Now back to the LaFemme topology, I did some sculpting on the base resolution to see what I can get with the Morphing Tool without HD morphs. This sculpt is similar to my "Body Type-2", and I could get the general shapes and volumes, albeit with some definition losses. The sculpt doesn't look good on base definition, so this render uses 2 subdivision levels.
I think it looks Ok, but the Dawn version has more definition without subdivisions. There are some artifacts on the sides of the hip caused by the shape going to a direction that doesn't match the topology, but maybe I could clean it up if I worked on it some more.
I suppose this proves the point where sculpting on Dawn is easier than it is with LF. I would need to add at least 1 (or 2?) more subdivision level to get this sculpt to the same level of the Dawn version, meaning it would have to be a HD morph. Otherwise I ran out of geometry trying to bring out the details, and certainly had to fight the grid-like topology.
It can be done, but Poser doesn't handle these many subdivisions well when it comes to sculpting performance with the Morphing Tool. Performance drags with just a single subdivision, so 2 would probably not be very productive. Maybe this would require zBrush, because it can handle many levels of subdivisions before it affects sculpting performance.
This is a good example of why topology is important on a base figure meant for others to create upon. It's the typical thing consumers won't care about (they don't have to), but vendors do because it affects their work. From this experiment, it has become clear to me that LF was designed to be worked with subdivisions.
Nonetheless, the "Body Type-2" shape is already recognizable from sculpting on base resolution, as long as we render with the default 2 levels of subdivision. Otherwise it looks blocky and jagged. Personally, I have always liked low poly models, but in this case I expected more from the topology.
