Foot modeling tutorial

[daalex]

Very enlightening as always. I find these tutorials by pros a real treat. Wish more people would follow your example and drop a little tutorial onto the web...
One thing I learnt here is that I really, really need to sketch out a simple edgeloop setup before I dive into detailed modeling. I've got the sketching skills, but I keep skipping it - probably to my own detriment...

[thematt]

modeling is very good as always with you..:p

But what's appealling the most to me is the shadind..it look gorgeous, texture and lighting..what's your secret method ???:eek:

Do you use the shading tut on you site or something completly different..looks different to me.

thanks for the tut anyway

cheers

[MSB]

I was really confused how to make foot with my first charchter:rolleyes: but thanks for this tuto:)

[swag]

steven nice feets and the rendering ist damn nice - my 3 reasons for quads in maya 1. the mesh looks in subd cleaner and the topologie is more prominent - i think its also faster (my feel) 2. mr cant render ngons or tris so u have to collapse the hierarchy for each rendering test (why cant maya do this for me) 3. brings the mesh to other tools like wings3d

nice tut :thumbsup:

[Digidim]

...already saved to my reference folder...great as always steven...i would like to get some information about the shader (...incl. textures esp. the bump map) and lightning you used...

...as you can see (<- Avatar) i´m working on my first realistic human model...inspired by your great work...

[thematt]

Digidim,it's looking good from here..:beer:

,you on the track of Steven ..

[wgreenlee1]

thank you steve:thumbsup:

[eYadNesS]

Thanks Mr. Stahlberg, nice tutorial with clean topology...
Now I'm making your tutorial, I will post the result tonight :)

[rebo]

Thanks S Stahlberg.

How do you find the subD deforms when using tri's in the poly cage?

[eYadNesS]

Sorry Mr. Steven, but I have some questions...

Now I'm modeling, sorry but I can't understand the topology which connected the small finger with the leg, you can see the attach file for that...

And why you made some 3sideP in 4sideP shape in some areas on the foot!? What do you need from this?

And could you Mr. Steven give me a front view of the foot (rendered or topology, not important) just I want to see how the foot shape...

Ah, if I'm right you start from 8 cylinder faces?!

Thanks very much

[Marcel]

Great foot, and an very nice skinshader too!

eYadNesS wrote:
And why you made some 3sideP in 4sideP shape in some areas on the foot!? What do you need from this?

The 4 tri's 'inside' the quad polygon make a small bump in the model.

As for the connection problem: personally I find it much easier to model from a box and gradually cut more detail into it. That way you can build from a rough shape into a detail model.
The problem with building it face by face (cloning edges) is that you end up with very detailed areas (like the end of your foot right now) that need to be extended, which quite hard and a lot of work.

Look at Stalhbergs model in the first few stages, it's very low-poly and easy to handle. You can do a lot of big changes without having to move a gazillion vertices around.

[Stahlberg]

Thanks guys! :) Yeah Marcel, you're right about the triangulated quads, and about the big changes.

rebo, SubD's with triangles seems to deform fine. You've had problems with this?

eYadNesS, I'll try to add another view or two today.

thematt, yes that's the skin shader from my other tutorial. Thanks!

[eYadNesS]

Originally posted by Stahlberg
eYadNesS, I'll try to add another view or two today.

Oh thanks, I hope that.. :)

[Stahlberg]

I updated both the image and the tutorial, added a bunch of stuff to it.

[Garma]

omg that's truly amazing steven, thanks man! I especially enjoyed the texturing part! Foot tutorials are scarce so thanks!

For the 5-sided polygon thing: didn't you give the answer yourself? MR can't render them :cry: I tend to use MR a lot

[NUKE-CG]

Ah oh! all the peeps with a feet fetish will be :drool: ing.. Heh Heh.

Thanks for the workflow snaps, and as always.. your skin shader looks :thumbsup:

[rebo]

Okay i think we've determined that maya's subD's have no problems at all with tris or pents. So my question is why ? Why can maya's subD implementation handle tri's with none of the problems we see in other apps/smooth proxy?

[eYadNesS]

Originally posted by Stahlberg
I updated both the image and the tutorial, added a bunch of stuff to it.

Thanks again, but there is no front view! :cry:

EDIT: and maybe the first step picture in the tutorial not complete!... (I can't see the fingers)..

[Stahlberg]

garma, I added the bit about MR after I got feedback from CGTalk.
The fact that MR can only render quads really sucks, and just another sign of the lousy integration between Maya and MR (others: almost useless documentation, and MR can't use layered shaders!). Taken together with being difficult and slow to use, this has forced me to abandon MR entirely and place all my hopes on Renderman and MTOR.

Alias has had a long time to work on their collaboration with MR, and since the renderer Alias offers us is basically the same they had in PowerAnimator 1999 they really owe it to us big time. But things are improving WAY too slowly IMHO.

rebo, I don't know, I'm not 'technical' like that. :) All I know is, they use a different method.

The first image should be okay now. I might post some more later.

[wgreenlee1]

i think quad modeling is a good idea actually
its helps the flow of topologies
it may just me because when i modeled in LW it was a strick rule but i do it now just because it suits me
something to think about
in this latest model im doing i dont even have one tri in yet

[Stahlberg]

I also did a hi-res neck recently, and I can count at least a dozen places where the topology was fighting the need for quads. (I still do try to keep it quads whenever possible.)
In the front you have tendons running at angles to each other and the clavicles, and tendons running at sharp angles under tendons... then you have to consider the wrinkles that will appear on the neck as it bends. None of it really wants to be quads, not much of it is really anywhere close to 90 degree angles, instead it seems to fight quads every step of the way. Same at the back, with the scapula ridges and the trapezius etc. If I had to keep that neck all quads it would have taken longer, and there would have been many more points and edges. Which IMO is bad for deformations, and for later tweaking.

[wgreenlee1]

i know
sometimes i have to work and think about it for several minutes to get quads to fit and its so much easier to laydown some tri's or n-gons just to keep going
and yes it doesnt make for good deformations all the time
just depends i guess...

excellent stuff tho steve

[Stahlberg]

Thanks, yeah I guess it depends... I just find it frustrating, I keep solving the quad puzzle but then I decide to model another tendon or something that wasn't in the original plan, and I have a whole new problem to solve... again and again. :) Cause I'm never really done...

I just did another update, added a couple images, and here's another rendering, from the back.

http://www.androidblues.com/tutorial/footut3.jpg

[wgreenlee1]

i hate you steve....lol

dang that looks so good....

might be the angle but they look a little big but still ever-impressive as usual:beer:

edit:naw...i take that back...they look exactly right....i still hate you tho....lol

[swag]

i read the tut carefully and try to model a foot like yours here is the result so far - its far away from your quality - please crit it
http://swag3d.com/cgtalk/foot05.jpg

come on - lets do a foot thread :)
http://hon.nucleusinc.com/categories.php?CatID=022001&A=1027

[wgreenlee1]

:thumbsup: on the footies

[Stahlberg]

wfreenlee1, thanks :)
swag, sorry I can't see the picture?

[swag]

no pic?!? strange someone else has the same problem?

[wgreenlee1]

strange someone else has the same problem?



i can see it.....lol...it looks good also
needs some shaders like steves but looking swag:bowdown:

[Stahlberg]

Sorry I can see it now, probably just my home-connection (in the office now).

Looks very good. I'd curve the toes, except the big toe, a bit more.
The area behind the knob of the ankle-bone (I know the swedish name for it, just not the english) :) just in front of the achilles tendon, should maybe be slightly more concave?

First rigging test, this has no weight painting anywhere, just had to edit memberships a bit on the toes because they're so close to each other. SubD Smooth Bound straight to a skeleton (maybe later I'll do some Wrapping, not sure yet):

http://www.androidblues.com/tutorial/footut4.jpg

[swag]

thanks - i will change this
rigging test looks perfect

[Stahlberg]

Thanks. The different thing I tried this time, was to add bones coming down from the knee, in a particular way, and make Set Driven Keys on their translation, so that the ankle doesn't loose volume as it bends. I did it with the knee and the neck as well, except in those cases I didn't even have to do any SDK. Looks promising, so I'm going to try it with the rest of the body.

Here's a better link to the tutorial; Peter Levius mirrored it, and he added a couple of the foot ref pics I used, plus some more links at the bottom. I'll put this in my own version too, but who knows when I'll get around to it. :)

Here (http://www.3d.sk/tutorials/Modeling_a_foot_in_Maya.htm)

[RichSuchy]

Steven,

I guess I can retire my tutorial on feet now. I've been wanting to do one showing the box method for a while now to replace it. BUT your tute blows away the old one I have up! :)

really nice.

Have you considdered how to get the characteristic wrinkles on the bottom of the foot and on the achiles tendon when the heel is pulled up?

One method I've been considdering wouldnt require modeling in the extra geometry, but would be a displacement map blended in based on the angle of the apropriate bones.

Another is of course blend shapes with extra geometry.

I also want to explore zbrush for displacement/ normal maps.

Rich

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