Hi chudofsinister
I use Maya clusters.
That is too bad that Max will not allow you to control individual points. There is not a work around for this?
HippyDrome
Topology research
chudofsinister
#62
yeah there is a work around or other method, but its not called control clusters. Do you use control clusters to define morph targets or do you actually animate the clusters.
HippyDrome
#63
Hi,
I am pushing around the wt’ed individual points in the cluster.
It’s allot of work but I like the results.
HippyDrome
chudofsinister
#64
Hey lunatique,
I just found out you are Lunachild on Rustboys forum. I have seen some of your posts over there. cool.
Boone
#66
Sorry to bother everyone with such trival questions…
I’m not sure how this “Topology” technique is performed, but its mighty interesting!
Being new to this topic, I was wondering if someone could explain it to me. :love:
fango
#67
boone, you might want to familiarize yourself with the concept of subd modeling and edge loops, it will make way more sense then.
i think the quintessential papers :applause: are Tamas Vargas’ subdivision modeling tips
and Bay Raitt’s digital sculpting techniques (pdf file) from the izware website. you can also read it in html here.
MukMan
#69
In Bay’s PDF previously posted here about his sculpting methods. There were a few things written in ther I wanted to ask about,
- It says “Mirai lets you reduce the polygons on the derived surface without disrupting the relationship between the control object and the derived surface.”
Can you do that with Maya? Maya has the smoothproxy tool and the Subd modelling set that lets you use a low poly object to define a smoother version. My question is, can you reduce the polys on the derived surfaces on Maya? or is that unnecessary?
-
In the section refering to lighting for modelling: How do I do that in Maya?
-
Where can I find more stuff like this.
Lunatique
#70
Here’s the latest prototype topology. God this one took forever. I was trying to do prototype where it’ll not only work in Maya’s sub’d, but also work well in XSI or other apps. Maya handles triangles and 5-sided polys fine in sub’d, but I wasn’t sure if it’ll be ok in other apps, so I went ahead and made it with as many quads as I can, without making the mesh too dense for easy manipulation.
My previous version has a mistake in it around the chin area, so I changed it for this version.
gnarlycranium
#71
I’ve been spending so much time rooting around looking at head meshes, and helping other people with theirs, that I’ve started to notice some really BIG trends among the people who are just starting out-- most of them seem to make the same mistakes, and I’m getting tired of repeating myself as I try to help them.
I want to make a reference page for head modeling newbs that gives examples of these common mistakes… but I’m going to need pictures. How do I round up a bunch of pictures of malformed heads to use as examples without getting anybody peeved at me? Anybody have some ideas?
I’d try to make some examples myself, but I’m not sure I could recreate some of that stuff anymore… heh. 
Maybe I’ll just start a thread requesting that people donate pictures of their older work… hmmm…
Lunatique
#72
I was going to say Gallerie Abominate, but those are completely unusable–as they have no semblance to a human character at all. 
Why not take one of your own meshes, and then just draw different topology in Photoshop? That way, you can even use different colored lines to emphasize right and wrong practices.
I just put up a topology research page on my website. Hehe, we’re thinking along the same lines. 
gnarlycranium
#73
Awww, and the Gallerie is down right now too…
I was thinkin more of general porportion and weirdness problems than topology specifically… and I don’t have a wacom, so drawing anything in photoshop is kinda out, I’m hopeless with a mouse. I’ll take a look at the stuff you put up on your website-- we can cover different things… ought to be fun to see what we come up with! IF anybody answers my call for donations, that is… heh.
tonygib
#74
Gnarly, Hows this little image for being total crap :rolleyes:
It was my first ever head, (yes I know, sad, I still have the max files for all this). In this case it was in fact done as patches, but still, there are enough problems in that one head to keep you busy for years to come. Note that the ears, while “seperate” do in fact sit flat when the face is all rounded out. I have a very high quality Tif image of this, just let me know if you want it and we can work out a way to send it too you it like 400K so will never fit in the attachment limit here
PS. Just so as to re-inforce a little street cred back, after that O’ so shocking image, please look at page 3 of this thread to see my current WIP project
Boone
#75
Re: Gnarly C.
Well…it looks like I should be able to help you on this one! I think I’m using a diferent package to yours though…
Laa-Yosh
#76
Originally posted by MukMan
[B]1. It says “Mirai lets you reduce the polygons on the derived surface without disrupting the relationship between the control object and the derived surface.”Can you do that with Maya? Maya has the smoothproxy tool and the Subd modelling set that lets you use a low poly object to define a smoother version. My question is, can you reduce the polys on the derived surfaces on Maya? or is that unnecessary?
[/B]
I’m quite positive that you cannot do that in any other package. However as computers get faster and faster, I belive that you don’t really need this feature.
[B]
- In the section refering to lighting for modelling: How do I do that in Maya?
[/B]
Well, you can create two light sources, position them, than parent them to your persp camera. Then hide them so they won’t disturb you.
[B]
- Where can I find more stuff like this. [/B]
Once The Human Head is back online, make sure you read it. It’s a pretty good page.
Also, I might be able to move my page to another site where I can easily update it. Right now I can’t access the server for more than 6 months by now…
MukMan
#77
thank you so very much. I am glad someone actually replied to my questions. :eek:
On the subject of topology, wouldn’t you want an edgeloops around the eyes to help define the cheekbone. Alot of people have a visibly raised section because their cheekbones are made that way. You have to have alot of extra fat in the face for that not to be visible. the image attached is an example draw in Paint with a crumby old mouse, but you get the idea. (The area circled in red is what i’m talking about.
Laa-Yosh
#78
The cheeck is a problematic area, as pointed out by the Human Head website
The flow of the surface shape - the topography - suggests one kind of topology. Now if you want to animate your face, you’ll find that the directions of the movement in this area, caused by the stretching and sliding of the skin, are suggesting a different kind of topology that conflicts the previous one.
So, you have two kinds of solutions, either build a topology that supports your surface, or a topology that supports your animation requirements. Generally, the latter is considered to be the better.
bunk
#79
Just wanted to share my reverse engineered prototype topology. That way I was assured I wouldn’t end up with tris where I didn’t want them. The gif anim shows where polygons where removed, but since it plays backwards
are added 
The lowest poly head would probably still work for toon heads. Didnt try it out yet.
bunk