How to: Facial Retopology for Animation v2

sketchfab

This project is a key component in a series where I meticulously rework the topology of a hand (https://skfb.ly/6YWrX) and an entire character (https://skfb.ly/6YWsM). Due to annotation limitations, I focused on making each annotation as valuable as possible, with timestamps indicating when they apply. The final step's colors highlight loops associated with the face. Follow these steps carefully, and you'll end up with a head that should be highly effective for rigging and animation! I drew inspiration from Sergi Caballer's topology approach while creating this project, so it's based on a tried-and-true formula. It begins with what I consider to be foundational structural loops and progresses to a consistently dense polygon structure by the end. A note: every studio and character artist may have their own preferences; after researching and experimenting, I developed the method you see here. If you're interested in seeing this style of topology created through box modeling, check out Sergi Caballer's work.