just trying to find some good edge loop techniques, and
modeling do’s and don’ts. Anybody have any good resources?
I’m primarily focused on figuring out how to model torsos, mainly around the armpit and shoulder area. I want to avoid any 5 point stars around this area.
here is a good study on topology
http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/showthread.php?t=907
about avoiding 5 point stars around the arm area…good luck with that…i’m not sure if that is geometrically possible…because anything extending off of the base or “trunk” will functionally have to have a 5 point star.
now where the stars are placed is another story…but you will in fact…have them somewhere…they are not all bad…more…annoying than anything
for instance…take a long cube subdivided…and extrude a face from it…ur going to have 4 5 point stars…it is fundamental.
I’ve read through that thread (link) before and although its an interesting read with useful tips on editing edgeloops, I actually disagree with the typology presented as ‘‘good’’ for deformation…especially the face/head typology.
Honestly the best advice i’ve gotten and give is to follow anatomy, whatever the requirements of the mesh…always flow your edgeloops to the flow of the muscles for realistic characters.
However even in toon characters, there is still an understanding of anatomical structures (muscles,bone,motion…)
a star is unavoidable, place them out of the way…i.e away from the deforming areas.
Tris in a mesh will become quads when subdivided
Quads render the best (for displacment)
In a standard workflow, the typo to avoid are n-gons, stars with more than 5 edges, and two triangles right next to each other.