3d Modeling on the Right Sde of the Brain

[newellteapot]

HI!

I think yours is a very good question.
Most tutorial and books concentrate on the actual modeling techniques rather than giving you an insight.
I don't know any book on the subject and what I personally did was trying to compensate building my own path of studies like a patchwork, attending different short courses.
I do suggest you to get an anatomy book for artists like the Richer (Amazon).
Most people might think that you can just get a cold knowledge out of anatomy, but you find out that even the actual names of the muscles tells you something about their location, function and look, and that studying anatomy you will build in your mind a conscience of the structure of the human body, of its "gestalt", if you are familiar with the term, that is the relation of teh whole with the parts and of the parts in relation to each other.
I advise you to get this -very difficult to find- book: Die Gestalt des Menschen, by Gottfried Bammes.
It's an amazing book that was suggested to me by Scott Eaton (a great modeler).
The book is in German but you don't actually need to read it, the pictures are enough.
I managed to find it on www.ebay.de (http://www.ebay.de), a used copy that I cannot even read but believe me it's worth it.
Also, obviously atatending life drawing classes is really good.

Cheers
Monica

[Amit_S]

Hye Monica. Thnx for replying back.
About the courses which you attended- are you talking about life drawing classes or general drawing classes or specifically 3d modeling classes. Assuming you did some online 3d modeling courses which ones were truly helpful in context of the principles you learned?

Thnx for recommending the books.
When you mentioned Rchers book I'm assuming you were talking about 'Artistic Anatomy'?
"Die Gestalt des Menschen": I'll try and find this. But what does it mean? And is it on human anatomy or 3d principles?

I understand what you mean by Gestalt. In my case though I've got this really stupid problem. When it comes to human anatomy I'm not not an expert but am not exactly a beginner either.-I was into Powerlifting and Bodybuilding. But rather than helping me that kind of became a limiting point.When it came to modeling a human figure in 3d I used to end up trying to model the inherent shape of the muscle as it looks when its flexed rather than modeling the human body as it looks with skin and with somewaht relaxed muscles. Cause thats what I generally looked for. Dumb ,eh? Thats when Betty Edwards point helped me. So now when modeling a guys back I dont look for diamond shaped traps or anything but simply look at the ref picture and model it as is.

[Alfista]

I`m not sure if this is what you`re looking for, but there is one interesting book...I didn`t buy it myself, but I saw a sample chapter and it seems really cool!
If you want to, you can check it out at:

http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.asp?p=30594&rl=1

[Amit_S]

Thnx for the recommendation. I dont have it but a friend does and I've have read some parts of it. Its a good book -but still not what I'm looking for.

[newellteapot]

About the courses which you attended- are you talking about life drawing classes or general drawing classes or specifically 3d modeling classes. Assuming you did some online 3d modeling courses which ones were truly helpful in context of the principles you learned?

Hi Amit!
This is my personal path of studies. I attended a one year long 3D course, which included modeling. This left me with a lot of knoledge of the tool but many questions about design, animation styles, anatomy etc.
Then, when I realised that modeling really interested me and after working for 2 years as the modeller on a series, I attended an anatomy course for digital artists, then a Zbrush course, life drawing and read quite a few books. There's a creature/anatomy course next year that I will sign up for.
The thing is you have to build your own course of studies, because this kind of skills are so specialised.

Thnx for recommending the books.
When you mentioned Rchers book I'm assuming you were talking about 'Artistic Anatomy'?
"Die Gestalt des Menschen": I'll try and find this. But what does it mean? And is it on human anatomy or 3d principles?

Yes the book is artistic anatomy and it sells for around 13 pounds (to convert in your currency, check (www.xe.com (http://www.xe.com)).
It's a beautiful book, but the German one is astounding. The problem is finding it, I managed to find it on the German ebay after months of trying, and it is a bit on the expensive side.
The title means The gestalt of human beings, with Gestalt meaning, for those not familiar with the term, roughly the relation between the whole and the parts and between the single parts in relation to each other. Or, from Wiki:
"A collection entities that creates a unified concept, configuration or pattern which is greater than the sum of its parts."

I understand what you mean by Gestalt. In my case though I've got this really stupid problem. When it comes to human anatomy I'm not not an expert but am not exactly a beginner either.-I was into Powerlifting and Bodybuilding. But rather than helping me that kind of became a limiting point.When it came to modeling a human figure in 3d I used to end up trying to model the inherent shape of the muscle as it looks when its flexed rather than modeling the human body as it looks with skin and with somewaht relaxed muscles. Cause thats what I generally looked for. Dumb ,eh? Thats when Betty Edwards point helped me. So now when modeling a guys back I dont look for diamond shaped traps or anything but simply look at the ref picture and model it as is.

I think your experience in the gym is actually very useful, you know the muscles and their position and structure. The thing about studying anatomy is actually that it teaches you how the whole structure works together, as a whole, and tha's when the concept of Gestalt springs in my mind.

Anyway, this thread is interesting, thanks for posing your question :)

[Amit_S]

Thank YOU for the replies!

I can buy Artistic Anatomy.
But Gestalt? Oh man! I checked it out on Amazon- 300+ american dollars!:eek:
I dont even have that much:(
My best bet is e bay I guess.

About your studies- it makes sense . We still dont have anything like a regular curiculum. And most artists do what you are doing.
I live in India. We dont have anything like what you mentioned. I'll do a google search to see if I can find anything. 1 favour- plz post the neame of the tutor/other detail of the 'anatomy course for digital artists' class.

[Amit_S]

Thank YOU for the replies!

I can buy Artistic Anatomy.
But Gestalt? Oh man! I checked it out on Amazon- 300+ american dollars!:eek:
I dont even have that much:(
My best bet is e bay I guess.

About your studies- it makes sense . We still dont have anything like a regular curiculum. And most artists do what you are doing.
I live in India. We dont have anything like what you mentioned. I'll do a google search to see if I can find anything. 1 favour- plz post the name of the tutor/other detail of the 'anatomy course for digital artists' class.

[newellteapot]

Hi!

I know it's ridiculously expensive that book, and difficult to find!
I got it used, from the German ebay.
The course was here in London at Escape studios, the teacher is Scott Eaton.
:)

[Amit_S]

Am in a hurry. Cant type now. But check out this out.
I mailed Betty Edwards directly. And this what she mailed back:

I am not trained in sculpture or modeling in clay, though I have done a little of both in the past. Let me assure you that drawing is the basis of all specializations in the whole field of art, including sculpture. The basic perceptual skills described in the DVD apply to your field of modeling just as they do in drawing, the difference being that you need to see not one edge but a series of edges as you turn your sculptural model (or move around it), to see proportions as a series of proportions from every view, lights and shadows as they change with movement, spaces as a series of spaces (the empty space around the sculpture or within the sculpture), and the gestalt of the total three-dimensional form.

It’s all the same thing, in other words, except that drawing is two-D whereas sculpture is 3-D and therefore somewhat more complicated.

I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with any current books on sculpture that take up this basic need to master drawing skills. It’s my impression that most sculpture how-to books focus mainly of how to deal with various mediums—stone, clay, wood, etc. But do have confidence that it is drawing skills that are needed and do continue your work to acquire those skills.......

A brief note: I have given several lectures and workshops for Disney animators and artists. There I was told over and over that what the Disney company was looking for was for people who could draw, and that they were traveling the world seeking them......

[jtaddei]

wow that purple on grey is even harder to read than the black on grey!

That's pretty neat the email you got back... it's been in my experience that through sculptural creation i've understood objects much clearer and am able to draw them without even worrying about perspective.... I can just feel how each line would go as i've already experienced every facet of it.

[Amit_S]

OK I've edited the colours. Should be easy to read now:) Dont know what happened. Must've clicked the colour change by mistake.

I was surprised to get Betty Edwards mail. Cool.

I've taken a complete hiatus (did I spell that right?) from animation right now. I'm going through all my models and all. It seems the best thing I can do right now is good old practise and show some more consistency. My biggest problem is not completing old projects and starting new ones.

I also re-read Head Topology , Body Topology on Cgtalk and some posts on Bay Ritts website.
Did help me a lot, but I guess this is mostly going to be a RnD process.

Thanks everyone who posted their suggestions:)

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