CGS 3220 Lecture 13 Polygonal Character Modeling Introduction to Computer Aided Modeling Instructor: Brent Rossen
Overview Box modeling Polygon proxy Mirroring Polygonal components Topology editing Procedural modeling attributes Changing edge normals Using the lattice deformer
A New Project We will build Boog the bear from polygonal primitives and a few tools Set up a new project File > Project > New Name: Boog Click Use Defaults Accept Create a new Scene, File > New, save it as BoogModeling
Our Plan Torso Cube primitive will be the pelvis, then extrude faces to create the torso, neck, and head Legs Extrude polygons out of the torso to create the legs Arms Extrude arms from torso Cut and mirror geometry for symmetry
Primitive Cube Create > Polygon Primitives > Cube Rename to body From Inputs in the Channel Box, set the Subdivisions Width to 2 As a convention, you should model your characters facing the Z axis
Outline front and side
Image Plane Reference From the front view View > Camera Attribute Editor Environment > Image Plane > Create Image Name > Folder Icon, select your front view Do the same for your side view drawing Change the Placement attributes till your images line up
Image Planes and Start Cube
Extrude Faces Place the first cube where the pelvis will be Make sure Edit Mesh > Keep Faces together is checked F11 will go into component mode Select the top two faces Edit Mesh > Extrude Move the faces up in the Y Axis, scale them in a little Repeat to get the images in the next slide
Front and Side
Head, Neck, and Nose Extrude 3 more times to get the head, neck, and nose Rotate to make the faces flow according to the reference images, like in the image to the right
Subdiv Proxy Subdiv proxy allows you to see the smoothed model while working with the cube version Go back to object mode and select Proxy > Subdiv Proxy Never tweak the smoothed version directly using this tool
Extrude the Legs F11 to display faces Select the two faces from below the pelvis Turn off Keep faces together Edit Mesh > Extrude Move and scale approx to his knees Extrude again to ankles and put at about 45 degrees Extrude again to his toes
Extruding the Arms Select the face on one side of the torso, closest to where the arms will be We ll duplicate it later Extrude it three times to roughly match the reference images
Mirror the bear Delete Half Now we ll refine the bear s geometry to look a little more realistic The first thing we ll do is mirror the geometry so we only have to model one side of the bear From the front view, select all the geometry on the bear s left side use the Paint Selection tool and make sure you get it all
Mirror the Bear - Duplicate Delete it Select remaining geometry and Edit > Duplicate Special > Options Geometry type: Instance Scale X: -1 Hit Duplicate Special Now, whatever we do to one side, will be mirrored on the other
Lock the Mirror Select the group that was created by mirroring the geometry Create a Layer on the Channel Box / Layer Editor Rename it DuplicateLayer Change that layer to reference (R) Now we can t edit that layer, except by changing the original geometry
Shaping the bear Now let s move some polygons around to refine the bear s silhouette Select the proxy geometry Go into component mode with vertices displayed F9 Tweak the shape of the character using the proxy geometry Use the compass in the upper right of the perspective view to see your character from all different angles To toggle it: View > Camera Settings > View Compass
Four Views
Refining the bear Shading > Wireframe On Shaded to see more of the underlying geometry Try not to move the x translation value of the central line, otherwise it will mess with the line of the mirrored geometry and make holes Now we ll need more geometry to make the details of the bear First we ll define the tail, then the feet and hands
The Tail Select the vertex closest to the tail area, where the lower back splits into the legs Edit Mesh > Chamfer Vertex Change it so it makes a hexagon around the tail
Extrude the Tail Go to face mode F11 Extrude the tail twice along the side outline Be sure to delete the faces that are made between the original and the duplicate
Flatten the Feet The bear does not currently have flat feet, but he should Select the faces under the original foot Edit Mesh > Extrude Scale the faces a bit smaller in X and Z
Thumbs The hands will end up being simple, but he still needs thumbs In Object Mode, Zoom in on the hand Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool Then extrude the face to make a thumb
Refine the Head The most important part of the character is the face Unfortunately, this is a very artistic task, so I can really only demonstrate so much You will need to try it at home and practice with each tool The final character will be on the website for you to examine if you need it
Offset Edge Loop Tool This tool adds two edge loops along side an existing edge loop Edit Mesh > Offset Edge Loop Tool Click drag a horizontal edge at the top of the neck Release the mouse
Deleting Edges As you work, you may need to delete edges If you simply select and delete the edges, it will leave floating vertices Use the Select > Select Edge Loop Tool Then the Edit Mesh > Delete Edge/Vertex That will properly delete a whole edge loop
Marking Menus Using the regular menus is fine, but to speed up the task, you can use the Marking Menu Go to Edge Mode, Select an edge CTRL + RMB, this will bring up the polygonal marking menu There we have Edge Loop Utilities This will bring up a second marking menu related to edge loops
Edge Ring Select an edge on the neck Ctrl + RMB, Select Edge Ring Utilities Select To Edge Ring and Split This automatically selects the related edge ring and then splits those edges We split our character in half
Nose Loops Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool Insert Two more vertical edge loops on the nose of the character
Tweak the Head Vertices There is now much more geometry, so let s refine the head some more
Delete History Remove Proxy At this point, if you re working on a slow machine, Maya is going to start to slow down So let s delete the history This also makes adding additional geometry less complicated Edit > Delete All By Type > History Select the proxy and delete it Your now left with the underlying geometry
Refining Refinement We ve covered a lot about polygonal modeling, now we ll refine the bear some more We ll have to move much of it vertex by vertex, you should expect to do that on your model as well Split edges to define and refine different parts of the face, then extrude as needed Extrude out the ears, move many vertices around to form the shape of the eyes and nose Normals > Soften Edges
Tweak the Head Vertices
Merging the Model At this point, we could continue defining the bear, but we re going to call it final and move on, just so we don t take forever Delete the instanced geometry Select the body Mesh > Mirror Geometry > Options Mirror direction: +X The Geometry is mirrored and merged, we have one big mesh Edit > Delete all by type > History
Proportions An easy way to change the proportions of a model is using a lattice deformer Select the geometry Deform > Create Lattice In the Channel Box, with the lattice selected, change these: S Divisions: 5, T Divisions: 5, U Divisions: 3 Change the Box to make changes to the model
More Gut RMB > Lattice Point
Final Touches - Eyeball Find the right proportions and delete all the history again The body looks pretty decent now, but he needs eyes Create > NURBS Primitives > Sphere Rename the sphere to eyeball Rotate 90 on x, translate and scale to the right place
Eye Lid With the eyeball selected, Edit > Duplicate Special > Options Reset Settings Duplicate input: on, Duplicate Special Rename it to eyelid Rotate -90 on Y Scale so that it s slightly larger than the eyeball In the Channel box, highlight the input node, Change Start Sweep to 20, End Sweep to 340 We ll use this to make eye blinks Duplicate Special, Duplicate Input Graphs
Claws Create a NURBS cone primitive Radius:.2 Sections: 4 Spans: 2 Height Ratio: 10 Rename to claw1 Adjust the CVs to make the image to the right Duplicate to make all the other claws Group all of the claws you made for the left side Duplicate, Scale X: -1 to mirror
Conclusion We went over how to model a complete character Obviously it takes more time than we have in class to really get good details, just keep refining For your project, be sure to have some reference material, such as a real image or take photos The lattice deformer can help you in many instances, remember that one
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