|
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. |
 |
|
| JUMP
TO A SPECIFIC WEEK: |
|
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. |
|
|
| JUMP
TO A SPECIFIC WEEK: |
Week 4: Hands and Feet, The Sculpt Geometry Tool, how to render wireframes... and LAB time
Building the Hand
There are several components that I look for in designing a hand that extend from anatomical features and require us to use our knowledge of edge loops.1-The Shape of the Palm. The Palm is rounded at the top, with the top of the arch being between the pointer and middler fingers. It tapers towards the wrist with bulges near the bottom. On the Anterior side of the wrist, the palm connects slightly more foward than on the Posterior side.
2-The Fingers. Each finger is shaped and sized uniquely. The Middle Finger should always be the longest. On 85% of humans (a rough estimate from careful study) the Ring Finger is the second longest finger, although as we will see, there are several indivuals making up that remianing 15% who have Pointer Fingers of equal length or longer than ole' ringgy. the Pinkie Finger is always the shortest.
3- The Opposable Thumb. We have to examine the position of the opposable thumb. First of all, in its natural position there is an edgeloop which encircles the area where the thumb connects to the hand. Remembering that edgeloops naturally determine where one discernable section meets another, we see by flexing our thumb that wrinkles are generated (show enhanced by black pen below). The thumb comes entirely out of the side of the hand, but also is extruded from a good chunk of the palm.
Click on the images below for links to Video Tutorials. This series covers how to create a hand using a box modeling approach with polygon geometry. All images and videos are copyright Andrew Klein. In part 1 of 5, Andrew Klein (www.andrewklein.net) looks at the basic shape of a hand, and creates a polygon cube with the correct initial parameters to begin box modeling one. Verticies are edited and normals are softened.
In the final video of this series, Andrew Klein (www.andrewklein) examines how to connect the thumb to complete the hand.
Smooth Proxy and SubDivisional Surfaces/Extruding from Curves
Extruding on a Path:
First make sure under Edit Mesh> KEEP FACES TOGETHER is turned on. Create the curve to be used to extrude along. Select the poly faces to be used or edges then Shift select the curve created. Go under EDIT MESH>EXTRUDES. Select how many divisions are needed and make sure your use selected curve for extrusion is turned on. Now hit apply. You can now in the input channel select more divisions and even taper off the geometry or create a twist.
Polygon Smooth Proxy will let you extrude and model on a low-resolution cage, in real-time, and you get to see the results on a smoothed high-resolution mesh. This method of modeling is similar to sub-divisional surfaces but does not allow us to have areas of different resolutions. Additionally, our smoother version is just that, a higher poly model, where as a subd surface as we will see, actually uses splines.
When you run the Smooth Proxy mode, Maya will create two layers in your layers palette. Do not remove these layers as it is part of the Smooth Proxy system.
I do not advise you to run Smooth Proxy more than once on the same surface unless you are running it on the cage.
Be careful when texturing, because it is easy to change the texture on the outer cage and not texture the smoothed version.
It might improve performance if you bind and rig the low resolution cage and let the Smooth Proxy script drive the smooth mesh.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
The Major benefit of Subdivisional Surfaces is that I have multiple levels of resolution that can be accessed at anytime. Additionally, I have the ability to access my Polygon cage while still viewing my spline-generated higher subdivision levels. The Polygon cage allows me to make broad, sweeping changes to the overall form, while my subdivision levels allow me to work with refining tiny segments of the shape. Take a look at the tutorial above (image).We can create a subd surface from a polygon surface. In the Modify menu, we will choose Convert-->Polygon to SubD-->options. Make sure here that you maximum base mesh faces number is larger than the number of faces in your polygon model or the mesh will not convert. Click Convert, and you now have a subd surface.
The Human Foot
PLEASE WATCH THESE VIDEOS (click on image below):
1.
2.
3.
The Foot has several major anatomical features that also need to be considered when modeling. First we shall discuss the forefoot which contains the metatarsal bones and the phalanges (toes). The individual metatarsals allow for the bending of the foot that we see in image 1 above. The Phalanges of the toes as well can bend, although not as individually as the those in the fingers. This movement can be in one of two directions: Down, also known as plantar flexion as seen in images 1 and 2, and Up, also known as dorsiflexion, as seen slightly in image 3. These two names come from the anatomical terms for the top and bottom of the foot, the Dorsal and Plantar sides respectively.
The underside of the foot also has two key features, the Arch and the Heel. The Arch of the foot opens inwards towards your stance with a ridge along the outside edge. The heel is at the posterior end of this ridge and is much more rounded than any other spot on the foot.
The Foot is seperated from the leg at the ankle, which is where the Tibia and Fibula (the bones of the lower leg) meet up with the Tarsals, the upper bones of the foot. On the outside of the foot is where the fibula is positioned, and at it's base is where we see a protrusion of bone comonly refered to as the ankle itself, but is also visible by the buldge on the lower portion of the Tibia on the inside of the foot. See diagram below:
Foot Demo... click on image below, then on tab #5
The Sculpt Geometry Tool
To add in this detail, we will use Maya's Sculpt Geometry Tool. Before sculpting or even duplicating a second arm, I will make sure to UV THE LOW POLY ARM FIRST! I have uv'd this mesh using Headus UVlayou. To prepare our model for sculpting, we must first subdivide (smooth) the mesh. In the example below, the mesh has been subdivided 4 times, taking from around 500 quads to 100,000 quads. While the benefit of this higher poly mesh is that it can handle higher detail, the big drawback of course is that it becomes much harder to rig, and also unusable in a video game. We will look at two solutions later, but first, the sculpting.
The sculpt geometry tool allows you several choices as to how to effect the mesh. You can push and pull, smooth, relax (new to 8.5) and erase. These transformations allow you to effect the model much like clay. The size of the brush is controlled by the Radius U and Radius L which are the upper and lower limit of the brush size. The amount of change added to the model is greatly determined as well by both the opacity of the brush, and the Max. displacement of the sculpt. The sculpting can be conducted off the noral (the default setting), off individual axes (x,y,z), off the first normal sculpted on each stroke, or in relation to the camera. These options are shown above and below. Finally, the brush can also be controlled by a profile shape to be softer, harder or stamped like an image.
After sculpting in additional features, above you see the arm from the front and the back. This sort of sculpting can also be done in programs such as Mudbox or Zbrush.
Click on the image below to learn how to render clean wireframes with the
Mental Ray Contour Shader:
JUMP
TO A SPECIFIC WEEK: |
