Character Modeling with Andrew Klein

Character Modeling:

Character modeling is a very open-ended field; There are an infinite number of characters to make, and a nearly infinite number of ways to make them. Characters can be realistic and human, or cartoony. They can be creatures, or animals, or even inanimate objects now come to life.The trick is about being able to bring life into your model, to make it believable, and to allow us to relate to it. Your goal, as a character modeler in this course will be try and convey this sense of believability to your inteded audience.

Some examples of different styles in character creation:

There are several ways for us to do this that span the entire gamut seen above. We can create a a cultural identity, a sense of age, a body type (tall, short, fat, skinny), and all of these elements can become our backstory for the animation or game which our audience will see. A good character model tells your character's backstory, so the animation doesn't have to.

Technically, we will start by making sure we block out anatomical proportions, but from there, it is your job as the character artist to tell us who your character is!

The Process:

The procress for character modeling usually goes something like this...

First the character Concept is drawn to give a sense of who it is that you are about to model.
Next, the actual model is made in a 3d package like Maya or 3ds Max, or sometimes it is sculpted first in a pacakge like Zbrush from a simpler form.
Then, the UVs are laid out to create a map on which textures can be applied.
After that, The model may be imported into a sculpting program like Zbrush or Mudbox to create detail for texture.
Several textures may be made:
---------- a color map which controls the color of the surface
---------- a normal/displacement/ or bump map which adds detail to the surface from the sculpt
---------- a specularity map which controls surface shininess
---------- and many more....
Then, these textures are applied to the model for rendering, a game engine
Lastly, the character must be rigged to a skeleton so that it can be animated.

Here is a look at the final stages, where the character has textures applied to it, and it is rigged and posed:

There are 3 main features which we try to replicate in our topology modeling and our sculpting. These are Muscle, Fat and Bone. Before we get to building our geometry, we need to know a little about where to put these detail onto our models. We are going to start our project using a provided skeleton, and by using simple polygon sphere geometry to rough in the muscle and fat areas on the body as you see in the images below. Only when we have these elements in place will be begin modeling around it.

You will be blocking in muscles for the following groups to determine your character's weight:

Pectoralis Major
Abs
Latissimus Dorssi
External Oblique
Serratus
Sternocledomastoid
Quadriceps
Sartorius
Glutes
Trapezius
Biceps (arms and legs)
Triceps (arms and legs)
Brachioradialis
Deltoids
Tibialis Anterior
Gatroceniums and Soleius

You will also be blocking in fat tissue where approriate:
Arms
Stomach
Breasts
Hips
Legs

CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW FOR FULL SCREEN:

Or click for RealBody, another anatomy viewer

The Process will be similar to this:

or this:

	Bone-The most underlying of superficial structures, bone and cartledge rarely appear on the surface. Yet in cases of Plantar or Dorsal flextion, we can see the interior bones of the hands and feet prominantly. There are other "landmarks" on the body which are evidence of bone. Among them: the Cranium (skull and browridge), the jawbone, the colar bone, the shoulderblade, the elbow, the knee, the illiac crest of the pelvis, the knuckles, etc.... These are all places where bone is closest to the surface, in many of these cases which the cause is that there is no muscle over these sections since these are points to which muscle tendons connect.
	Muscle- Stretches and squashes as a connecting flexor between joints and muscles providing the ability to add locomotion to the skeleton. The Musculature system is mostly on top of the skeleton and provides much of the superficial body structure. Groups such as the Pectorals, Biceps, Quadraceps, and Trapezius are all good examples of where muscle needs to be modeled.
	Fat- is the outermost body structure except the skin with the purpose of providng warmth to our body parts below. As a polychemical compound, if modeled needs to exhibit evidence of the force exerted on it by gravity. Fat can be present in most parts of the body, but may be especially concentrated on the torso, arms and upper legs. Everything from breast which cover the pectorals, to a belly which covers the abdominals is modeled as a replacement to the toplogy of other forms.

Take a look at these videos on the Ecorche Process in Zbrush:

WHAT IS TOPOLOGY?
"In ordinary Euclidean geometry, you can move things around and flip them over, but you can't stretch or bend them. In projective geometry, invented during the Renaissance to understand perspective drawing, two things are considered the same if they are both views of the same object. In topologlogical geometry, any continuous change which can be continuously undone is allowed. So a circle is the same as a triangle or a square, because you just `pull on' parts of the circle to make corners and then straighten the sides, to change a circle into a square. Then you just `smooth it out' to turn it back into a circle. These two processes are continuous in the sense that during each of them, nearby points at the start are still nearby at the end.

Another example: a plate and a bowl are the same topologically, because you can just flatten the bowl into the plate. At least, this is true if you use clay which is still soft and hasn't been fired yet. Once they're fired they become Euclidean rather than topological, because you can't flatten the bowl any longer without breaking it."

In 3d applications such as maya, we use Topological geometry to allow stretching and bending across or model, or to contain such stretching and bending. Through features examined below, and throughout this course, we shall examine how to create Topology which stretches in accordance with how human and animal anatomy and the clothing that covers them might stretch, in order to help accurately design our characters for use in animation.

HOMEWORK- You will be working on 2 things for homework this week:

1-Finish your ecorche muscle and fat template that we started in class, using the guides above.

3-Using your individualized results from Charactermaker Pro, you'll be creating reference material for your project. The reference should consist of relevant cultural and race based source photos, as well as images documenting clothing choices. You also need to create a drawn composite sketch of your character.

..... my Charactermaker Pro gave me "New York" and "Boxer", so my reference presentation would look something like this:
I have created one spec sheet with drawings and body references, and another set up images with photos of a head (this one of actor Mickey Rourke who played MARV in Sin City).
The goal is to have all that I need to begin creating the character.

Each of these three things should be done by week 2.
Here are some student examples (click for larger):

Moonbase Bountyhunter By Willie Cooley

Russian Archnemisis By Kai Cabrera

Egyptian Hippie by Bianca Hintermann

1980s Big Game Hunter by Lonnie Thornton

MORE PDFs:

Andrew Wong's Jeannette

Yi Ou Roman Sheriff

Carlos Talbott Greek Bounty Hunter

BACK TO TEACHING HOMEPAGE BACK TO COURSE HOMEPAGE

GA 3324 : Character Modeling This course covers advanced modeling techniques for building 3 dimensional characters. Students wil explore techniques of character modeling to include various approaches to figure construction.