For months I have dreaded studying topology because I didn't know there was standardized knowledge on this. This Articulation Theory is so much more helpful than 99% of tutorials I have seen and in only around 10 minutes.
I'm a student in a game art program at my local college, and this video was more useful in explaining topology than my entire character modeling and rigging class! I feel inspired to revisit character work this summer :D
This was the case for me too while I was in to get my BS in Game Art and let me tell you, RUclips will teach you more than the class will. Gnomon On Line and Udemy are great paid resources and RUclips is a wonderful giant library of endless free information! Good Luck!
@@ZephrusPrime thanks a bunch! My program's only an AS, and I dont intent to transfer after i graduate, so I'm expecting tons of self-teaching to get my portfolio where it needs to be lol
@@pulperfan5m962 Well man that's smart because only a great portfolio can get you into the industry. They can care less about your education. In the end they are only concerned with if you have the skills to get the job done and if you can work well with others on a team. Learn the complete game pipeline and understand the guy's job before you and the guy's job that comes next after yours. ALWAYS do more work than what your teachers assign and never use assignments in your portfolio.
I hate colleges personally, being through the ringer myself I would rather share my knowledge with others so they can focus more on making art rather then dealing with technical issues.
Dew Diehard thank you for sharing your knowledge! One of the reasons I’ve never been to university is because I just want to learn how to do it, rather than having to do all the academic and essay writing that goes with it. I’ve just started with blender and this video was so useful. Hopefully you’ll be uploading more videos soon 🤞🏻🤞🏻
I'm like a year into Blender modeling, I've made like... 30 character models so far, and this video has showed me where I went wrong with every single one of them.
No lie, I almost cried when I saw how the arms moved in that model, I have been looking for a good guideline for good character topology for the last 8 months no luck. Your video is awesome. Thanks a lot.
Basically yes! This is just a starter scaffolding for topology. When I have the body roughed out with this I add patches and move onto the head, hands and feet.
I have watched a ton of videos on topology. Most of them are 30 mins plus. You are an excellent teacher, getting all the necessary info without junking it up with mid point "how to use this tool" instructions. Thanks, for the info and keep up the great work (3 years later)
This lesson never gets old!!! look carefully for the disposition of edge loops in limbs and the function of double five star quadrilaterals !!! It is a connection between limbs and torsos of any creature!! Thanks so much!! I´m really glad for this video.
I thought I shouldn't watch other 3d software tutorials cuz I only use blender, But this is what I actually wanted to see, the proper deforming animation and rigging, this is so informative, thanks
This is right where I'm at! I hated weight painting because I couldn't get where I wanted to go with my skills, but turns out I was fighting a losing battle if my topology wasn't correct!
I've made a few low-poly characters before and this is honestly the best method I've ever seen for getting the topology to flow correctly from the beginning. I've always had to cut away at faces to fix things later on, but I'm going to start using this method from now on. I hope you make more videos - you teach really well.
Ty! It's just a technique that was shown to me many years ago and something I've found the most efficient at making a animatable character within a few hours.
As a coder who touched a blender tutorial only once, this was super helpfull! You actually gave guidelines, instead of going for a finite product where the fundamental concepts and bricks are buried inside the result.
I am competent with 3d. Having used 3ds Max for years. That you made this video has helped me a TON. I'm an environment artist getting into characters. I need to make my own head sometime soon. Thank you. Please keep up what you are going.
An excellent lesson - I got a huge amount out of it. It is beautifully simple and (importantly) very clearly presented. Nice on! I look forward to you posting more videos.
Its cool that you teach through theory rather than specifics. Its nice being able to follow along in Blender even when the teacher is using a different program. Great work!
Dew, thank you SO much for putting these pixar videos back up. you don't know how helpful they have been for everyone, and we all need them to refer back to!!!
Blender user here! 👋😄 Thank you so much for this awesome and simple topology guide. Exactly what I needed and been looking for ages! God bless you and your family always 🙏 Just subbed! 😉👍
The nohow you have drop in your short lectures here is beyond most popular fancy online courses I have watched. These are the fundamentals a person can usually learn in studio environment and if once have the luck to work with good mentors... My point is if you make a patreon or at least some paid series I believe you will have the interest of many people seeking for actual knowledge. I know most of people do not have the time to keep constant content and this could be the reason you have only four lessons here. Thank you for sharing and please make more!
i so much needed this video i knew my model has sth wrong with shoulder topology but i didn't know where to start but thanks to this video i am finally starting to pick up. thank you so much
Many thanks for sharing this new view on topology for the body-- I have learnt a good deal from it. I'm new modelling in 3D and my problem is that after I finish the head, there are so many vertexes running down the neck I don't even know how to distribute them cleanly on the body, as edge loops from the head creep into the arms and legs. I know for sure that I need certain X axis edge loops for the hands, and Y axis edge loops for the feet, and an even spacing down the middle line for the groin. The worst is I end without enough topology for the hands and feet to make the fingers look right (toes doesn't matter too much). My fingers has a hexagonal cut to keep the roundness, and I need an extra edge loop in between the fingers to create the area of skin between them. In all at least I need 9 edge loops on the X axis for the arm alone and those creep down the flanks towards the legs, feet, groin and up towards the sides of the head... Is there another method to keep the topology of hands and feet clean without making more edge loops to run into the body and head? With too many edge loops running through the same side, ridge artefacts appears and it's a pain to try to smooth them out by separating them as they kind of conflux very packed together along a very narrow path. And upon animating, those tight packed edge loops tend to clip onto each other if I don't reduce the weight paint of them to around 0.1~0.05 depending of how packed they are (at least that's the solution I found but that only works to prevent the clipping in animation towards an axis, but the faces don't deform enough if they move towards their perpendicular axis). Would like to know your thoughts into that subject.
Very simple and important explanation! Loved it! You should do a full body rigging class, including facial expressions. Your approach to tackling concepts can benefit thousands! Thanks for sharing.
The amount of information I have would be theory, not a tutorial about how to rig. I try and make my videos on how to think about approaching 3D. In a similar manor of how you could approach drawing.
This video inspired me to try box modelling over my sculpt and applying a shrink wrap, after a bit of adjusting it worked like a charm (I'm Blender user rather than Maya). Thanks for making this!
Excellent, i love this topology. Pixar have a topology very usefull for rigging and animation. now i understand this topic, thanks for this video!!! Tip -> The N-Poles help guide the flow of polygons, allowing to connect the head, arms and legs
Great tutorial!!! You gotta show how you came up with the mesh at 6:40. (Also that giant guy at the beginning... This was extremely helpful when it comes to topology!!! Keep up the excellent work!!!!
Wow thank you, this was extremely valuable! I hope you make time to continue the series haha, looks like I'n not alone in the comments who's waiting for them :)
Thank you! I had no idea that people liked this video. I will make the models examples for the sequel today but I am currently on holiday so I won't be able to make the actual video until I get back.
@@dewdiehard2416 forvsure your videos are precious .. youtube algorithms have to dig deep to come up with your videos on my recommendations .. please keep the series alive
Thanks for that awesome video. Super interesting and it works marvelously. I wish so much you had done the one about the patches for the knees sthough :)
Would love you to make more videos. For hands especially since head often can be simple with mask or sth else to cover it but hands are always hands and those often need precise movement for grabbing animations so topology there is so important.
I very much needed this, thank you Sir. I'm very new to 3D modeling and I'm creating a character model for independent study. I need all the tips and info I can need to improve!
Hey! I love this video. Are you going to do the face and hands? Would love to see what the very simplified topology of those are. This is amazing to see how the body looks simplified!
when he talks about with just a little finessing and moving around you can get a body he is right haha. been sticking with the video and I have somewhat of a body. been using my own reference after the initial stages of the video to get the body done
Patches.....very nice! I've never heard of them. But wow...kind of a game changer (at least for me). I'm modeling and animating a base mesh currently in Blender. I was just going to chock up pointy elbows and knees to being somewhat lo-poly. Not anymore :) Thanks for this
HardsurfaceTube/CharacterTube can use a lot of such content as this. These are both fundamentals and essentials, the more people learn these topics, the better the overall content quality will be. That's essentially how humanity learns.
I've been trying to wrap my head at how he transformed the crude first model into the polished second one for 30 minutes and i still don't get it. The faces that consitute the connection between the chest and the armpit are positioned in such a way that the first model cannot transform into the second one without significant changes to the structure of the model and how the faces flow. Maybe i'm wrong but i've really tried for a long time to reproduce his modifications and they just don't fit. I really don't understand why he didn't do a timelapse...
Please, please, please create that video on valences. I loved your video on patches, it was super helpful. I also don't fully understand when tries are acceptable, though you pointed that out in the collapsed edge example. Can you please make a video on when to use the topology of those edge cases, tris, valences(I've always called them poles, will try that search term later), and when, if ever, N-Gons are acceptable. I've loved your videos so far, and I really, really appreciate that rather than just saying "use quads and good edge flow" you show examples of good edge flow and illustrate clearly why you would want that. Also, if a character has large muscles, would you recommend creating patches, or should I just perform a subdivision/smoothing and use the additional geometry to kind of shape the muscles and details from those the best that I can?
Between this vid, and the one on patches, I'm ready to conquer the world! I'm pretty good at point editing, but my topology sucks. Even though I have Zbrush, I prefer to model my base mesh in a program such as Lightwave (and recently I'm learning Blender). Thanks a ton.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
every year or so i come back to this.
this video changed everything about 3d modelling for me
im not exagerating
For months I have dreaded studying topology because I didn't know there was standardized knowledge on this. This Articulation Theory is so much more helpful than 99% of tutorials I have seen and in only around 10 minutes.
It's been a while since I bumped into a bit of information that completely changes everything. Thank you.
My pleasure! I'm glad people are appreciating the information. Be sure to check out the patches video so you can place the elbows and knees.
i see you everwhere
@@Roule_n_Scratche Are you sure it's not just Blender videos?
I'm a student in a game art program at my local college, and this video was more useful in explaining topology than my entire character modeling and rigging class! I feel inspired to revisit character work this summer :D
This was the case for me too while I was in to get my BS in Game Art and let me tell you, RUclips will teach you more than the class will. Gnomon On Line and Udemy are great paid resources and RUclips is a wonderful giant library of endless free information! Good Luck!
@@ZephrusPrime thanks a bunch! My program's only an AS, and I dont intent to transfer after i graduate, so I'm expecting tons of self-teaching to get my portfolio where it needs to be lol
@@pulperfan5m962 Well man that's smart because only a great portfolio can get you into the industry. They can care less about your education. In the end they are only concerned with if you have the skills to get the job done and if you can work well with others on a team. Learn the complete game pipeline and understand the guy's job before you and the guy's job that comes next after yours. ALWAYS do more work than what your teachers assign and never use assignments in your portfolio.
I hate colleges personally, being through the ringer myself I would rather share my knowledge with others so they can focus more on making art rather then dealing with technical issues.
Dew Diehard thank you for sharing your knowledge! One of the reasons I’ve never been to university is because I just want to learn how to do it, rather than having to do all the academic and essay writing that goes with it. I’ve just started with blender and this video was so useful. Hopefully you’ll be uploading more videos soon 🤞🏻🤞🏻
I'm like a year into Blender modeling, I've made like... 30 character models so far, and this video has showed me where I went wrong with every single one of them.
No lie, I almost cried when I saw how the arms moved in that model, I have been looking for a good guideline for good character topology for the last 8 months no luck. Your video is awesome. Thanks a lot.
Pixar body topology in a nutshell:
Always try to make a spider-man uniform.
Hahaha, not a bad way to remember it!
Basically yes! This is just a starter scaffolding for topology. When I have the body roughed out with this I add patches and move onto the head, hands and feet.
That was exactly what I thought when I saw the back :P
@@dewdiehard2416man i thought u were gone
Thanks, you saved me enough time and knowledge that could spend my 5 months in college
I have watched dozens of tutorials to help me model a body correctly. So I want to say a special THANK YOU for this tutorial!
I have watched a ton of videos on topology. Most of them are 30 mins plus. You are an excellent teacher, getting all the necessary info without junking it up with mid point "how to use this tool" instructions. Thanks, for the info and keep up the great work (3 years later)
This is probably one of the most valuable pieces of info on modeling i've come across on YT. Thank you so much
This lesson never gets old!!! look carefully for the disposition of edge loops in limbs and the function of double five star quadrilaterals !!! It is a connection between limbs and torsos of any creature!! Thanks so much!! I´m really glad for this video.
I thought I shouldn't watch other 3d software tutorials cuz I only use blender,
But this is what I actually wanted to see, the proper deforming animation and rigging, this is so informative, thanks
Holy cow. That was deceptively simple, but really hardcore.
This is amazing, I tought my models weren't deforming well because of bad weight painting but it has a lot to do with topology instead. Thanks a lot!
That's exactly me too! This is life changing
I'm going to make a video about weight painting soon and I will go into why good topology and joint placement makes all the difference.
@@dewdiehard2416 really great idea, love to see ♥️
This is right where I'm at! I hated weight painting because I couldn't get where I wanted to go with my skills, but turns out I was fighting a losing battle if my topology wasn't correct!
For blender users, at the begining when he extrudes, you can press alt E and extrude faces along normals. Great video
thank you !!
The exact comment I was looking for. Thank you!
can subdivide and set max smoothness to one, requires 3 cuts instead of 2
I've made a few low-poly characters before and this is honestly the best method I've ever seen for getting the topology to flow correctly from the beginning. I've always had to cut away at faces to fix things later on, but I'm going to start using this method from now on. I hope you make more videos - you teach really well.
hoo damn thats efficient modeling.
Ty! It's just a technique that was shown to me many years ago and something I've found the most efficient at making a animatable character within a few hours.
As a coder who touched a blender tutorial only once, this was super helpfull! You actually gave guidelines, instead of going for a finite product where the fundamental concepts and bricks are buried inside the result.
Dude, this is like, no more retopo needed... Well, maybe sometimes. But this. THIS is Gold.
This is the definition of obscure but life changing information. Subscribed.
Your mechanical keyboard and mouse sounds are very satisfying.
I am competent with 3d. Having used 3ds Max for years.
That you made this video has helped me a TON.
I'm an environment artist getting into characters.
I need to make my own head sometime soon.
Thank you. Please keep up what you are going.
An excellent lesson - I got a huge amount out of it. It is beautifully simple and (importantly) very clearly presented. Nice on! I look forward to you posting more videos.
Bro dropped this life changing tip then dipped
Its cool that you teach through theory rather than specifics. Its nice being able to follow along in Blender even when the teacher is using a different program. Great work!
Dew, thank you SO much for putting these pixar videos back up. you don't know how helpful they have been for everyone, and we all need them to refer back to!!!
Thank you for this information. I am glad RUclips's algorithm directed me to your videos
Can't wait for more videos in this series. Especially looking forward to hands and face.
RUclips is recommending me so many topology videos recently. Like jeez, I get the hint thank you very much.
It's telling you need to get back into modeling!
This is the most useful video I've seen in last three years
Thank you so much! Ive been rummaging youtube for hours looking for these kind of videos!
Those first 3 minutes is a very nice setup!
Gonna put it to use right away
Blender user here! 👋😄
Thank you so much for this awesome and simple topology guide. Exactly what I needed and been looking for ages!
God bless you and your family always 🙏
Just subbed! 😉👍
Fantastic video! Thank you for your effort and dedication!
The nohow you have drop in your short lectures here is beyond most popular fancy online courses I have watched. These are the fundamentals a person can usually learn in studio environment and if once have the luck to work with good mentors... My point is if you make a patreon or at least some paid series I believe you will have the interest of many people seeking for actual knowledge. I know most of people do not have the time to keep constant content and this could be the reason you have only four lessons here. Thank you for sharing and please make more!
Brilliant. So helpful to a relative noob like me. Can't wait to see your guide to heads/faces.
i so much needed this video i knew my model has sth wrong with shoulder topology but i didn't know where to start but thanks to this video i am finally starting to pick up. thank you so much
I love this video so much, thanks to you my models can finally raise their arms
Many thanks for sharing this new view on topology for the body-- I have learnt a good deal from it.
I'm new modelling in 3D and my problem is that after I finish the head, there are so many vertexes running down the neck I don't even know how to distribute them cleanly on the body, as edge loops from the head creep into the arms and legs. I know for sure that I need certain X axis edge loops for the hands, and Y axis edge loops for the feet, and an even spacing down the middle line for the groin. The worst is I end without enough topology for the hands and feet to make the fingers look right (toes doesn't matter too much). My fingers has a hexagonal cut to keep the roundness, and I need an extra edge loop in between the fingers to create the area of skin between them. In all at least I need 9 edge loops on the X axis for the arm alone and those creep down the flanks towards the legs, feet, groin and up towards the sides of the head...
Is there another method to keep the topology of hands and feet clean without making more edge loops to run into the body and head? With too many edge loops running through the same side, ridge artefacts appears and it's a pain to try to smooth them out by separating them as they kind of conflux very packed together along a very narrow path. And upon animating, those tight packed edge loops tend to clip onto each other if I don't reduce the weight paint of them to around 0.1~0.05 depending of how packed they are (at least that's the solution I found but that only works to prevent the clipping in animation towards an axis, but the faces don't deform enough if they move towards their perpendicular axis). Would like to know your thoughts into that subject.
Very simple and important explanation! Loved it! You should do a full body rigging class, including facial expressions. Your approach to tackling concepts can benefit thousands! Thanks for sharing.
The amount of information I have would be theory, not a tutorial about how to rig. I try and make my videos on how to think about approaching 3D. In a similar manor of how you could approach drawing.
This video inspired me to try box modelling over my sculpt and applying a shrink wrap, after a bit of adjusting it worked like a charm (I'm Blender user rather than Maya). Thanks for making this!
Thank you so much. Topology is really tough to master, you show a very easy way to handle the shoulder.
Amazing content. Very helpful. Please do make more videos.
Thanks . Your video helped me to understand all my past mistakes. I really didn't get it until now. again thank you.
Excellent, i love this topology. Pixar have a topology very usefull for rigging and animation.
now i understand this topic, thanks for this video!!!
Tip -> The N-Poles help guide the flow of polygons, allowing to connect the head, arms and legs
Thank you. This really helps! Along with your elbow video, you have explained things very well. Wish you would do more!
I'll try and get more out after the new year. Currently busy with other projects.
Great explanation. You make it look simple. Nice work flow..
This is very informative and time saving hopefully you keep on releasing more content.
Thank you so much. Feeling lucky to found this video.
im so glad i found this video early in my blender learning
Great tutorial!!! You gotta show how you came up with the mesh at 6:40. (Also that giant guy at the beginning... This was extremely helpful when it comes to topology!!! Keep up the excellent work!!!!
Wow thank you, this was extremely valuable! I hope you make time to continue the series haha, looks like I'n not alone in the comments who's waiting for them :)
Thank you! I had no idea that people liked this video. I will make the models examples for the sequel today but I am currently on holiday so I won't be able to make the actual video until I get back.
@@dewdiehard2416 forvsure your videos are precious .. youtube algorithms have to dig deep to come up with your videos on my recommendations .. please keep the series alive
This is an interesting way of modeling humanoid shapes. I might have to play around with this technique myself.
Love this. Will you have anymore videos?
incredible education. Thanks so much man. I think I have to watch this like 5 more times. Subbed.
This is sooo useful! Thank you very much for making such a tutorial! Can't wait to see the one about hands.
Your content is precious, thank you. I hope to see more videos from you.
Dude, please do other body parts if it's possible.
It's highly appreciated and we really need these high quality tips and information,
Thanks.
Thanks for that awesome video. Super interesting and it works marvelously. I wish so much you had done the one about the patches for the knees sthough :)
amazing video pal!! for us learning its GOLD!!
Thanks for sharing, this is some great insight. Keep them coming!
Thank you so much! A very clear demonstration of what's important!
I wish this vid was around about 5 years ago (when I first started with 3d art)
Been struggling forever to get good topology going with minimal effort
That first body was the fastest body sketch that I have seen haha really good video, thanks about that info 😊
This is absolutely brilliant - Thank you very much!
My pleasure, just passing along what i know.
Please make more content! This is amazing!
Great info, very helpful! More videos!!!
Soon
When are you gonna continue this series?! I'd love to see the video for the hands and feet!
Feet are explained in this video, the toes however will be explained when I make the hands.
can you do a part 2 ??? about how to take this videos rough model and turn it into good looking model ???
Excellent video!
Great video, helped a lot! Can you make videos for the face and hands?
I enjoyed these videos a lot. I would love to learn more about the patches.
Great video! Super straight forward and helpful, thank you!
Would love you to make more videos. For hands especially since head often can be simple with mask or sth else to cover it but hands are always hands and those often need precise movement for grabbing animations so topology there is so important.
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
I very much needed this, thank you Sir. I'm very new to 3D modeling and I'm creating a character model for independent study. I need all the tips and info I can need to improve!
Hey! I love this video. Are you going to do the face and hands? Would love to see what the very simplified topology of those are. This is amazing to see how the body looks simplified!
Yes absolutely will. Face will be it's own series of videos. Hand as well.
Your videos are amazing! That really help. Thank you!
please, please can you post some more videos or share a link to where we can pay for more. They are so helpful
Hey, Thank you so much for making this video. I came across this video randomly and I learned so much from this lesson.
Great video man. Very helpful. Really curious about the patches for the knees and elbows. Please upload more lessons, they are awesome.
Working on that now. I won't be able to upload it until a week or so. I'm on holiday.
I wish you keep making these tutorials ;) thanks
when he talks about with just a little finessing and moving around you can get a body he is right haha. been sticking with the video and I have somewhat of a body. been using my own reference after the initial stages of the video to get the body done
Patches.....very nice! I've never heard of them. But wow...kind of a game changer (at least for me). I'm modeling and animating a base mesh currently in Blender. I was just going to chock up pointy elbows and knees to being somewhat lo-poly. Not anymore :) Thanks for this
Not even a second into the video, and my brain is like:
BIG BIG CHUNGUS BIG CHUNGUS BIG CHUNGUS
What?
wow this is the best tutorial ive seen thank you so much..........
that was mind blowing
HardsurfaceTube/CharacterTube can use a lot of such content as this. These are both fundamentals and essentials, the more people learn these topics, the better the overall content quality will be. That's essentially how humanity learns.
Brilliant! I've been looking for something like this for so long..
Oh my goodness! This is sooo good! Thanks so much!
My pleasure! Hopefully I helped in some way.
how do you even create the N-poles & E-poles to redirect your edge/face loops? (like in 9:33)
Love the videos, was wondering if you'll ever revisit the series or if its on patrion somewhere? Can't find your twitter.
I've been trying to wrap my head at how he transformed the crude first model into the polished second one for 30 minutes and i still don't get it. The faces that consitute the connection between the chest and the armpit are positioned in such a way that the first model cannot transform into the second one without significant changes to the structure of the model and how the faces flow. Maybe i'm wrong but i've really tried for a long time to reproduce his modifications and they just don't fit. I really don't understand why he didn't do a timelapse...
Super interesting, thanks a lot Dew
Please, please, please create that video on valences. I loved your video on patches, it was super helpful. I also don't fully understand when tries are acceptable, though you pointed that out in the collapsed edge example. Can you please make a video on when to use the topology of those edge cases, tris, valences(I've always called them poles, will try that search term later), and when, if ever, N-Gons are acceptable. I've loved your videos so far, and I really, really appreciate that rather than just saying "use quads and good edge flow" you show examples of good edge flow and illustrate clearly why you would want that. Also, if a character has large muscles, would you recommend creating patches, or should I just perform a subdivision/smoothing and use the additional geometry to kind of shape the muscles and details from those the best that I can?
amazing video lad. Thank you so much for this. im trying to learn blender and this is helping so much. onto the head video XD
Man that's gorgeous.
Amazing Tutorial!!!
THANKS!!!
Between this vid, and the one on patches, I'm ready to conquer the world! I'm pretty good at point editing, but my topology sucks. Even though I have Zbrush, I prefer to model my base mesh in a program such as Lightwave (and recently I'm learning Blender). Thanks a ton.
Perfect, this is exactly what i want, all my low poly characters deform like shit, thx a lot