Character Modeling|Clean meshes...

[MDuffy]

Generally when you go from your head to your neck, or neck to body, or arm to shoulder, you'll have to change the number of edge loops to get the pieces to fit together. This will require adding some additional cuts into your model on one side of the connection or the other. Then you'll look at your model and decide where to expand or reduce your edge loops to make the join work well. Sometimes it is a good idea to join the body pieces when those areas are still not so defined, then after the welding you'll add more cuts and sculpt the connection (the muscles that go from the chest into the arm for example).

It's not an exact science. You'll just pick up techniques for reducing or increasing rows. And often you can increase or decrease the number of rows while still keeping everything as quads. There are some web pages out there that show the mesh patterns you'll create, but I don't know any offhand. Also it is a good idea to study wireframes (especially before smoothing) to study how they laid out their edge loops and how they reduce or increase geometry.


Good Luck,
Michael Duffy
mduffy@Ionet.net

[erwin1978]

http://home.nyc.rr.com/erwin1978/grafx/L.jpg (http://home.nyc.rr.com/erwin1978/grafx/projects.zip)

The model is called liz.mb.

This baby is the infamous Liz. Yah, everyone knows about my work. I'm that good. It took me 3 months to get to this stage and I'm not even done. That was two months ago. I've put the project on hold and started a new one.

One advice I would give a beginner is never do a photoreal model as your first project. A photoreal human head was my first real work with 3D and it was a pain. I realized my mistake and I'm now working on a robot.:wip: I find I'm moving along much more quickly since I don't critique the model as not humanly real.

I figured I would be very nice if I shared my work with the you. It's hard to find someone willing to share their raw models these days. I'm not talking about sharing a sphere model.

I put a lot of work into this head model and hopefully you can finish it. The ear is the only part that sucks and everything else is a marvel.

If you want to model a human, start with the head and work your way down. The head gets the most attention so whatever wires that protrudes down to the neck is what goes to the rest of the body.

[Modulok]

This baby is the infamous Liz. Yah, everyone knows about my work. I'm that good.

Perhaps a little too self confident arn't we?

One advice I would give a beginner is never do a photoreal model as your first project. A photoreal human head was my first real work with 3D and it was a pain.

Its not that I want to model a photoreal human...I just want to model a full character, weather it be alien, human, dwarf, cartoon, realistic, whatever....It's just that I just want to know how to model it well ;) ...from a mesh standpoint.

Thanks for the input MDuffy :)

and erwin1978 it is most kind of you to share your model ;)


-Modulok-

[GUMP]

Ok call me newbie or just say i dont retain
information very well but will you explain
to me about edge loops? I just modeled
a human femur and have areas where the
edges stop because I dont need them to go
any further. Maybe that is wrong but I dont
have any idea exactly what is good and what is
not good. So maybe the edgeloop conversation
may help me...

[Modulok]

Edge looping is a method of how you layout the polygon quads so that they form loops (hence the name) Loops are usually for organic objects that are to be deformed, i.e. a human face. The reason for loops is so that the mesh deforms naturally and cleanly without problems. Everyone has their own way of how they lay out their loops and what they feel is best. If its not an object that is to be deformed durring animation I don't think its even a concern.

See the pic of liz above, see how the edges of the polygons in the mouth area form loops back to the edge (if only half the face were displayed) ...this follows the muscles around the mouth, thus giving a more natural look to the deformation, not to mention making it easier to setup...I want to know how to do this for the whole character.

-Modulok-

[noktUp]

These are all valid techneques, but these are all NURBS issues right?

I suggest using polys for ultra pro work.
There are never any tangency issues with polys
once you have a low res verrsion of the modle, you can smooth it , or convert it to sub_D. And since you already had a low res verson of the model you can use it as a wrap deformer for easier animation.

good luck!
(noktUp(teenSlut))

[colt]

Well as you said yourself, you should follow the lines of muscles and folds in anatomy. Besides, most times you want to animate a complete character it's neccessary to cut the head from the body, so you can blendshape your face expressions better. So big loops aren't really neccessary or possible. I don't know about creating the perfect layout, it's not impossible I guess, but it takes just too much time. Hide those little imperfections (creases created by 3 sided polys) somewhere they won't be seen or where the body won't deform to much (collarbone, back, below the chin ...) At least that's what I do.

[JasonA]

Originally posted by noktUp
These are all valid techneques, but these are all NURBS issues right?


No this is for Sub-D/Poly smooth modeling. You want to avoid having 3 or 5 sided polygons while modeling your low poly model (prior to subd). 3 or 5 sided polygons don't deform well and usually cause creases/glitches in an animated mesh. Most folks go out of their way to avoid them, ie by turning edges and adding/subtracting edgeloops. However if you have one of these in an area that won't deform then it won't matter much. Maya does a decent job of handling them.

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