Muscle Edgeloops?

[daikath]

Im now sculpting anatomy in Mudbox, I'll only do it here since I find it easier to change and alter shapes then if I were to change every single vertex within Maya.

I plan to use my mesh with the proper anatomy back in Maya for use with the Maya Muscle system. In the examples ive seen, I've never seen the mesh use edgeloops for the muscles, Is it worth it putting in the time to add the edgeloops? Or can you get close enough without specific edgeloops for different muscles?

[joojaa]

Or can you get close enough without specific edgeloops for different muscles?

if you have dense enough meshes and dont mind slower than needed inetraction times.

See Edge loops serve 2 purposes:

1. you will be able to understand the subduivission better, hence be able to do better surfaces

2. making models lighter because the points form better defrmations as a side effect of you understanding the surface better. Possibly also saving you time debugging glitches as a result.

Now if you START with making loops then its not necceserily any more work to get it done than not having them. But theres really no point in forcing stuff like this. Either you work with edge loops in mind  from start or you dont.

[daikath]

Ive personally always understood edgeloops as making sure your geometry doesnt try and deform diagonally on a grid (which would be quite jaggy).

In this autodesk video podcast, you see a hand being sculpted in mudbox, but after the sculpting he still gives extra edges for the wrinkles in the hands for better deformation.

I gues I'll go midways and just add extra edgeloops for abs or byceps/chest. Where the detail needed might be hard to notice without specifically added edges.

[joojaa]

Ive personally always understood edgeloops as making sure your geometry doesnt try and deform diagonally on a grid

Well yes and no its a side effect of the reason you use them. Its more because the screen and your eyes and your brain sees a 2d world. They operate well with lines and if you have 2 crossing lines that form a well defined surface with lines next to them then its easy to understand. It doenst form undesireable diagonal chenges because you nderstand the relationship of those moves better, so you also see that the bind works better.

It doenet mena that the surface in question can not behave right with other shapes. There are in fact a unlimitted of those shapes. They are just not well understood thats all.

I gues I'll go midways and just add extra edgeloops for abs or byceps/chest.

Understanding part of the surface amy be better than nothing. yes. But in my experience they coount more in faces, shoulder area, ankles and hands

(which would be quite jaggy).

jaggines again is because you have no visual clue as to when the surface aligns up to a even shape, as you have no curve going that way. A surface is even if its even in 2 directions, hence edge loops that try to cross as perpendiculary as possible you make those edges even and that ensures that the others get even.

If your main curve intersect a area that uneven youd see it instantly and not make thet mistake. So you choose lines that count MOST to you.