Topology

     After finishing our sculpts we were required to create a paint layer over them displaying our understanding of Topology. To give myself a decent understanding and further what I had learnt within our group session I found the information in the following post to be particularly helpful. - http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80005
 





        What I understand now about topology is that, as a general rule, the intention is to avoid the inclusion of triangles, primarily because they tend not to deform well which becomes problematic should you wish to animate your sculpture. Instead one would try to keep the shapes as quads, however this can be difficult when the contours of the face start splaying off in different directions. At this point you may include "5poles". This is where the edges of five quads meet to form a polygon cluster (These are highlighted on the picture above). Whilst they can also be detrimental to animation, this tends to be less so than with triangles.
     Armed with this knowledge I then attempted to draw out the Topology on my own sculpture.

    Result: He looks like a Mickey Rourke/ Spiderman hybrid. Using the website as a guide I did my best to keep the 5poles to a minimum and within the areas they would be least inconvenient. I did not enjoy this exercise.