Curvy for 3D Characters to be rigged?

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Gochris
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Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2014 10:49 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Curvy for 3D Characters to be rigged?

Post by Gochris »

Hello:

I would like to use Curvy to model 3D characters to be rigged.

According to my modeler Cinema 4D R13:
"Normally you should avoid using triangles because they cannot be deformed correctly. However, triangles are used in constricted regions for smoothing purposes. If you use triangles, make sure they are placed in regions that will be only slightly or not at all deformed."

So is Curvy a good tool to use for modeling 3D characters to eventually rig?

I really like Curvy and the real world idea of sculpting shapes and sticking them together.

Thanks
Gochris
Simon
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Re: Curvy for 3D Characters to be rigged?

Post by Simon »

Hi Gochris,
I haven't used Curvy models for much animation, here's one simple walk cycle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c1c6QCl4r8
But I know other Curvy artists have animated their models, and always with triangles.

I've animated other models (mostly in Blender) and I've always used triangles. I don't understand why Cinema would prefer quads - they are IMHO more likely to deform badly when animated.

Another option is to model in Curvy and then use ReTopo tools in other software to change the Curvy model into a clean quad mesh before you animate.
Gochris
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2014 10:49 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Re: Curvy for 3D Characters to be rigged?

Post by Gochris »

Simon -

Thanks for the help! I am so inexperienced with this that I didn't know that in the act of re-topologizing (is that even a word?)
one could change triangles to quads.

I'm excited about Curvy 3D!
Markku
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Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2011 7:12 pm
Location: Finland

Re: Curvy for 3D Characters to be rigged?

Post by Markku »

Simon wrote:Hi Gochris,
I've animated other models (mostly in Blender) and I've always used triangles. I don't understand why Cinema would prefer quads - they are IMHO more likely to deform badly when animated.
I just want to clarify this, if it's relevant to someone...

All animation apps nowadays prefer quads. The reason is simple, everybody wants to apply subdivision after animation rig. That smoothes the mesh changes caused by the animation rig. Most apps use Catmull-Clark subdivision which responds best to quad mesh.

Only game engines want to animate triangles; there the reason is to save polygons, so not smoothing (i.e. subdivision) is not used after animation.

So, to summarize: real-time and games: use tris, animation and stills: use quads.

It's a good thing Curvy can often output pretty good quad meshes. Also, if the mesh is triangulated, for example Blender can return the quads... Some manual work needed, though. :D
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