sculpting

Sculpting

High-frequency surface detail pass. Know when to sculpt vs model vs bake.

When to Sculpt

Sculpt	Don't Sculpt
Organic wrinkles, pores	Hard surface panel lines
Creature skin detail	Modular kit pieces
Damage, wear, dents	Anything needing clean UVs directly
Character likeness refinement	Lowpoly style assets
Hero asset micro-detail	Background props

Workflow

Base Mesh → Multires or Dyntopo → Primary Forms → Secondary Detail
    → Tertiary/Micro → Bake Maps → Retopology (if game asset)

Dyntopo vs Multiresolution

Method	Use When	Avoid When
Multires	Controlled detail levels; bake workflow	Need to preserve base topology exactly
Dyntopo	Freeform exploration; damage pass	Need predictable polycount
Voxel Remesh	Reset topology mid-sculpt	Fine detail already established

Default: Multires for production; Dyntopo for exploration passes only.

Brush Selection

Brush	Purpose
Draw	General buildup
Clay Strips	Muscle/form definition
Crease	Wrinkles, folds, hard lines
Grab	Large form adjustments
Inflate/Deflate	Volume control
Scrape	Planar flattening (hard surface sculpt)
Dam Standard	Sharp damage, scratches
Layer	Non-destructive detail (if available)

Detail Pass Order

1. Primary — Major form corrections (Grab, Clay)
2. Secondary — Muscle, folds (Clay Strips, Crease)
3. Tertiary — Skin texture, scales (Draw, Alpha)
4. Micro — Pores, fine scratches (Alpha, Dam Standard)

Alpha Workflow

• Use tileable alphas for skin, leather, rock
• Stamp at consistent scale for texel coherence
• Combine alphas with different brush strengths
• Bake alpha detail to normal map for game assets

Hard Surface Sculpting

• Scrape brush for planar surfaces
• Crease for panel line softening
• Dam Standard for impact damage
• Trim brushes for precise cuts (if addon available)
• Always retopologize or rebake after hard surface sculpt

Damage & Wear

Damage Type	Technique
Scratches	Dam Standard, light strokes
Dents	Inflate negative + smooth
Chipped edges	Scrape + Crease
Rust bubbles	Small Draw buildup
Fabric wear	Crease along stress points

Performance

• Hide unrelated objects during sculpt
• Use matcap for fast feedback
• Subdivide only active area (face, hands)
• Bake and reduce multires for viewport performance

MCP Integration

1. Duplicate base mesh to sculpt collection via MCP
2. Add multires modifier via MCP
3. Query polycount at each subdivision level
4. Export high-poly for bake handoff
5. Keep sculpt mesh separate from game mesh

Handoff to Retopology

Before retopo handoff provide:

• Final sculpt at highest multires level
• Decimated version for retopo reference
• List of deformation zones requiring clean loops
• Baked maps if bake-before-retopo workflow

Constraints

MUST DO

• Start from clean base mesh with good topology
• Work largest to smallest detail
• Duplicate before sculpt destructive changes
• Bake detail for game assets
• Match detail level to camera distance

MUST NOT DO

• Sculpt lowpoly-style assets
• Skip retopology for animated game characters
• Subdivide entire mesh to level 6+ uniformly
• Leave dyntopo mesh as final game asset
• Sculpt without reference

Reference Guide

Topic	Reference	Load When
Brush settings	references/brush-guide.md	Detail pass
Bake workflow	../texture-workflow/SKILL.md	Game asset handoff