Hi, I’m a noob at 3d Modeling. I have begun using zBrush and have found the wonders of sub-divisions for helping create detail… but, my question is this: how many polys are normal count for exporting to like Maya or 3Ds Max for the purpose of tv-quality animation? What’s too many polys?
Thanks!
If I remember correctly, Gollum (from the Lord of the Rings) was at his most complex 180,000 polygons. That is concidered quite high for character animation work. About 20-30,000 polygons is a more appropriate number for most usage.
Ultimately, though, it depends on the technology that you have at your disposal. For example, Taron’s “People” movie created and morphed between multiple characters by using animated displacement maps. The model itself was of very low poly count (fewer than 5,000 polys, I believe), but Messiah: Studio allowed him to get a lot of different characters out of it.
Basically, go with the fewest polygons that will allow you to achieve the particular animation that you want. Then use displacement mapping to add your detail at render time. You can also use displacement maps for medium frequency details and bump or normal maps for high frequency details.
Thanks for the quick answer, Aurick - that helps me sort through alot. Now my next question follows right on those heels: are the sub-divisions in zBrush used mostly to make displacement or normal maps? In other words, I see alot of posts where people take low-poly shapes into zbrush, sub-divide them, add a bunch of detail, then go back to Maya or whatever… are those sub-divide details just made into normal maps to go over the lower sub-division models when it comes to rigging and animating?
Thanks in advance…
Normal maps or displacement maps, yes. ZBrush allows you to work with extremely high polygon counts in real-time. This makes it nice to adjust your lower level meshes (which you’ll be animating with), as well as create all kinds of high level details that other apps can’t touch. You then use displacement and/or normal maps to send that detail to your animation package so that when the model renders it looks like it has more polygons than it really does.
Aurick - thanks! You are quick and wise! I appreciate your help.