Appropriate way to convert multi part polygonal sculpt to NURBS

Rhino Rhino for Windows
1

Hello everybody,

I am not sure which approach to chose for sculpting a character and afterwards conversion to polysurface in Rhino. I will be sculpting a character in a Mudbox, usually I do these sculpts for 3D printing, so I just export them straight from Mudbox, but this time client wants to convert it to NURBS so he could use it in CAD software.

My issue is that I am not certain what is the best way to create all of the elements that make the model. What I mean is that character is wearing a vest and shorts. In a standard case I would make them as separate parts (which do intersect), so for example my model would be made from separate meshes for vest, shorts, belt, maybe hair, etc.

My question is: Is it still acceptable approach to model all these elements as separate objects and then to BooleanUnion them once they are converted to polysurfaces? Or should I try to keep number of separate objects to a minimum?

To point out: I will be retopologizing my sculpt to reduce polycount but to keep required details in.

Huge thanks!

2

Its unlikely that converting each facet in your triangulated model to a nurbs surface will satisfy your client. Most likely rebuilding with curves and surfaces will be needed, or perhaps using T-Splines or similar application to fit a nurbs surface to quads or triangles.

You could join them before or after creating a nurbs object. It might be easier to deal with the toplogy as separate objects. However, after Boolean there will likely be sharp creases where the objects intersect which may not be desireable. Filleting or blending these creases could be very time consuming.

3

Thanks for the reply!

I forgot to mention that I my plan was to use T-Splines. So I will be retopologizing hi-resolution sculpt into crease oriented, quad based mesh. I am basically working everyday with subdivision surfaces, so this is what I am familiar with.

This is exactly what I was thinking that would be one of the pros for using separate objects.

And exactly possible problem that could arise from such approach.

Theoretically I could retopologize everything as a single mesh, where I could use edge loops to control blending between different shapes, but it will be fairly complex design, so laying out good topology could turn out to be problematic.

Cheers!