Reply To: Learning retopology, should I start with Hard Surfaces or Organics?
Hey @aythem,
It is a excellent idea, and highly recommended to plan your retopology as you are trying to here.
Have you tried the husky exercise at the end of the mesh modeling bootcamp?
It is a priority to have a ring of edge loops around the eyes and mouth, and any other moving parts (joints in the legs, around the neck etc.)
From there on its basically a jigsaw puzzle adding pieces to join it all together.
The placement of any poles is ideally suited to areas which will not get deformed or stretched when animating, the top of the head or centre of the chest for example.
Another great course you should take a look at is Creature Modeling for Production, chapter 3 covers retopology.
It is ok to use tri’s in some areas. On a model like this on the end of the horns for example, or claws, if the model has claws.
Hope this helps.
@jlampel there used to be an image of the husky puppy with the main edge loops colored in red and blue on the exercise page, its no longer there. I thought this may be a good image to reference here.