Animation VS Mesh Density
 

I'm new when it comes to animation. I mainly do still images where mesh density is not a concern in the majority of time. However, I'm learning rigging and thinking to start a very short animation. I understand animation alone is an art itself, but I would like to understand more the process.

For what I understand you don't import or rigg a million poly mesh as this would make tweaking hard / impossible down the line, so keeping your mesh as optimized as possible is ideal.

But here's my noob questions:

1st Q. After tweaking the mesh, I came up with what is shown in the attached image.
Is this too heavy for an animation?

2nd Q. If the mesh is good for animation, do you apply a displacement map or a normal map for high details. Given the nature / effects of a displacement map, will it work for animation? Or should I apply only the normal map for the fine details?

Appreciated for your feedbacks. Animator noob here ;)

Usually what you'd do is create a "bound mesh" and a "rig mesh". The rig mesh would be a low poly version of your model, with no skinning. You would just parent constrain the objects to your skeleton. Therefore you can animate as quickly as possible, and not be distracted with skinning.

You would then create a higher resolution version that you would do you final skinning, texturing, and rigging on; then transfer the animation from the rig mesh to the bound.

Hi NextDesign,

Thank you for your input. That sounds hack of a lot of complicated, but I understand what you described.

Do you think the mesh shown is heavy in polys for animation?

Again, thank you for your feedbak.

No problem, that's what we're here for :)

From what I see, I'd say it's more than low enough.

Would you recommend to crank up the poly counts a tide more for animation? Or is good to go ?
I'm thinking to skip the low cage and jump right into the jungle of animating this little guy :ninja:

Again, thank you.

And should I apply the displacement map or the normal map? Or only apply both maps once the whole animation is done? My problem is, after sculpting all the fine details, if I apply a Displacement map, the poly counts will sky rock and I'm not sure if that's how short or long animations are done this way. Never had to think about it as I always did still images. Trying to jump out of my comfort zone and learn something new.
Sorry, still learning the animation department. Thank you.

Hi,

your poly count will only increase at render time, when the mesh is subdivided and displaced, won't affect your animation process (you'll still be using low resolution mesh),

gubar

Thank you for clarifying it.
Time for some sculpting then.

NextDesign, do you know any video showing the process you described?

Thank you :happy: