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Reference Material |
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The most important thing you should do before any modelling happens
is stock up on your reference materials. This could be scanned,
drawn, grabbed from a video, DVD or anything just make sure you have
lots of it. Ideally you should have turn a rounds of the character,
if these don't exist then use the rest of the images you have
collected to generate your own.
The ideal turn a round should contain a front view, side view (left
& right if possible), rear view and a three quarter view. You should
have both full body and a head close up. As well as these you should
also have a decent facial expression sheet, showing as many emotions
as possible, not only will this be useful when modelling the head
but it will give the animator a good guide to work from when
generating facial blend shapes. |
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Example Model Sheet |
Example Facial Expression Sheet |
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Starting Out |
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| Before starting to build your character you should first make sure
you have your turn around scanned in and at the ready. The front and
side view should be imported into Maya and used as image planes to
guide you. |
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You should also find out as much about the character as possible -
- Is it an in game model or will it be used in pre-rendered cut
scenes?
- You will need a rough polygon count limit.
- Finger amount. Will it have full fingers or a mitten type hand
with no fingers?
- Facial detail, will the characters face need to animate to
show emotions and talk?
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| Another point to consider is how many levels of detail are required.
If I am to generate a character, which has four levels of detail, I
find the best way to work is to model the highest version first.
Once this is done you can then generate the lower versions from this
simply by removing polygons, it is allot easier to remove polygons
and detail from a character than it is to add them. Also working in
this order assures you that the lower Lod`s (levels of detail) will
match the highest perfectly. |
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| To aid with this guide I will model a character myself and show you
the process step by step. I have decided on a character I am to
produce so I have spent some time gathering various pieces of
reference material. I could not find a suitable model sheet so I
have drawn out a rough one myself, I shall use this to generate the
general shape and proportions of the model. |
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My Rough Turn Around |
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General Shape |
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| Now you can start to build the character but don't rush in and try
to build it a bit at a time, try to fill out the whole shape first
as this will help you to get the proportions correct. |
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Limbs and Torso |
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| Start by creating three cylinders. Set the height to 8, subdivision
axis to 8 and the subdivision height to 10, (this can differ
depending on the poly count restrictions on the character, although
it is easier to remove polygons later than to try and add them.) |
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| Rotate, translate and scale the cylinders to position them in the
correct place corresponding to the left leg, left arm and torso but
try to keep a row of vertices lying on the elbow and knee. We only
need to model one half of the body as it can be mirrored later to
produce the right hand side. |
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Note
– It will make scaling the vertices easier if
you do not freeze the transforms on the cylinders! |
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| Using these cylinders, and keeping them as quads, view from the side
and scale/move the vertices horizontally until the shape of the
cylinder roughly fits the leg in the image plane. |
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| Next switch to the front view and do the same, adjusting them to fit
the general shape. |
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| For the arm look from the front and scale the vertices to fit the
shape of the reference image. |
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| Next do the same from the side view. If your model sheet has its
character drawn with the arms out to the side you will probably need
to use some other reference material to adjust the vertices from the
top view. |
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| The torso cylinder needs to be split into two, the left side and the
right side. Delete the right side, as we only need to work with the
left for now. Also delete any cap faces on all the cylinders if you
haven’t done already. Doing as you have already done with the leg,
using the front and side views scale/move the vertices horizontally
to get the rough shape of the torso. |
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You should now have a clean, grid style mesh that fits the general
shape of the left hand side of your character, but it’s missing a
head, foot and a hand. |
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| Before we add these we need to join the arm and leg to the torso.
Start by raising the arm if need be, then move the vertices at the
joining ends so that they lie where the joints would crease. Try to
get vertices to line up with each other. |
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| You should start to notice areas where you may need to add an extra
vertex, or you could remove some faces to get the limbs to join
properly. This is the next stage. Using the Split Polygon Tool to
add the vertices, and deleting any unwanted faces make sure the
vertices all line up perfectly, then combine the three pieces and
weld the vertices. |
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| You should now have a basic body although it may need tweaking
slightly to get it back to a desired shape. Also at this stage add
any extra bits, like breasts, and attach these to the basic model. |
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Hands |
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| To be honest at this early stage I sometimes don't bother roughing
in the hands. If I do need to, to get a better idea of proportions,
a few cubes will suffice. |
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Feet |
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| To create rough feet I simply extrude the edges at the base of the
leg cylinder. Then I extrude the front of the newly created faces
forward, usually having two divisions. It’s just a case of editing
the vertices then until you get a basic foot you are happy with. |
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Head and Neck |
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| At this point the neck can simply be a low polygon cylinder,
subdivision axis to 8 and the subdivision height to 3, adjusted,
like the torso, to fit the neck in the image plane. |
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| The head should begin as a cube with a few subdivisions, again
adjusting the vertices to fit the general shape of the reference
head. We don't add any detail to the head at this stage. Once done,
weld the head to the neck and then the neck to the body, as we did
previously with the torso and limbs. |
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Adding Details |
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| By now you have your basic model filled out, it has all the limbs
needed as well as a rough head, feet and maybe even hands. |
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You can
now do one of two things, optimise this model for in game use,
removing strips of polygons and adjusting it to look like a low
resolution version of your character, or you can go in and refine
the model, add more detail and fill out the shape until it looks
exactly like the reference material.
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| Below are suggestions on the best way to achieve
such details. |
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Note –
You can achieve allot of detail with the texture on your
character, don’t rely solely on polygons. |
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Muscle Structure |
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| Keep an eye on where the muscles lie on your character, placing
edges along the muscle lines will result in a much more natural
deformation as well as making your model look better. |
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Note –
It may be worth spending some time mapping the lines onto your
model, (as pictured below). Simply go around it and use hard edges as I have
done, in some cases you will need to use the Split Polygon Tool but don’t be afraid to
add a few polygons at this stage. |
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Shoulders |
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| An area most people struggle with is the shoulder. As you can see in
the image below, when the arms are raised the shoulder muscle
(deltoid) is more pronounced, bulging higher than the collar muscles
(trapezius). Also notice that the big back muscle, (latissimus dorsi)
acts like a fan, opening up when the arm is raised and closing again
when the arm is relaxed. |
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Armpit |
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| Remember that the armpit recesses into the body slightly. |
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Bicep Twist |
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| This is a trouble area if modelled incorrectly. When a twist is
applied it can collapse and deform horribly but this can be avoided
if you keep the polygons around this area in strips. |
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Bending Areas |
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| An important part of any character is the areas where it needs to
bend, i.e. elbows, knees etc. So go around your model and make sure
to put in extra polygons in these areas. |
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| As with the elbow pin
point the pivot area and create the polygons behind that point. |
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Face Detail |
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| Face topology is very important, depending on what you wish to
achieve with your model that is. A good rule, as with the body, is
to stick strictly to the muscle structure when placing your polygons
and edges. Paying attention to how the face creases, and
constructing it according will give you a natural looking face as
well as making the creation of blend shapes and animation easier and
more fluid. |
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Face Muscles |
Face Wrinkles |
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| Once again, import some scanned in imagery to use as a guide. Scale
the image plane to fit the rough head you have created |
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| Subdivide the faces at the front and start to move the vertices
until you get the general shape. You should also do this from the
front view, using another image as a guide. |
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| Splitting the polygons, keep adding more detail until you are happy
with the way the face looks, remembering to keep the edges running
along muscle lines and also bearing in mind how the face will need
to deform i.e. will it need eyes, eyelids, an inner mouth? |
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Hands |
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| First off, if someone on your team, or even in the studio has
already modelled a decent hand, use it. There is no point
reinventing the wheel and making more work for you, even if it isn't
the right style the structure should be sound enough for you to work
with and adjust. |
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| Before you build the hands you need to know what
the character is to be used for. If its in game the chances are it
won't need separate fingers, just maybe a separate thumb, if its a
character for a cut scene then all fingers will need to be modelled. |
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| When starting the hand I always begin with a finger, spend time
creating a good finger and you can then copy and adjust it for the
other three and the thumb. Again, get some images of hands scanned
in and use them as image planes. |
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| Start with a cube – Width 6, Subdivision Width 3, Subdivision Height
2. |
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| Using the Split Polygon Tool we now add some details to the finger.
For the moment you just want to define the knuckle areas, these just
need to be on the top half of the finger (add as much or as little
detail as you require, the images represent a medium resolution
finger.) |
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| Once done you can play around with the finger to get a general shape
you are happy to start working with. Make sure you use the image you
scanned in as a guide. |
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| When you are happy with the shape of the finger, duplicate it and
adjust it to fit the other three fingers. |
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| You should now have your basic fingers to work with, duplicate one
of the other fingers and adjust it to fit the thumb. Then, using
your modelling skills and the reference images add some more details
and the rest of the hand. You should end up with something like this
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| This hand was modelled using a male hand as reference, no good for
the female model I am doing but I can use this as a base and adjust
it. |
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A few things to consider –
- Its better to initially model the hand flat, this makes it
easier to texture. Then you can adjust it later for the final
pose.
- The base of the finger, where it meets the hand, is slanted
not flat. If you look in between your own fingers you will notice
a small webbing area.
- Your fingers are not straight so do not model them like that.
They are most likely slightly crooked.
- In women, the ring finger and the index finger tend to be the
same length. But with men, the index finger is shorter than the
ring finger.
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The Final Model |
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The model I created whilst making this tutorial is
available below. |
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To download, right click and select "Save Target As..." |
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Download Sara Model as Maya
File |
Download Sara Model as .Obj
File |
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Final Pose |
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| Before you finalise your model and begin texturing it is probably a
good idea to bung in a rough rig and check the mesh deforms
correctly. I guarantee you will find a few areas that need tweaking
and if you have spent time texturing you will need to alter some
UV`s. |
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The aim is to get the final model in as much of a relaxed
state as possible, this way when the character is rigged and
animated in a relaxed state it will look more natural and as the
modeller intended. Having the elbows and knees bent not only helps
with rigging but also allows the modeller to refine the look of the
joints.
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Note -
You should make sure your model is finished and signed off before
putting it into this pose, unless you intend to do a preview bind,
in which case save it as a separate file.
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| Your characters final pose should be as follows and NOT in the
standard crucifixion poses - |
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- Arms - Out to the sides but slightly lowered, (about 35
degrees)
- Elbows - Should be bent inwards at an angle of about 40
degrees.
- Hands & Fingers - Should be in a relaxed position with the
fingers slightly bent. The palms should be facing forwards.
- Legs - These should be slightly bent, as if the character is
in a slight crouching position.
- Face - The head should be in a rest pose, closed mouth and
open eyes.
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| The images used in this section were taken from the following books
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Anatomy for the Artist by Sarah Simblet |
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How to draw Manga: Bodies and Anatomy |
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Batman Animated by Paul Dini&Chip Kid |
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