| We next come to Kila's waist area. We will not optimize the belt at this time; it is currently quite low in resolution anyway, so reducing it more would make the overall shape suffer. 1. | Hide her belt so we can concentrate on her waist.
Although we modeled all of the sash in Chapter 4, we only need certain parts of it built into the geometry. The rest will be visible via the texture. Take a look at Figure 5.12; there are a few areas here we can optimize. For example, highlighted on the left, along the hip, is a shallow angle comprising numerous divisions; this was created when we split the polygons for the sash.
Figure 5.12. The front of the waist. 
| 2. | Follow the line highlighted in Figure 5.13 (left) around the mesh, removing most of the sash's polygons (Figure 5.13, middle).
Figure 5.13. Remove most of the sash from the front. 
| 3. | When you're done, combine some of the triangular faces into quads to clean up the area (Figure 5.13, right).
| 4. | Rotating around to her backside, continue removing the extra polygons of the sash. There are a couple at the top of her jeans that can go, too. These are all highlighted in Figure 5.14, left.
Figure 5.14. Continue removing the sash from the back. 
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We are finished with her waist for now, so let's concentrate on her thighs before moving down the legs. There are a few shallow angles here but we will not remove all of them. 1. | Select just the edges across the center of the thigh (Figure 5.15, left) and collapse them, giving us the results seen in Figure 5.15, right.
Figure 5.15. Collapse the central row of edges across the thighs. 
| 2. | At the very front of both knee areas, under the ridges of her knees, there is a small quad (Figure 5.16, top). It does not help either the shape or the deformation, so we can remove it, leaving the knees as shown in Figure 5.16, bottom.
Figure 5.16. Collapse the edges just under the ridge of her knees. 
| 3. | Working on the back of the knees, there are more edges we can collapse, shown in Figure 5.17, left. Again, they create both shallow edges and smaller polygons, so these edges won't be missed.
Figure 5.17. Collapse the central row of edges across her knees. 
| 4. | Moving on to the calves, start by collapsing the central section of edges, shown in Figure 5.18, left. This extra division of polygons is not essential. Notice on your model and in Figure 5.18 (middle) that collapsing these edges leaves some of the creases in front a bit messy. Take five minutes to fix them (Figure 5.18, right).
Figure 5.18. Remove the central division of faces from the calf area, and then clean up the creases. 
| 5. | Concentrating on just the left leg now, optimize the folds in the cloth at the bottom of her jeans. Try to maintain their shapefollowing the example in Figure 5.19, collapse the middle of each fold, leaving the peaks intact. Move over to the right leg and do the same (Figure 5.20).
Figure 5.19. Optimize the folds on the left leg. 
Figure 5.20. Optimize the folds on the right leg. 
| 6. | At the back of her lower legs, we can remove a section of polygons completely and not harm the overall shape. Select the edges shown in Figure 5.21 (left) and collapse them. Next, optimize the area a little more by removing any small polygons or edges that are left.
Figure 5.21. Remove the unnecessary section at the back of her leg. 
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For now, Kila's jeans are optimized, so let's see what we can do with her feet. |
