modeling 'basic' question

#1

Hi A:M’ers !

I am a beginner to 3D in general and specifically to A:M. So this question is fairly basic and probably lacking in some coherent terminology but here goes …

When modeling with some tutorials (for instance Killer Bean in Jeff Paries book) when adding limbs to the torso, the modeler simply takes the limbs and pushes them into the torso. So all the seperate parts of the model are not really connected. However, i notice other models have all the various parts ‘stictched’ together. Is the first way lazy? Is it problematic for animating? Is the second way just too much work? Thanks for any thoughts.

Always looking for shortcuts,
Doug

#2

It’s all a personal choice. In the Killer Bean example, the character was a cartoony bean character. Not something that the creator, Jeff Lew, probably felt needed to be realistic, so the arms could be just stuck in. If you want to create a more realistic model then attaching the arms may be what you want to try. But the more realistic you make the model the more difficult it is to get the model to bend and flex realistically. In Killer Bean, the animation is so good nobody cares how the characters were made, they are just watching the action and enjoying the story. Your choice!

#3

yeah its just up to how you want the connection to look.

The giraffe tutorial in the manual shows how to stick legs on to the body.

if its just a t-joint like an arm into torso then usually 4 five point patches works well. find a 2 by 2 set of patches were you want the arm to come out of the torso. draw a 4 point circle around the cross in the center, inside of the outer edge of this grid. then make the four corners five point patches.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx
x x x
x . x . x
x . x . x
x . x . x
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
x . x . x
x . x . x
x . x . x
x x x
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

then just break the inner cross, and extrude the circle.

make sense? hope so its late … :hmm:

#4

Thanks much for the suggestions and answers. I’ve yet to get to that Giraffe tut but will do so. Cheers!

#5

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