Hello

I recently stared learning Maya and Mudbox and I have couple questions.
I understand that when I sculp a character in Mudbox(from base mesh) I need to do retopology.The character is sculpted with mouth closed so how can I make character speak in Maya.
Should I just delete that thin row of faces connecting lower and upper lip?
If I do that will I be able to transer details from high res mesh to retopogised mesh without problems because basically it is a different mesh(it has mouth opening)?
Same question is for eye sockets.

Thanks in advance

After the conceptual stages, a modeler is always going to have to deal with retopology.

You do have to retopo the model, leaving holes in your mesh for areas between the lips, and eye lids.

You now have to project the high res sculpt details onto the new base mesh that has the “gaps” or “holes” between the lips and eyelids. You can do this in mudbox, or you can do it in a program like topogun. In this example, we will use mudbox.

Once you have built that retopology, and projected it in mudbox (with the gaps between the lips and eyelids)… you now have all of your sculpt detail transfered, and you have holes/gaps betwen the lips and eyelids. But we still need sockets, and a mouth cavity.

So how do you make them? Well, you export the base level of your newly projected model into your main 3d program such as Softimage or Maya. You extrude out those edge holes between the lips and eyelids, and build sockets out of them. It doesnt have to be perfect, but keep in mind its best to maintain the edgeloop flow, and have edge loops spaced out enough to capture the curvature of the inner sockets.

At this point you dont have to worry about making them curved perfectly, just make sure the inner lip or inner eyelid area doesnt protrude out the front of the eyelid/lips.

OK, now that you have rough sockets built into your base mesh. But we need to transfer the high sculpt detail onto the new base mesh that has sockets.

Bring the base mesh with the sockets, into your mudbox scene as a new object. In your scene you should have both the new basemesh with sockets, and the reprojected surface with the gaps we made above.

So now you’re going to use the transfer details feature, and project your sculpt on the base mesh with sockets. Be sure to transfer the details onto a layer. This is important because if the projected detail is on a layer, you can use layer masks to mask out areas that might have projected poorly.. Sometimes this will happen depending on what problem you are tackling with your re-projection. Layer masks will allow you to clean up your model very nicely. Its one of my favorite features.

So now you have transfered your details, now on a new layer, go in and smooth out those eye sockets, and adjust the mouth cavity so they have the proper form. Continue sculpting from there.

This is a little more advanced, but chances are you will need to retopo once more before your model is “finished” because often you will make adjustments to your model and those adjustments may cause your topology to “slip” off the surface a bit, and you will have to export your base mesh once more, move its points to the proper location in a program like topogun, and then reproject once more. this is a much easier step because the geoemtry is already defined on your base model. You simply need to just slide around the verts so they go back to the location you intended. OR sometimes you will ahve to add in new edge flows to support your adjustments. Anyways this is a later step in the process and a bit more advanced. Good luck. Sorry for my horrible writing.

-Adam

Its a good question. I actually had to use 3d coat recently to do something topogun couldnt do because it was crashing. I would say 3d coat is better at handing base meshes with higher polygon counts than topogun, and it has far better symmetry tools while working than topogun. BUT.. I think topogun has a faster workflow, and I prefer it over 3d coat.

That being said… 3d coat is very nice, and it can do things other than retopology, so perhaps 3d coat is the better value.

But honestly, topogun is my go to program for retopology. If 3D Coats interface wasnt as awkward, i might like it a bit more. The auto retopo features in 3d coat look good but honestly i have yet to try them…