Modelling Heads

#221

Hey Larry …have you ever model a arm that way…specifically a detail muscle arm with the nice creases between biceps and triceps.

#222

that animated gif BLOWS MY MIND AWAY!

#223

Thanks God. I’ll make the alterations you suggested.

I am thinking of letting the ears suck at the moment. they were placeholders to begin with, so I’ll let em be until the very end.

#224

Originally posted by Julez4001
Hey Larry …have you ever model a arm that way…specifically a detail muscle arm with the nice creases between biceps and triceps.

Actually I have, its pretty easy really but a nice way to get the creases between muscles laid out… :slight_smile:

#225

Hey Julez,
I just whipped out a quickie example of creating an arm using splines. This took about 5 -10 minutes.

#226

You do know yor splines…

#227

Kool Larry…I would loved seeing a animated gif of creating that arm but I’d settle for a jpeg of qtr view of the arm in the spline mode… the side is nice but i think seeing in quarter view is important. Thank You!

#228

seeing that there hasn’t been any posts in this thread for I while I figured I should bump it and hopefully get it going again since I take great interest in the techniques presented here, anyway, here are a couple of head model wip’s I started about a week ago, I wasn’t going to post them here until they were somewhat more finished, but since I haven’t worked on them for a week and likely won’t be able to work on them until after xmas I figured I’d post them here as they are. they were both modeled using the ‘Bachelorette’ technique with first creating a 2 point poly to use as a 3d reference cage. the first was a attempt to make a asian-looking female face but I still ended up with a ‘western’ look somehow.

the other is more promising, and also a face with an objective, as I am trying to model Elric of Melnibone, main character in a series of books I loved reading back in my youth. not much done on the face, most of the time spent making him look strained and err… angry.

now, let’s see more heads/modeling techniques!

#229

Hey Binary, Nice work.
I read Elric years ago. Cool story and character.
Im curious as to why not use splines for the reference
lines as opposed to building strings of 2 point polys which seems more tedious? The technique is very similar to spline patching in some ways.

Jules,
Heres the actual arm cage which you can download HERE

#230

Originally posted by SplineGod
Of course most peoples first stuff looks like crap. Crap is a good fertilizer and promotes growth. :slight_smile:
You see the good stuff people post but you never see the crappy stuff they did to get to the nice stuff. :). Dont be afraid of jumping in. You wont drown and people will give you some valuable feedback. Pick up an action figure somewhere and start with that. :slight_smile:

I just reread this and laughed for a while. Larry has been helping me out quite a bit via ICQ, what a trooper! (I’m sort of a hassle to teach, as I learn realllllly slowly…) Thanks again for the help Larry!

t

#231

Originally posted by toddler
[B]I just reread this and laughed for a while. Larry has been helping me out quite a bit via ICQ, what a trooper! (I’m sort of a hassle to teach, as I learn realllllly slowly…) Thanks again for the help Larry!

t [/B]

No problem! Its been fun. :slight_smile:

#232

yeah, he’s a god at stuff like that!

#233

Originally posted by AndrewE
yeah, he’s a god at stuff like that!

lol, Thanks!
Did you get your QTVR going? :slight_smile:

#234

Yup yup!

It worked flawlessly!

Need more hieght segments, but that’s about it really.

Can I call you sometime soon about your courses?

#235

Thanks Larry.

Kool to check out.

I started designing a plane with splines but I get kinks in the spline, what do you recommend for “smoothing 'em things 'un out” (thats my OUTKAST andre impression…um anyway). I delete a few points but I lost control of how I wanted my corners to look.

Would Hurley tool be a great asset or is it a superduper autopatcher.

#236

Binary,

Great heads!

I don’t see why you just don’t use the sketch tool and literally draw the shapes you just did.

Wasn’t bach’s technique to extrude geometry from the sketches in some fashion? I missed most of that thread so I don’t know what the technique was.

Jay

#237

SplineGod wrote:

Im curious as to why not use splines for the reference. lines as opposed to building strings of 2 point polys which seems more tedious? The technique is very similar to spline patching in some ways.

maybe it’s the case of ‘once burnt, twice shy’ as my first few attempts at organic spline-modeling crashed and burned. :wink:

well, actually I think it’s more that I use the 2-point polygons also as a approximate reference of how many polygons I need for the segments that I draw as a cage, and with using splines for the reference cage (I’m assuming you meant using splines for reference here and not actual patching) that approximation would be lost (well not necessarily perhaps).

I am however very interested in trying to build spline cages for basic organic geometry like a head, arm, leg etc as you showed, and as you described use it as a base for detailing, it definately makes sense as you can quickly re-patch a bodypart using different amount of geometry depending on the detail you are striving for, this is one thing I’ll definately try once I get some time to model again (I wish I was a pro and could spend whole days modeling, it’s my favourite pasttime that doesn’t require the assistance of a female!). btw, have you any insight on that Patch-It from hurleyworks? it seems interesting, I recently downloaded the demo vids (yes, I’m slow) and being able to see the actual generated geometry while manipulating the splines is likely a great help.

jmcalpin wrote:

Great heads! I don’t see why you just don’t use the sketch tool and literally draw the shapes you just did. Wasn’t bach’s technique to extrude geometry from the sketches in some fashion? I missed most of that thread so I don’t know what the technique was.

thanks, well, the sketch tool falls under the same category as spline’s in this case, as I make an approximation of how many polygons I’ll use in the actual model when doing the 2 point polygon chains. however, I based this modeling technique on what I read from Bachelorette’s wip’s, and from what I understood this is how he did it, first building a 2-point polygon cage and keep it in the background layer as a 3d template while creating the actual model. however, as I haven’t tried using either splines or sketch-tool to build the reference I can’t really say that using 2 point polygons is either better or worse.

also, from what I remember from Bachelorette’s wip’s, he did not extrude directly from the reference cage.

still, I do prefer the box modeling approach of wings to this method hands down, unfortunately wings lack a realtime high subdiv proxy mode, which makes it very hard for me to get the details right in that program, my dream modeler would be wings with lightwave’s subdivision mode or lightwave with wings edgetools and virtual mirror/tweak mode, well we can dream can’t we?

oh, and massive KUDOS to you for your work on the wings manual, if you need more models/wireframes etc for an upcoming edition I am putting the finishing touches to a demon I’ve done entirely in wings (although finishing touches are going slowly, I’m a sucker for the details).

#238

Thanks,

Work has really slowed on it since he went so far with updates that everything became out of date. I am thinking of puting up a web page of the manual so I can update sections as I need to. That will also allow me to put a few movies up to show how some stuff works in it.

I see why Jstro came to a halt.

Hmmm…

never thought of modeling like that. I just found hte sketch tool which if you have a wacom allows you to actually draw like you would in photoshop in splines. Then i just move them to where I need them. (great for tracing background images.

Thanks for the info.

Jay

#239

Originally posted by Julez4001
[B]Thanks Larry.

Kool to check out.

I started designing a plane with splines but I get kinks in the spline, what do you recommend for “smoothing 'em things 'un out” (thats my OUTKAST andre impression…um anyway). I delete a few points but I lost control of how I wanted my corners to look.

Would Hurley tool be a great asset or is it a superduper autopatcher. [/B]

Thanks! :slight_smile:
Steves spline tool looks interesting. I would need to be able to play with it to see if it would fit into the way I like to use splines.
From the movies I saw I didnt see much difference between the way it appeared to work and using SubDs. If it would let me use splines the way I do now and still autopatch that would be great. :slight_smile: He also has a plugin to help patch faster manually.
Do you have a picture or a partial mesh where youre getting the kinks? If you have two splines running into each other end to end you can hit ctrl s (curve smooth) or Detail----Curve------Smooth.
This insures that splines will meet up together without kinking.
Sometimes what I do is mirror the “ribs” across, use ctrl s to smooth them then delete half the ribs again. That I way Im sure not to have any kinks across a fusilage for example.
Also it can help to use template polys like I do here:

#240

I recently stumbled upon this thread and have found it very useful. It appears it died nearly two months ago. Time for a revival perhaps.

I only do this as my post is relevant and doesn’t deserve another thread…

I have attatched four pictures. The first two are and face and profile shot of a character I wish to model…Then there are my first and best try at interpreting where splines will go.

Could anyone possibly give me some suggestions as to what I need to watch out for when I model him as he is rather unorthodox in shape…

Also, excuse my poor drawing skills. I am no artist but I try my best to help me visualise what I wish to create.