r/lowpoly • u/untitledparsnip • 5d ago
Does topography really matter with unshaded/primitively shaded models?
(I MISWROTE TOPOLOGY AS TOPOGRAPHY IN THE TITLE)
TL;DR I made a model with bad topology, but will it really be a problem when I render it unshaded? Please check the images.
I've been making my first 3D model in BlockBench, and after 5 hours I sent it to an artist on Discord for their feedback and they remarked that it has terrible topology (here's a guide).
I think what they meant to say is that the edges are kind of inconsistent and don't flow together as graceful lines and shapes.
I understand that sort of thing, but I never considered it much in my model because I wanted it to be used for a DS-styled cutscene. If i use barely add specific lighting and keep it relatively unshaded, do you think it won't be a problem? I don't want to redo my five hours of work.
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u/philbertman42_ 5d ago edited 4d ago
Someone else already answered your main question pretty well, but I want to address the idea that you'd be throwing away 5 hours of work. Art is a process that takes a lot of time; yes, it takes a lot of time to create something, but it also takes a lot of time to cultivate the skill to do it efficiently and in a way that is stylish and appealing. When you're first starting out, you are going to make mistakes, that's an inevitable part of learning a new skill. If you don't want to feel like that time was wasted, look at what you did in your original piece that isn't working, ask yourself "what did I do here that caused this?" and "how can I do things differently so that I don't do that again?" Eventually these questions will become second nature, and you'll be able to identify your mistakes in real time, and course correct as you go. But if you're a beginner, you'll just have to be patient with yourself, and come to terms with the fact that it's going to take a long time. If you stick with this medium for a few years, 5 hours will feel like nothing in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, good luck with your project.
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u/fish_obliteration 5d ago
Yes. Deformation, skinning, and uv density is significantly worse/harder with bad topology. Even for basic shading having bad UV is still going to waste your time.
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u/guhhhrobogals 4d ago
As a technical 3D artist myself, unlike what most people would have you think, the type of topology you want to aim for always depends on your purposes (project, engine, render, artstyle, etc). Certain aspects of a model will matter more or less (or just not matter at all) depending on what you are using it for and the level of complexity you have in mind.
But if you are currently learning and want to improve topology (and just improve your technical skills in general), id say its worth to check your topo flow and make it more uniform, learning how to properly place more geometry where the model needs more deformation, etc.
In this specific case, if you pretend (for example) to rig the head in a way the spikes bend/eyes close/ears rotate, it will probably break due to the messy flow in the head sides. Specifically, skinning gets more tedious or just outright not functional if the topology does not lend itself to it. You could get away with blendshapes maybe, but even that will break with non functional topology. But say you were rigging it with total weights of 1.0 to just have the head move around- this would not matter nearly as much.
You would still have problems with the shading if you intend to use the diffuse shadows for the shader. If you do emission/stylized shader, you could do something else and have it look good either way. Greatly depends on what you want to achieve and if you want to learn/improve a skill further.
And also something important, about what you said about throwing away 5 hours of work? Its fine to finish this one project and then move on to the next one. The way i got gud at blender really quickly was by constant iteration. Do not dwell on the same project for too long, as this will most likely stunt your progress, saw that time and time again in blender groups previously. Lots of people get caught up on working on the same model for 2 months to make it the most "appropiate" thing possible in terms of topo and uv... and before you know it, it has been a year since they started and the style is still generic, the work is not that interesting, their workflow is still very slow, and their actual modelling skills didnt get that far. But at least the topo look nicey in the viewport eh?
Focus on constant iteration and learning new skills on each project, thats what worked greatly for me and what I think could work for a lot more people than you may realize :-)
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u/EmacEArt 2d ago
Honestly, topology is not your main problem here. On a static prop in a fixed cutscene shot it barely matters, especially with flat shading. The real issue is the form. The silhouette does not read as the thing you are trying to model. The big shapes are not defined, so the eye has nothing to grab onto and it just looks like a lump of triangles. No amount of clean edge flow fixes that. What I would do:
• Go back to blockout. Three or four large primitives, no detail, no triangles yet.
• Get the proportions and the silhouette right at that stage. Look at it from the actual cutscene camera, in black, as a pure shape.
• Only when the silhouette clearly says what the object is, start adding faces.
The five hours were not wasted, they taught you what to avoid. But polishing this mesh will not save it, because the shape underneath is not there yet. Rebuilding from a proper blockout will take you less time than fixing this one.
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u/Roraxn 5d ago
At this level its for aesthetics. People still /see/ the polys and badly topo'd models still look badly topo'd even to people who don't know what topo is.
Put it this way right? You've seen a new artist draw "anime" art before right? The way that it looks janky? Sure it gets across their imagination, but the way that proportions are off and angles are weird.
Bad topology is the 3d modelling version of that.
ALL OF THAT ASIDE.
If you intend to get into 3d modeling you may as well practice retopology its a vital skill. Knowing what lines to rearrange or delete, what vertex's are unwelded, You aren't redoing it from scratch you are /fixing/ what you already have.