Book Image

Squeaky Clean Topology in Blender

By : Michael Steppig
5 (1)
Book Image

Squeaky Clean Topology in Blender

5 (1)
By: Michael Steppig

Overview of this book

This book is an introduction to modeling and an in-depth look at topology in Blender, written by a Blender topology specialist with years of experience with the software. As you progress through its chapters, you’ll conquer the basics of quad-based topology using triangles and Ngons, and learn best practices and things to avoid while modeling and retopologizing. The pages are full of illustrations and examples with in-depth explanations that showcase each step in an easy-to-follow format. Squeaky Clean Topology in Blender starts by introducing you to the user interface and navigation. It then goes through an overview of the modeling techniques and hotkeys that will be necessary to understand the examples. With the modeling basics out of the way, the next stop on our journey is topology. Working through projects like a character and a sci-fi blaster, the book will illustrate and work through complex topology problems, and present solutions to those problems. These examples focus on deforming character models, non-deforming hard surface models, and optimizing these models by reducing the triangle count. By the end of this book, you will be able to identify the general flow of a shape's topology, identify and solve issues in your topology, and come out with a model ready for UV unwrapping, materials, and rigging.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)
1
Part 1 – Getting Started with Modeling and Topology
6
Part 2 – Using Topology to Create Appropriate Models

Retopology of the front shielding

The next section we are working on is up at the front of the blaster. It is the angled plate that sits above the barrel illustrated in Figure 7.23.

Figure 7.23 – The front shielding

Figure 7.23 – The front shielding

Like we did on the grip, we are going to start by outlining the edges of the model. In this case, it is rather easy, as the shape is relatively simple. You can see the outline in Figure 7.24.

Figure 7.24 – Edges outlined with vertices

Figure 7.24 – Edges outlined with vertices

The important thing to think about in this case is how we are going to make the faces of the front shielding that are seen in Figure 7.25.

Figure 7.25 – Outlined vertices joined with faces

Figure 7.25 – Outlined vertices joined with faces

Here is the model after connecting all of the faces on it. This is the part of a deforming model where you would add more loop cuts in the middle to give it a consistent grid density. On a hard surface, however, there is no need to add more geometry...