currently im creating a low poly hand mesh which i will later take in to zbrush.

im just going to go ahead and ask for crits. i REALLY need crits on this one, so ALL crits are wanted!

If you're going to take this into zbrush, all of those triangles and faces with more than 4 sides are going to going to cause pinching. For sculpting an organic shape in zbrush, it's better to use a simplified base mesh than something with bad geometry. Remember, you want to model in relatively even quads.
The fingers don't look correct, especially in the areas I highlighted.
Is this supposed to be stylized or realistic? What references are you using?

im using my own hand as a reference :P

the fingers are the way they are because the joints in the fingers are supposed to be bulkier and less round, compared to the cylindrical section between the joints.

ill try fix those bad ngons

Currently my idea is to create the low-poly in-game mesh in 3ds max, and sculpt that in zbrush. Would you guys recommend this or rather sculpt the whole thing in zbrush and decimate that mesh to get topology thats usable in-game?

alright did some changes. 2 tris persisting, which i cant find a logical way to fix, but i subdivided the mesh and it looks fine, so it should work in zbrush.

will get cracking with zbrush tomorrow unless someone has more crits.

I'd personally recommend building your game resolution mesh by hand after you're done with zbrush rather than doing the decimation thing. If anything take your lowest subdivision level and refine the geometry on there so it will animate properly.

and those two tri's could come back to haunt you depending on where they are in the layout. Don't assume that a smoothed mesh is going to act the same way as a mesh that you're sculpting on.

could you elaborate a bit? im not very experienced with zbrush.

what sort of problems can i encounter?

A game-res mesh needs to be optimized for three things at the very minimum: texture space, performance, and animation. Using zbrush decimate will produce a mesh that is possible low poly enough to not choke a game-engine, but the resulting mesh will not be at all optimized for animation. It will consist of all tris, with no regard to edge loops around the joints, which are required for animation. Yes, a game mesh will be all tris anyways, but before they are all tris they should be organized edge-loops.

The mesh will also probably not be suitable for unwrapping, even though zbrush does auto unwrapping these UV's are, more often then not, going to require some editing, and that will be hard if you dont have good edge-loops.

alright Thanks for the tips ysalex. I went ahead and made those two tris in to quads, just to make sure they dont bother me later on.


now its zbrush time.

totally lost track of this thread in the shuffle. What ysalex said.

and also how the tri's will come back to haunt you - in certain areas they will cause 'pinching' when you've subdivided a few times. So any area that has triangles or junctions where five edges meet in one vert, you'll want to try and hide in an area that isn't super visible or doesn't need a lot of detailed sculpting.

Like right now on the back of your hand off of the base of the ring finger, you have a vert where six edges meet. It's easier to avoid layouts like this... but check it out, step up a few subdivision levels and then start sculpting over that area. Notice how that section doesn't smooth/flatten easily and doesn't sculpt out as easily as the rest.

started sculpting now. heres my progress.



once again, i really need crits so keep em coming

Start your sculpting at a lower subdivision, sculpt as much as you can at each level before moving on. This helps an artist emphasize the important (larger) forms first.

I'm counting 197 visible polygons in that first image. I'm not sure that qualifies as "low poly". I once did a hand with fifty-five polys. It was like a lobster claw, but given how far away from it the camera in my game was, the difference was negligible.

For pointing and grasping, you only need the pointer finger and the thumb to be independent. You should weld the other three fingers together. No one will notice. And if your character never has to point, then you want some "mitten hands".

Originally Posted by achillesian

Start your sculpting at a lower subdivision, sculpt as much as you can at each level before moving on. This helps an artist emphasize the important (larger) forms first.

This is just very personal. but i disagree and never understood this tip. working on level one doing the most on it and then moving to level two and doing the most of it just feels crappy to me. i usually go up three levels just to black the shapes but to have some geometry to play with and then step back and forth between the levels

Originally Posted by achillesian

Start your sculpting at a lower subdivision, sculpt as much as you can at each level before moving on. This helps an artist emphasize the important (larger) forms first.

yeah i am actually working at a lower division level than the one in the picture, mostly because smoothing doesnt work well on larger shapes at high subd levels. I just divided the mesh more for the pic so its smooth.

Originally Posted by LW3

I'm counting 197 visible polygons in that first image. I'm not sure that qualifies as "low poly". I once did a hand with fifty-five polys. It was like a lobster claw, but given how far away from it the camera in my game was, the difference was negligible.

For pointing and grasping, you only need the pointer finger and the thumb to be independent. You should weld the other three fingers together. No one will notice. And if your character never has to point, then you want some "mitten hands".

these are going to be first person hands for a personal project im doing for cryengine three, so you'll see them pretty close. What i meant by low poly was just the distinguishing between the "low" poly game mesh, and the higher polygon sculpt that will be baked down to the game mesh.

some nails. they look a tad weird somehow but i cant really put my finger on it..

get it? put my finger.. nevermind.


anyways.. if anyone has any tips on the nails id be happy to hear em.. I just used a mix of the flatten brush and standard brush combined with nail-shaped masks

The nails need to be pushed into the fingers a tad so that the cuticle comes over the top. I seem to remember someone here doing a tutorial for 50 Cent on how to achieve such a thing nicely.

My personal method is to mask off the shape of the nail, then sculpt the base and sides of the nail down into the finger, and sculpt the tip and middle part of the nail up from the finger. I typically use clay buildup or inflate. Before I unmask I go over it with a smooth brush to "polish" the nail.



Also, red wax is gross. It makes everything look weird.

alright i scrapped the nails.. wont make em for a while, concentrating on larger shapes atm.



also changed the mat to skin01.

Hand part is now finished.



now moving on to the arm and forearm.

once again please give crits, they help