colours and gradients aren't completely smooth into one another. I tried to fix these as best I could, but I think it comes down to an issue with my topology not being completely symmetrical. I could've probably preventing this by manually topologisaing, and it's something i'll look into in the future. But overall, I am still happy with the end result! a full turnaround can be seen at the end of the YouTube video linked above!