The Hardcore Modeling MINI-Challenge #3: Vitruvian Man

#1

DO YOU WANT TO JOIN A TEAM?
>>click<<[i][/i]

THE HARDCORE MODELING MINI-CHALLENGE!
[color=white]Vitruvian Man

[/color]The Vitruvian Man is a famous drawing with accompanying notes by Leonardo da Vinci made around the year 1492 in one of his journals. It depicts a naked male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is on display in the Gallerie dell’ Accademia in Venice, Italy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man

THE CHALLENGE:___________________________

Sculpt a digital reproduction of Vitruvian Man in 3D.
You will only have 3 weeks.

CAN YOU DO IT?

What is the HARDCORE MODELING CHALLENGE?

The idea of these HARDCORE MINI CHALLENGES is to push the modeling skills participants while learning from the past. To get past preconceptions of the limits of digital art. To push digital artists into the world of sculptors & artisans. But we will have variety on these mini challenges. Sometimes we will sculpt a model based on a masterpiece, but on other times we might do Jet fighter or a landmark…

The only thing that will be consistent is the SHORT DATELINES.

In this challenge you may do:
[ul]
[li][color=white]Body Part ( You may do hands, head, torso etc)[/li][li]Full Body(You aim to sculpt the whole object)[/li][li]FULL BODY & SHADING (You aim to sculpt the whole object & Shade it)[/color][/li][/ul][color=white]Since this is a MODELING CHALLENGE we will concentrate on creating a realistic 3D copy of this famous drawing.

At the end of the challenge, the participant should have done a finished entry that looks EXACTLY like either a body part of the Vitruvian Man or a Full representation of the sculpture. Keep in mind contest of high difficulty you will have THREE WEEKS to do the challenge, but the rewards, even if you don’t win, will be your improved skills in ADVANCED anatomy.

[i][u]TYPE OF ENTRIES:______________________________[/i][/u]

[i][b][size=3][color=white]Body Part (Difficulty Level HIGH)
[ul]
[li]Emphasis on detail of a specific body part. [/li][li]Detailed RESEARCH, and attention to detail are key[/li][/ul]Full Body (Difficulty Level HIGH)
[ul]
[li]Emphasis on detail of whole body… [/li][li]Detailed RESEARCH, and attention to detail are key [/li][li]Emphasis on anatomy, sculpting[/li][/ul]FULL BODY & SHADING ( Difficulty Level HIGH)
[ul]
[li]Emphasis on detail of whole body… [/li][li]Detailed RESEARCH, and attention to detail are key [/li][li]Emphasis on anatomy, sculpting [/li][li]Emphasis on lighting, shading & rendering [/li][li]More emphasis on detail. [/li][li]Realism is the KEY of this type of entry[/li][/ul][/color][/size][/i][/b][/color][color=white][color=white][color=white]Detailed RESEARCH, and attention to detail are key for ALL entries.[/color][/color]

The best model will be selected by an open vote
for these categories: [/color]
[ul]
[li][color=white]Best Modeling[/li][li]Best Detail Model[/li][li]Best Shading[/li][li]Best Rendering[/li][li]Most Realistic Model[/li][li]Best Overall Entry[/color][/li][/ul][color=white]The winner will get bragging rights and a small banner
designed by me.

DATELINE: Monday July 24th 12:00 PM

YOU HAVE THREE WEEKS do the challenge.

CHALLENGE SPECIFIC RULES: [/color]
[ul]
[li][color=white]No work taken DIRECTLY from an existing tutorial. You may use an existing tutorial only for reference.[/li][li]You may NOT use a pre exiting models. All models must be done from scratch.[/color][/li][/ul][color=white]GENERAL RULES: [/color]
[ul]
[li][color=white]The model must have been done AFTER the topic has been announced.[/li][li]WIP are encouraged if they are posted in ANOTHER thread. Please provide a link to them on this thread.[/li][li]WIP thread should be posted on the Modeling Forum forum and should follow[/li]the following naming convention: HARDCORE MODELING!: VitruvianMan: <<TYPE OF ENTRY >> (Note: Group entries are allowed)
[li]WIP files ARE REQUIRED and should be rendered at 800 x 600.[/li][li]BEAUTY RENDER:[/li]
Final RENDERS should be rendered at 1600 X 1200 [color=darkorange]OR 1200 x 1600 in JPG format.(post only as link) A smaller 800x 600 OR 600 x 800 image should be posted.

  • [/color]This is your beauty render, it may be comprised of a collage of multiple renders of your model.
    [li]ORTHOGRAPHIC RENDERINGS:[/li]
    Ortographic renderings ARE REQUIRED and should be rendered at [color=darkorange]800 x 600 OR 600x800.
  • [/color]This means you need to submit renders of the from the Front, Sides (2), Back, Top and bottom.

[li]The renders might be done as a Quickshade or Beauty Render.[/li][li][color=darkorange]TURNTABLE ANIMATION.[/color][/li]- I recomentd to aid the voters a turntable rendering of the model. It would have to be done in QuickTime or Windows Media at a resolution of 600 x 400 OR 300 x 200. The render might be don[color=darkorange]e [/color]as a Quickshade or Beauty Render.[/color]
[li][color=white]Please add a brief text description about your piece.[/color][/li][li][color=white]The artist also has to post total length of time it took to do and program used.[/li][li]Collaborative pieces are accepted and encouraged, but Teams entries must have a identifying name. Shot lists should be included with the entry.[/li][li]Individuals participating in a team CAN have their own individual entries.[/li]
The topics will be picked at random from the list on

this >>thread << (The author will be given credit). So guys keep them coming.
[li]Post on this thread your link to your WIP thread and your FINAL piece.[/li][li]You can add multiple entries, as long as they have different WIP threads.[/li][li]Only participants who follow the rules and submit a final entry will be eligible for the voting process.[/li][li]Any piece caught breaking the rules will be taken[/li] off the thread.[/color]
[/ul][color=white]REFERENCE:
http://azothgallery.com/images/leonardo.jpg
http://www.abc-people.com/data/leonardov/vitruvian-man.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Vitruvian.jpg
http://media.nasaexplores.com/lessons/02-032/5-8_1.pdf

Good Luck

-R
[/color]

#2

Heh I was right, it is the Vitruvian Man. A question if I may, if someone was to do a full 3D representation of the drawing, how should s/he represent the overlaying limbs?

#3

be creative… You guys always deliver
:slight_smile:

-R

#4

ha! every option you listed had dificulty level high; i love it!

#5

man oh man. i’m a total noob. only been dabbling with 3d apps for a little over a month, but this sounds so tantalizing i might just have to give it a go.

#6

Jesus… i just can’t seem to escape this guy, our agency is working on all the advertising for The DaVinci Code and i have had to stare at this illustration for the past 3 months… i would be a prime candidate for this mini challenge if i had any 3d skills :frowning:

Anyhow good luck guys, can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

#7

Hmm…this is a bit of a weak choice Roberto, if I can be so bold. It’s essentially the same as the first challenge - ‘model an anatomically correct human male’, though this one isn’t half as interesting or challenging.

#8

maybe representing in a creative and interesting way the ovelaying postures is a more challenging then modelling itself… i like it :slight_smile:

BAM

#9

THere’s no challenge in that whatsoever. You’ve only got four choices

  1. Model a man with two arms and legs actually growing out of his body (ridiculous, since it has nothing to do with the subject)
  2. Model the limbs as pipes merged together at the point of intersection.
  3. Just have them intersecting.
  4. PLace the tow figures in front of each other, with ither tranparency or cutout sections.
    Considering the huge variety of subjects available, it just seems a little odd that 2 out of the first 3 challenges should be almost the same.
#10

I have to agree, with such a wide range of sunjects to choose from, this doesn’t really inspire or interest me enough to take part… Don’t get me wrong I love the idea of the challenge, but maybe we could have a vote or more of an active role in selecting the next challenge. :slight_smile:

#11

one problem with voting topics is that if its obvious which topic will win the vote then some people might start working on them before the challenge is announced and therefore have more time to finish it.

anyways, i remember someone at zbrushcentral attempting this. however his version seems to be horrizontally flipped.

http://zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?p=278086#post278086

#12

I don’t think this is all together that similar to The David. I think there’s quite a lot of room for interpretation here, which makes it all the more interesting to me.

This is more of a challenge creatively than reproducing The David. The drawing is little more than a sketch, there’s very little detail and next to no shading. I’ll enjoy researching how Da Vinci would have fleshed this out into a more tangible form.

#13

This is a lot less challenging, since you can just use whatever generic anatomy you want, there is no right or wrong.
It was much harder copying the David, since we had so much reference, and therefore had to copy it exactly as Michelangleo sculpted it. Making an exact copy of someone else’s anatomy study is much harder than modeling your own generic anatomy, and since this drawing has virtually no detail, that’s what you’ll be doing.
Leonardo, as far as I can see, was concerned with studying and depicting realistic anatomy in his other work, so deciding how he would have fleshed this out is hardly a concern.
It’s a generic t-stance model, so you ony have to model one half, unlike David, and there are no complex muscle tension subtleties to worry about.

#14

Personally the creative challenge here is more interesting to me than following someone elses design exactly, like a machine.

I would say this doesn’t require as much observational skill as modelling The David and will require more subjective judgement. I feel this is more of an artistic persuit - there will be no correct or incorrect works from this.

The need to follow Da Vanci stylistically is a creative consideration I will enjoy - that need is of course my own take on this although I do infer it from the challenge. This will give some objectivity to the proceedings.

To say Da Vinci didn’t have a style and all that’s required is mere generalised anatomy is incorrect in my opinion. His emphasis on musculature in his renderings is quite unreal. His drawings are so lean as to appear almost without skin.

You also suggest that only half the model need building. That’s true, but as I said, to do this properly an extended amount of research and preparation has to go into this that will eat away at those precious hours, rather than robotically following a design handed to you.

#15

I think the best is to made two rendering and then use photoshop to merge them.
Roberto we can do that?

#16

I kind of planned on doing something like that.

#17

well… it’s unfortunate that some feel like this challenge isn’t going to be a valuable exercise in modeling since it seems similar to the david challenge. I know for myself, from my experience, to get better at something i have to practice it over and over.

with that said… i have a question for our illustrious leader, roberto:

suppose i start this project and plan on doing the full body, but find i don’t have enough time to finish the full body, may i switch to just a body part? or conversely… if i find i am making really good time may i switch to full body shaded?

peace – eric

#18

I would have to respectively disagree. One would assume that Leo would have taken into account more of the underlying structure far beyond the fictitious idealism of the vitruvian man that you describe. The challenge is to recreate the anatomy of this illustration in a manor that represents Da Vinci’s time spent with corpses, autopsies, dissections and other scientific and artistic endeavors. This does not lend to fictitious anatomy but it leads to the creation of the perfect male anatomy. Though this may step on some feelings, unlike the David, Vitruvian man is light-years beyond Michalangelo’s sculpture as far as anatomical structure.

Think of it as recreating someone’s facial features by studying the skeletal remains of someone who was around several hundred or thousand years ago. But aren’t you lucky, you get to have an outline and his face.

#19

What research and preparation exactly? Anyone who already knows human anatomy won’t need to do any, because as an anatomist, Lenonado was simply concerned with copying human anatomy as accurately as possible. You say his ‘style’ was to exaggerate the anatomy, but that is not a style, it just a way of making it easier to read.

#20

I agree with oDDity, I believe this choice will be very easy because all you need to do is model half the generic anatomy and then mirror it. With the David competion, we had to either model everything from scratch (both sides) or we made a high poly model and then rigged and tweaiked a lot, completely making it unsymmetical. You can argue taht it takes creativity, but so what this is a modelling challenge. This seems like it should be a general project and not a modelling one. Thats just my idea. When I first read the rules for a the David project I was very excited, it seemed like a lot of fun, and many joined in. I think we can see that it didnt happen on this choice. To be honest, mona lisa would have been a better choice, because it is also a 2d image.

Also a really cool project would be the Pietà, but that would have to be a while from now because we’ve already done a sculpture by Michelangelo.