Character Modeling Help

#1

Hello everyone.

I’ve been modeling for almost a year and just started getting into character modeling. I want to take a new approach and model chibi characters or if others know the look almost as Nendoroids. I truly would love some help if anyone could guide me towards how I could achieve this. I feel like I’m having a mental block to understanding to create the character without having bad polys and form when rigging. I’m looking at using these characters I develop for a little game I’m working on.

Any help would be much appreciated!

I use 3DS Max 2013 (roughly a year) & Mudbox 2012 (roughly 2 weeks, I have a drawing tablet)

#2

It shouldn’t be too hard, especially if you put your mind to it. Chibi characters are usually more simplistic characters and do not involve intense anatomy. You should concern your self more with edge flow than anything especially if you are expecting your character to deform. Decide if you’d like to go with the Box modeling, Extrude Edge, or Planar technique. I would start out learning to model in such programs as 3ds Max or Maya then once your comfortable move to such programs as Mudbox and Zbrush. Its more important for you to learn the fundamentals of edge flow and base mesh modeling before you go into high detail and retopologizing. Not knowing any other way to retopo your character without hitting “zremesh” is a very quick way to an unemployment check once your supervisor finds out. I recommend you start with actual human anatomy and modeling anatomically correct characters then move on to chibi’s and exaggerated proportions. Trust me it would be ALOT easier then. There are many great books and tutorials on this, if you ever need some I’d be more than happy to share.

#3

I will say I’m very much still a rookie.

I first learned 3DS Max in highschool as a freshman an worked with it for 3 years then had life complications and had to put it on hold as I learned modeling is a hobby at the moment rather than a fulltime career; schooling is just to much money and finding a job is way to hard with such a position. So now I have free time and working towards keeping it a hobby and even seeing where it goes. BUT even though I say it as a hobby I’m very serious about excelling and pushing my skills every day one step further and being the best I possibly can. So I mainly taught myself everything I know and watched alot of tutorials and read a bit on tutorialized.com. But I don’t know terms that well nor the hotkeys and techniques some people use. So what may of seemed easy for others was baffling me. Mainly I push to always create great quality/detailed models but still keeping in mind these models don’t heavily rely on alot of polys and edges. I try to minimize as much as possible as the material I’m making maybe used in a game I want to create later. So for the past few months I’ve gotten back into 3D Modeling and now just got a drawing tablet and slowly learning mudbox. I created a little team with a few friends and I’m the only modeller an so I’m trying to figure out how to make some character models and other organic forms without having all these faces and edges but still have it look like great quality and presentable. I don’t understand in my mind where the right spots are to put extra edges so the model doesn’t deform. An how do I create a model character that can be put in game that looks as good as the meshsmooth in the end but doesn’t need meshsmooth and looks just as presentable but with a fraction of the polies. My mind has so many questions and I’m really confused at this point.

I really don’t know where a good start is to understand both modelling and the boundaries and best methods for doing models for video games truly. I’m currently making floors, objects, organic from plantation an anatomy.

So truly any help and references you could supply would mean the world to me.

I’d like to add as much as I’m going to push for realistic modelling the game I’m currently making has a chibi look of everything. Such as reference of Nendoroids if you’ve seen them. The little pvc figures that are 4" high. An then I’m working later on anime style characters and hope back into realism for sculpting. I don’t know if like you said but if i’m truly working backwards instead of forwards.

#4

Well honestly the best way I can guide you is if you happen to have any pics of your work and what you’ve been doing. I have no problem giving you a small critique here and there and pointing you in the correct direction. You definitely in your case want a STRONG background in traditional art and HUMAN ANATOMY. Go a thrift shop, buy an old medical book on anatomy and study that like your life depended on it. Sketch the various tendons, muscles, and bones. Get it to the point that you can almost produce exact anatomical figures with little to no reference, you dont have to put your modeling on hold but just continue this along side and you WILL see how easy it will become. Edge flow follows anatomy, once you know where are the main points are on the body the edge flow will come to you naturally. If you want your character in a game engine you WANT it to deform , but deform properly which is why we lay out proper and prioritized edge flow. Your models should be smoothed, theres nothing wrong with that, but as for keeping poly count low thats what normal and displacement maps are for. To create the illusion that its really there, keep in mind displacement does exactly what it says. It actually does displace the geometry. The boundary between film and games are slowly waning and the poly count is starting to match. Most characters now a days rest between 12 - 15k. Some a little more , others a little less. But its important to learn that basing your mesh in a program such as MAX or Maya is very important and time saving. If you layout good topo on a base mesh when it hits Zbrush the process becomes very easy and retopo is almost not needed. For now I would learn how to model and HIT silhouette which is obviously the one of the most important job as a modeler. After that worry about Poly count and all the rest. All of these things are refinements, getting similarity and learning the art of hitting silhouette is priority. After that you slowly start taking into account on your next character topology and the rest. I will share a few good links when I get home that should help greatly !

#5

I don’t have any character models to show right now as I’ve been a bit frustrated with my work and I normally scrap it and keep retrying till I feel I get the hang of it. My method I’ve been using is drawing the shape of the face from a side view and then extrude the edges an shape the front with edges. After that I’ll start slowly bridging from front to side faces keeping in mind how many edges are at hand to line up and shape too. The body is made with a box and I just start building from there. So I attempted the chibi character as my first last night. I’ll head to basic human anatomy again an keep practicing and reading up and referencing. I took Anatomy in highschool so I have a bit of knowledge in the background; just need to reference up these terms such as “edge flow” an “topology”. Someone can example it but my brain only registers properly having a reference image to give me exact pin point detail of understand. I’m roughly 20% auditory 80% illustrative.

I attached a skull shield I attempted.

I do thank you kindly for taking the time for replying and helping me out. I really appreciate it! Its so hard for me to find active and or helpful forums that could help me learn more about modeling.

#6

Here is a great resource for getting you started , it has a lot of great information !

Click Here

All those tuts should be enough to get you started and a lot of them have great info especially on proper edge flow for deformation. I don’t blame you being so hung up on character modeling, I remember it was one of the classes I did the most poorly in. Not due to actual form and shape but the edge flow was one thing that killed me. Its hard especially when your first starting, its like as if worrying if your character looks good was not enough to worry about, now they introduce this entirely new concept and it kills a lot people when it comes time to grasp it. Study anatomy like I said, edges form naturally around real life anatomy. Also from your pics nothing looks too bad but what will make the difference and tell the jury whats what is a wire frame picture. That way we can see whether or not the edges are in the correct areas and the poles are properly tucked away in places that make sense.

Good luck !

#7

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