Human modeling tutorial?

[FR33K]

use search then you find my links

[zula]

thanx, i found mostly tutorials for head, however is their one for whole person? i will keep looking but if there is one that you liked the most please let me know. Thanx.

[soccerrprp]

Try this: http://www.maxoncomputer.com/tutorial_detail.asp?tutorialID=142

Not certain if this is the best way to do it, but you get good results from what I can see. My suggestion is to learn (if you are not familiar yet) how to use the tools in C4D and look for tutorials from other applications such as maya, lightwave, etc. and figure out how to duplicate what "they" do.

Here's a great site for subdivision modeling which is an ideal way to model:

http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/index.php

OR just do a search here on CGTalk!

Hope this helps.:)

Richard

[Andoy]

Modelling the Human Figure, chapter 6" by Peter Ratner (http://67.15.36.49/team/Tutorials/mahf/mahf_01.asp).
Not sure if you have seen this one but it was really helpful to me .
It can be found at http://www.3dtotal.com/
look under the tutorials section in their free stuff zone and then under the general tab on page 2.

Hope it helps you out a bit.

[Erik Heyninck]

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=108412

What's a human that will stay in T or V position forever? Bending at joints needs to be correct, and even the greatest still discuss about this. Read, and enjoy. This is a long trhead (already 150pages or so) that makes you wonder.

[zula]

thank you all, these are very helpfull. now i am off to figuring this stuff out.

[cookepuss]

I've got my fair share of books so I'll weigh in on a handful of them.

- The Ratner book? Not bad. It's certainly a major improvement over the 1st edition, but still overrated.
- "Building a Digital Human" isn't bad either, but it's nothing more than a glorified $50 tutorial. Not even a good one either.
- "Game Character Development with Maya." Don't let the name fool you. A lot of the principles are program agnostic. Plus, many of the fundamentals translate well over to high poly.
- "Edge Loop Character Modeling for 3D Professionals Only." Avoid this book at all costs. The title is majorly misleading. Not only is the book NOT aimed at pros, but the author has absolutely zero concept of topology. He gets a lot more wrong than he does right. Bay Raitt's old edge loop doodles can teach you more. Seriously.
- "Femme Digital". Take this one with a grain of salt. It's a helpful book, but only if you're into Poser/Photoshop work. It's far less helpful where traditional modeling is concerned.
- "Maya Character Animation". This book covers a lot more than just modeling. So, if you're a Maya user with an eye towards rigging, you'll get a lot of of this book. What you won't get are any pointers on the difference between good and bad topology when it comes to animation/deformation. You might have to pick up that concept on your own or from sources on the net.
- "Stop Staring" First off, let me state that, while this book is strictly for facial animation, the basic modeling priniciples regarding deformation can be applied toward the whole body. This is one of the few books that places the emphasis one what makes for a well deforming mesh. You'll kinda have to wing it when translating these concepts to the full body, but it's worth it.
- "Modeling a Character in Silo." Okay. This is a training DVD, but the content is bar none some of the most informative out there. Newbies and pros alike can probably learn something from this vid, as it takes you from a single poly all the way to the very end with nearly zero jumps in logic. Curiously though, the artist picks and chooses where and when he sticks with edge loops. Sometimes, he's totally faithful to the concept. Other times, he's more into tweaking the isoparms instead. Kinda wish he'd have stayed with one or the other though. His concern for the needs of the animatior seems almost secondary at times, almost like an after thought.

Overall, I think that you can try as many tutorials or books as you want, but nothing will get you quite as far as actual observation. Take a look at other people's meshes. Grab some photos. Trace your edge loops over them. Take note of where the muscles and key features lie. If you choose to go the tutorial route you stand to lose out on a lot.

Stuff like "Joan of Arc" can only take you so far. They might get the job done, but you'll miss the point of why certain techniques are wrong or right for certain situations. I'm not telling you to try and reinvent the wheel, but I do suggest that you heed the following adage.

"Do not seek to follow the footsteps of men of old. Seek what they sought."

Just as they sought to duplicate what they saw so should you. You need to see stuff first though. Seeing a DVD or reading tutorial book is only seeing the form through the perspective of others. (Very Platonic, btw.) Observation is everything.

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