Is there a need for sculpting if your ultimate goal is to animate?

#1

Hey everyone,

I have a question about polygonal modeling vs sculpting. I’m still fairly new, so this may be a question that has been discussed in this forum many times already; I’ve tried to search for other threads, and although some threads discuss it slightly, I did not find very many that were recent. I’m sure some things have changed/evolved since 2010-2014, so I figured I’d post the question myself.

Disclosure: I DO understand that the need to sculpt, polygonal model, or retopologize depends on what you are looking to accomplish. So, I will preface my questions by saying: I am looking to animate my models (after I learn more and begin to actually work on my personal projects, of course :-)). I do NOT want to have just static models and I want them to deform realistically.

So with that being said … is there a need or some sort of benefit to sculpting my models and then retopologizing them? If my main goal is to animate, can’t I just go with polygonal modeling and skip the sculpting part? Is it better to sculpt because it takes much less time and then you can use special software to “quickly” retopologize the sculpted model? Is it a thing of sculpting being more fun or more ‘artistic’ than polygonal modeling? Does sculpting allow you to create a better looking/more detailed model?

I have no issues with sculpting at all, I just want to know if there is some benefit to it when it comes to creating an animated short; My assumption, as of now, is that I really don’t need to sculpt and I can just model, but I know there is something that I am missing.

Fellow artists, please enlighten me if you have the time to respond. Be gentle, as I’m just trying to continue my learning.

Thanks in advance!

#2

Short answer no, if all you really want to be is an animator. Scupted models have far too many faces to be used as your model when animating, simply will not run at speed in realtime. And as a animator that for you would be around 60FPS. Animators care about their motion running at some set frame speed, denser models will slow your frame speed down as to what you can render at proper speed. example: if you sculpted model give you a beautiful character but yopu can only get 10FPS when trying to run amiation playback it’s pretty much worthless to animate with.
Modeling(low poly or sculpted) is not usually the domain of the animator, your job is movement.
Mr. D

#3

i’ve been a character modeller in cartoons for about 6 years and can probably count on two hands the amount of times i’ve actually sculpted any of my characters for work. sculpting just adds detail. nothing more. these days people are SUPER heavy handed with their sculpting and use zbrush for damn near everything.

i disagree with this.

build a nice character with an instantly recognizable silhouette and a nice clean/simple geo and you’ll be just fine.

#4

Thanks Mr. D & mnickell. I definitely appreciate the feedback. I noticed that many of the courses/tuts I take offer a lot on sculpting, and I just wanted to make sure I was not overlooking some key/new capability or technique.

Thx again!

#5

Adding to others’ views:
I am by no means a professional so take my words with a hint of salt.
If you are a hobbyst, and you have nobody to create that mesh for you, then yes you will have to model it. The greatest benefits in sculpting is when modeling organic stuff or when adding high frequency detail or just detail a base model. I use polygon modeling for the base and for hard surface stuff. But after that, you have to retopo your mesh and use normal or displacement map for that detail and for that you have to UV as well :smiley: Devilish cycle I know.
ZBrush has decent methods to retopo, its name is ZRemesher. However, ZBrush is a bit expensive. Its bit less capable little bro is Sculptris which is still an awesome product and it is free.
If you want to deform, there has to be geometry to deform to keep it nice, e.g. around the joints in a human mesh it has to be a bit higher res. You might look into something like Maya muscles but that is not my cup of tea unfortunately.
If you heard this sculpting you might heard it for the reason I said - it is the easiest way to create an organic model. You can pull that off by using only poly modeling but it is more difficoult IMO.

Again if you have someone to create that mesh for you, you only have to rig and animate.
I hope it was answer for you question.

#6

Lately I’ve been going back to hand painting details in Photoshop/Mudbox- use mudbox to lay the guides on the model which translates to the UV then take that into Photoshop for detail work- there I can get super accurate details.

Do you guys tend to model small details such as panel grooves for hardsurfaces too or paint those in a displacement? Curious as to how you’ve done it in comparison to me- I tend to try to model it all out and what I can’t get done cleanly I’ll displacement/Normal map it in

#7

theres rarely a hard line in terms of when to poly model something vs when to sculpt it. the decision to change methods comes on a case by case basis and can depend on any number of things.

how close the camera will be to the object is a big contributor in deciding whether or not a certain detail should be modeled. what can the production handle is another; in cartoons we can go hog wild if need be and use every bit of tech we have on one hero asset but in games it’s a whole different deal. time, ability and the tools at your disposal are among many more factors to consider.

if i had to make up a rule of thumb for using a map vs poly modeling something i would say if the detail is noticeable in the silhouette it’s best to model it.

#8

Is there a need for sculpting if your ultimate goal is to animate?

In my opinion short answer, its basically down to personal choice as you’d alluded too. If there’s no rush why not? for me the more high frequency detail grafted via your hard work the better.

P.S.
An in depth DT tutorial that may be of interest, which addresses this and other aspects of a professional production pipeline.

http://www.digitaltutors.com/learningpath/26-Transforming-Robot-Production-Pipeline

#9

The way I see it, if you want to explore different character designs for instance then sculpting might be your best bet (go for Zbrush, mudbox seems to be dying in favour of merging it in Maya. I could be wrong… even if not, go for Zbrush imo).

If you have an exact design then go for a modelling software (go for Modo imo, Maya is ok these days).

In the end, topology is what matters for animation and that has little to do with how the mesh was created.

Have fun!