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chadtheartist
11-23-2005, 06:38 PM
Jason McArthur and I have begun work on a pretty cool little project. I wanted to explore how muscle systems work with a model, and he stepped up to the challenge of working on this project with me. So in the next few weeks we're going to be doing some pretty cool stuff, which you can follow along at our blog: http://tamingtheelephant.blogspot.com/

I wanted to post the WIP of the modeling process here, so if there are any specific questions about the process, I could keep it all in one thread. So any questions or comments are very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Chad
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Base Sculpt WIP.

The base sculpt that we're going to be using to base the bone, muscle, and final wireframe model on. This is usually how I like to model things, where first I focus on the volume and general shape. To me I've found it a lot easier to sculpt this type of detail first, than to go in and make the final wireframe cage right from the start. There are subtle details that are almost impossible to achieve with traditional edgecrafting, unless you sculpt it out first.

So just to give a quick rundown of how I created this sculpt. Here's a small walk through.

1. In Silo I extrude a few cubes to make a mesh that is similar to this. Keeping the mesh all quads, I start to add a few extra cuts along the body and head so when it's subdivided in Zbrush, I can have more and less detail where I want it.

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/sculpt/progress1.jpg

2. I focus on one subdivision level at a time. Only when I feel there is no more that I could sculpt in that level, do I subdivide the model to add more detail.

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/sculpt/progress2.jpg

3. The final volume is starting to take shape, at a pretty early level. I could have stopped at this stage to base the bones, muscle, and new wireframe on, but I wanted to add a few more subtle details on the model that would be difficult to edgecraft model as organic as I'd like it to be.

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/sculpt/progress3.jpg

4. The final sculpt. About 6 hours of work, mostly due to checking reference and proportions. I would export out the base cage from time to time to fix proportions. I'll check it one more time tonight, against my reference, and adjust any changes that need to be fixed. Then on to doing the bones and muscles for Jason and the rig.

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/sculpt/progress4.jpg

Here's some screenshots and a playblast turntable of the final sculpt.

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/movies/elsculpt.avi (Xvid Codec can be found here: http://www.xvidmovies.com/codec/)

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/sculpt/finalsculpt1.jpg

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/sculpt/finalsculpt2.jpg

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/sculpt/finalsculpt3.jpg

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/sculpt/finalsculpt4.jpg

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/sculpt/finalsculpt5.jpg

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantweb/sculpt/finalsculpt6.jpg
pencil-head
11-23-2005, 09:47 PM
Cool. I been looking forward to this Chad. The only thing i can see wrong ATM is that it's a bit pixilated in some places. Like The trunk. The toes might be a bit small too. *subscribed*
chadtheartist
11-28-2005, 03:48 PM
I pretty much have the entire base cage wireframe made. I recorded the whole process, so if there's any interest in the whole thing I can post it up, the only downside is it's over 200 MB's and runs an hour and thirty minutes.

Anyway, here's some screenies, and a short section of the model WIP. You can download the WIP of the torso here:

Torso Topology Redo (http://chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/torsomovie.mov) You'll need Quicktime 7 to view it.

Screenshot of what you'll see:

http://chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/basewire/torsoTOPO.jpg

And the resulting wireframe after about three hours of work.

http://chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/basewire/frontwire.jpg

http://chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/basewire/backwire.jpg


The resulting mesh is a little over 4,200 quads. I'm considering going in and making some of the big folks on the skin, but I'm not so sure that's necessary.

Anyway, just thought I'd post an update.

Cool. I been looking forward to this Chad. The only thing i can see wrong ATM is that it's a bit pixilated in some places. Like The trunk. The toes might be a bit small too. *subscribed*

Yeah, the pixelation is because the high res model is just a sketch. I find it easier to work out volume this way. I wasn't too focused on the "details" just yet, and I even went a little too far with the sculpt now that I look back at it. I didn't need a few of the details that I sculpted in.

I made the toes a tad bigger, and shrunk the size of the head a bit too. It looked a little too big.

Thanks for the critique. :D
chadtheartist
11-28-2005, 03:58 PM
And some smooth shaded shots of the final wireframe. Holds up quite a lot of volume for such a relatively light mesh IMO.

http://chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/basewire/frontsmoothshade.jpg

http://chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/basewire/backsmooshade.jpg
Ai02
11-29-2005, 09:49 AM
Hi Chad ... Now that You've redone the Topology and have the light new Mesh, how are you going to fit the Difference, that is Displacement Map and/or NormalMap to the new Mesh? Isn't the whole UVLayout different now? I know, this is a noob Question, but i haven't understood that yet. Please shed light on this 8) Cheers, Eric
janimatic
11-29-2005, 10:20 AM
very nice chad!
AI02 I don't think it's a noob question, but a very good question (unless chad uses xsi...)
Ai02
11-29-2005, 10:34 AM
Chad, i've watched the Video and must say Thanx for the Demo, could You point us to the Shortcuts for picking up old lines and deleting portions of lines etc.? Also, i noticed that you adjust each point to snap to the seam. I usually select the whole edge and set its width to zero, then set the x coordinate to zero too instead, just in case you do it manually each time ... Thanx for any Info!! And ... I admire Your works, excellent modeling and very inspiring!
chadtheartist
11-29-2005, 02:42 PM
The difference between the two meshes now is pretty small, so baking a displacement/normal map from the old geometry wouldn't be necessary. What I'm going to do now is A), UV map the new mesh, B) Add a few cuts and edges to the mesh to further define the trunk, and possibly a few more landmark wrinkles, and finally C) Add in all the elephant details on the skin in Zbrush. After that stage I will make the displacement map.

And thanks for the tips on snapping edges to center!

EDIT: I forgot to list the shortcuts that I use for the topology brush.

Left Click= Drawing the topology lines
Middle Click or Shift Click= Continuing from a previously drawn line.
Right Click= Closing an Edge Loop
Shift Click= Selecting a previously drawn line
CTRL Z with a line Selected= Removing segments of a line that you want to delete.
Delete= Deletes an unwanted line
chadtheartist
12-05-2005, 01:27 AM
Adding the skin details to the elephant. I still need to do the tusks and toenails. I also still need to model the teeth and tongue.

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/elephantdetail1.jpg

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/elephantdetail2.jpg

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/elephantdetail3.jpg

http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/elephantdetail4jpg.jpg

I forgot to link up the turntable.

Right Click and Save As (http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/highreselephant.mov) You will need QuickTime 7 to view the turntable (made in Zbrush :D )
http://www.chadhamlet.com/elephantWIP/elephantdetail4.jpg
Hoppergrass
12-05-2005, 01:56 AM
The scale of the wrinkles and folds is too big, which in turn is messing with the scale of the animal as a whole. There should be areas (eg the top of the shoulders) where the wrinkles are smoothed out. I am also not sure about the grooves on the trunk, they seem exagurated.

JH
qwed88
12-05-2005, 03:45 PM
As far as the scale of the wrinkles everything looks good, looked up elephant refrences and every things pretty correct, except for the trunk there should be more "ring" wrinkles and they should be smaller
Hoppergrass
12-05-2005, 10:41 PM
The wrinkles and scraches that are making up the skin texture are too pronounced and should be finer, maybe just an other layer of finer, more refined scraches would do it.


JH
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