3D Animation Modelling Organic Objects
3D Animation About the author Catherine Grundy is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton for the Computing, Mathematics and Information Sciences department, teaching Web Design principles. She previously taught at the University of Westminster and was course leader of an MA in Computer Games Graphics. Primary research interests have been directed towards Human Computer Interaction and studies in perception for art and design disciplines. She has also been academic leader for a knowledge transfer partnership with a leading London-based Design Consultancy. This is a high profile, government funded research activity linking academia with industry. She has also gained funding for the development of a web-based interactive gallery illustrating visual communication techniques and how they can improve usability. Product Manager: Stuart Gibson Design & Layout: Paul Monan Published by: ICS Ltd First Floor Skypark 5 45 Finnieston St Glasgow G3 8JU www.icslearn.co.uk Version 1 2
Modelling Organic Objects Learning Outcomes On completion of this study unit you will be able to: Add an Edit-Poly modifier to allow access to a model s sub-objects i.e. vertices, edges, borders, polygons and elements Describe the benefits of trying to maintain a low polygon count and some common techniques for achieving it Adapt basic primitives using extruding, bevelling and chamfering techniques Create more detail in a mesh using slice, cut and other methods Apply a sub-dividing surfaces modifier, e.g. MeshSmooth to create flowing organic forms Use box-modelling methods to create a character. 3
3D Animation Course Route Map STUDY PERIOD 1 40374A Background and Basic Principles of Animation 40374B Creating Basic Models 40374C Key Frame Animation STUDY PERIOD 2 40374D Materials, Cameras, Lighting & Rendering Modelling Organic Objects STUDY PERIOD 3 40374F Animating a Character 40374G Advanced Animation Techniques 4
Modelling Organic Objects Contents Introduction 7 1 Sub-object Modelling 9 Creating more detail Modelling efficiently and Poly Count Subdividing Surfaces 2 Character Design 21 Use Soft Selection Using Slice Plane Non-uniform Scale Chanfering Using Ignore Back Facing Other Character Features Formative Assessment 5 40374/05 39 Bibliography 41 5
3D Animation 6
Modelling Organic Objects Introduction Most people interested in animation would like to apply the principles we have learned in previous units to characters with a personality, besides simple still life objects and environments. But how do we create the necessary smooth organic forms without years of modelling experience? This Unit discusses Mesh Modelling, a method particularly suitable and accessible for our purposes, though it will take some practice to get used to. The process allows us to create a flexible range of models from basic primitives by manipulating the primitive s sub-objects. Sub-objects are the points, lines and contours that make up the form of the geometry. You will be surprised at the creativity you can express with such a simple medium to begin with. We should stress that there are many other ways of creating characters and some are better for different purposes than others, but for our needs using mesh modelling is a great starting point. 7
3D Animation 8
Modelling Organic Objects 1 Sub-object Modelling One of the best ways to create organic forms for animation purposes is to use a kind of mesh to create the geometry. There are others, but they are beyond the scope of this course. For more information about character modelling, you would need to consult an in-depth text like Modelling a Character in 3DS Max by Paul Steed. The characteristic of mesh models is that they consist of many flat surfaces joined together to represent the forms we are creating. Starting with simple primitives, you can access a series of sub-object types, which are elements of the geometry we can manipulate. We can, for example select Vertices, which are points that make up the mesh and Edges which are the lines between the vertices, and move, cut and edit them in a variety of ways. We can also take Polygons, the flat surfaces between the points, and extrude or bevel them to create new elements of form. This makes using meshes to create geometry a very flexible method. It should be stressed that there are many more ways to create models for animation, but they require more study than we can devote time to here - Mesh Models are a great place to start. In the past this type of modelling was best accessed using the Edit Mesh modifier (or in some cases converting a model to an editable mesh). However the Edit Poly method has superseded it because it has more useful sub-objects. The elements consist of Vertices, Edges, Polygons, Border and Elements in turn. One of the important new features of Edit Poly is the new sub-object Border. To demonstrate how these are used, and the other sub-objects we will do a quick exercise: 9
3D Animation Activity 1 Experimenting with sub-objects Draw a box in any viewport with 3 segments each direction Add an Edit Poly modifier and click on the modifier to roll out its sub-objects Select Vertex by clicking the name, or pressing the button lower down in the roll out that looks like three small points. (you can also press 1 on the keypad) Note the blue points appearing and click on the top right vertex in Top view to turn it red, drag it upwards Select the edge sub-object, (or press 2) pick on an edge of the cube and move it again Choose polygon, (press 4) click on the central square in the Top view, it should highlight red, and delete it A polygon selected on the box 10
Modelling Organic Objects Select the Border sub-object (press 3) and select the edge around the hole left by the polygon. Note 1: Among other features, the Edit mesh modelling method did not have the Border object which is a very useful feature. Often we are left with gaps in a mesh when working and this allows us to make rapid repairs. Note 2: You can convert geometry to an Editable Poly by right clicking and choosing it from the Quad menu instead of adding an Edit Poly modifier. This collapses the stack and removes all the other edits in the stack history. The drawback with this is that you cannot go back and delete the modifier itself or change any earlier parameters in the stack. It is not advisable to convert it while you may need to change to the geometry. However, a collapsed stack does mean that the file is smaller and better for use in an animation. The ideal thing is to keep your original file, in case of later changes, copy it and then use a collapsed stack version to make the movie. 11
3D Animation Activity 2 Extrude and Bevel To demonstrate how new forms can be created from a simple box, we will do another quick exercise: Click a polygon in the top row in top view Click on the button that has a small box with a black line above it next to the word Bevel In the dialogue box that appears, click the By Polygon radio button Add a height of 30 in the entry box and an Outline amount of 5, press Apply The Outline amount defines how far inside the original polygon the new end polygon will be Select any polygon in the bottom row in top view (except the one you deleted) Press the extrude button from the rollout Click and drag upwards in Front view to set the extrude amount interactively. You can see that quite quickly our model changes using these new methods. Besides Bevel and Extrude, chamfering is another editing option that can be particularly useful on the Edit Poly rollout. For some quick practice at all of these we will consult your textbook. 12
Modelling Organic Objects Video Edit Poly techniques For a better understanding of the edit poly modelling process watch your video Edit Poly.avi on your CD for this unit. Reading Chamfering, Bevel and Extrude objects For some experience at working with sub-objects to edit a model, consult 3DS Max Revealed, by Dutton and Doran, pages 3-30 to 3-43 and do the relevant exercises. Creating More Detail So far we have used existing sub-objects and created new forms from them, but sometimes we would like to have more sub-objects, like vertices or polygons, in a specific area so that we can add more detail (in effect a more dense mesh). This may be because there is a need to add more refined features on this part of the model, for example adding vertices to make the profile of an arm rounder. There are several methods for achieving this aim, including: We can add vertices along edges We can use a slicing method that literally slices the model in half using a plane through a defined point and forms a new set of vertices and edges according, or use Quick Slice that achieves this more interactively We can use the Cut tool to divide edges or polygons in a relatively ad hoc way We can also use the Connect tool to add more edges. We will use all of these at appropriate points in our exercises. 13
3D Animation The illustration shows the top polygon on a low poly model of a fish which has been cut into two to make a fin. We will do this exercise shortly. Reading More Editable Poly options There is a useful summary which includes more of the tools available for modifying the mesh for Editable Poly, including the Cut tool and slicing methods in your textbook Harnessing 3DS Max by Ross and Bousquet. This is on page 220 to 232. We will experiment with some of these tools shortly so make sure you are aware of their function. Modelling Efficiently and Poly Count The great advantage of either mesh method is that the creator has full control over the number of polygons that are being created. You can have a dense mesh with many polygons or a low-density mesh depending on the detail required for your object. You may remember that polygon count will affect the rendering times quite dramatically and, for animation purposes, we should be as economical as possible with the number, to speed up the process. You should have had a taste in the last Unit of just how long it can take to render an animation at production quality. However sometimes models with reduced numbers of polygons can have a jagged appearance. This might be OK for distant objects but not for central characters, so how do we make them look convincingly smooth? The answer is that we add a second modifier which subdivides the surface, called a MeshSmooth modifier that will effectively round off our shapes and make them look truly organic. 14
Modelling Organic Objects Subdividing Surfaces Subdividing surfaces is the software s way of smoothing off the corners of the model applied via the MeshSmooth modifier (and also the TurboSmooth modifer). If the vertices define the end points of the polygon; the midpoint between the two vertices is the point chosen for chopping off the corner, when one subdivision is chosen. The model is rounded off using this calculation. The top line of the illustration shows the two mid points and the corner being effectively chamfered off. The software calculates and divides the surfaces again when two iterations are chosen. The bottom line of the illustration shows the result. Eventually the model becomes quite smooth when this process is applied to the edges of all of its polygons. We should not choose more than 2 iterations, however, because it will slow the programme down considerably and will not be useful for animation. Thus we can have a low poly model for background scenes, and a MeshSmooth version in the foreground where we need to see more detail. The image above shows a MeshSmooth applied to a simple cube with 1 segment in each direction. The left-hand version shows one iteration, the right-hand one, two iterations. Note in the illustration below, the effect of adding a small extrusion to one side of the cube. The curve is interpreted between the two closer parallel edges. Because the distance between the midpoints is much smaller, the effect of the MeshSmooth is to create a relatively flat edge with a slight curve into the rest of the object. 15
3D Animation The significance of this is difficult to grasp at first, but actually is the key to understanding how to make models using this technique. The best way to let this sink in is by practising. We will apply this to make a fish in Edit Poly and make it smooth. Activity 3 Practice with sub-object editing - make a fish In the next activity we will get some experience with Box modelling, where we work with sub-objects to make a simple organic form. This initially consists of moving vertices around, which is one of the more typical activities for this type of modelling, but takes some practice, and also using the Cut and Connect tools. We will also have more practice at understanding how Extruding and Bevelling shapes influences the calculations made by the MeshSmooth operator to make a shape. First of all make a box, with 3 segments in each direction and centre it in the world Add an Edit Poly modifier and click on it to reveal the sub-objects Click on the word Vertex or press 1, or the vertex button In the Top view, drag a Selection area over all the points in the top-left-hand area of the box. Make sure that Ignore back facing is not selected with a tick in the rollout of the command panel. Although in the top view, the selection might just look like one point, it should also include a row of points vertically down from the top-right corner of the box. You should see them in the other views. 16
Modelling Organic Objects Use the move tool to drag them all downwards slightly in the Top view. Repeat this process at the top right to make a rounder looking front profile for the fish shown in the top-left picture below. Also move vertices on the tail until it looks like the picture. See if you can use a similar procedure to move vertices in the Left view until it looks like the bottom-left view below. Finally make the form rounder in the Front view. Note: it is always important to deselect your sub-object and come out of sub-object editing mode, when you have finished an action, by clicking on the word again, to turn it grey. Otherwise you can t select other objects and the results may be confusing. Add a MeshSmooth modifier. You can use the Show End Result toggle button to switch it on and off as you wish to see the results of your actions. To make the head rounder: It would be ideal to have more detail, so we will practice with the Connect tool, to create some. 17
3D Animation In edge sub-object mode, choose the two edges shown Press the Connect button in the rollout panel. You should get the dialogue shown below. Choose 2 segments and click OK. The results are shown in the top view to the left. Now you can move the edges in the Left view to make the form rounder at that point. Now we will make a top fin On the top view select the large polygon on the top as shown in the illustration below Choose the Cut tool from the rollout Move the mouse over the left edge of the highlighted polygon, and click when you see the knife tool appear as the cursor. Drag over to the right-hand edge of the polygon and click again when you see the knife. Right click to stop cutting and toggle the Cut button off again If you deselect the currently selected polygons and click just on the top area, you should see that it has divided into two 18
Modelling Organic Objects Choose the Bevel tool dialogue box, that you used before, and add a height of 10 with an outline of 3 We use the same technique to create a side fin, but this requires more understanding of the process (nb the illustration shows a smooth version of the fish, we will learn how to make it look this way shortly). Choose the side polygon, and divide it using the Cut tool that you used before. Make one small bevel of height 3, outline 3, to make the starting point for the fin narrower. Then add a small extrude of height 2, to make a stem for the fin. Add a further bevel of 10, and outline of 5. This makes it diverge outwards again, in a finlike fashion. Finally we extrude it for a small height of 2 to make it stay fanned out. 19
3D Animation Video Using sub-objects For a better understanding of this exercise, watch the video Fish Sub-object.avi on the CD for this unit. Reading Create and connect vertices We have spent some time looking at how we make more detail within our mesh, this usually involves dividing and cutting sub-objects. However, it is also useful to know how we Weld and Bridge our sub-objects together too. Lesson 6 of your textbook by Dutton and Doran, which starts on page 3-56 will cover sub-object editing from both perspectives. 20
Modelling Organic Objects 2 Character Design There are two aspects to consider, when embarking on the creation of characters for an animation. First of all the question is: What makes a good character? This is not just about its personality but how can we make the stars of our movie have a striking and convincing profile. Secondly, how do we translate those features into geometry that will animate well in the 3DS Max environment? There are some reading exercises below that explore both of these considerations in more detail. When creating the geometry to use as an animated character, there are some important facts you should remember. In particular: We need to make our figure using a neutral pose so that it will be easier when we come to rig our model for animation. The alien above illustrates the positioning (referred to as a T-Pose). We should use Edge loops, which are contours around the critical areas of our model that allow it to deform when it is moving. The contours around the model should be evenly spaced, on the whole, to help when we come to skinning during the animation process. However, the model will need to have areas of denser mesh for important areas of detail, such as around the mouth or eyes. The textbook explains these in more detail. Reading What makes a good character design? There is an excellent section on things you should consider when designing your character in your textbook, Professional short films with 3DS Max by Neuhahn and Book. It starts on page 28 and continues until page 38. 21
3D Animation Reading Getting the model ready for animation Exploring 3D animation with 3DS Max by Steven Till has a short explanatory section on preparing models, starting on page 57 up to page 62. Now you will use some Edit Poly methods to start creating characters for yourself. We will start with a small part to begin with, the hand. Activity 4 Create a hand Create a box with length 40, width 50 and height 8 Use 7 segments in the width, 3 in the length and 1 in the height Add the Edit Poly modifier Choose the Edge sub-object and use a selection area in the Top view, to select the top and bottom set of edges on the right-hand side. Ensure that there is no tick in the ignore backfacing box of the Selection rollout. Drag them to the position shown. Repeat this with the other edges until it looks like the illustration 22
Modelling Organic Objects In perspective view, click the polygon on the front part of the box that will represent the little finger Extrude to a height of 8 Add a small extrusion that will form a joint, of 2 Extrude the next part of the finger, a height of 8 again Followed by another joint of 2 And a final 8 mm section of finger Repeat this process for the other fingers For the thumb, select the polygon at the bottom corner of the palm Extrude it 8, 8,2,8 Use a selection area to select the thumb polygons Switch off Use Soft Selection in the Soft Selection rollout if necessary (the image shows it switched on) Rotate the polygons and move them in turn until the thumb looks like the picture. 23
3D Animation Leave sub-object mode for a moment Add the MeshSmooth modifier Use the Vertex sub-object, drag and select the corner vertices, move vertices and refine the overall shape of the hand Switch the Show end result button on to see the results of your work more clearly. You can modify the overall proportions, if you decide they are not correct, using the Non-uniform scale transform or the Xform modifier. You can also add a bend modifier to make the hand less flat, or pull vertices to make a palm area. 24
Modelling Organic Objects Video Make a hand For a better understanding of this exercise, watch the video Hand.avi on the CD for this unit. Activity 5 Create an alien character We should stress at this point that there are several ways to go about making the body of a character using an editable Poly mesh. The following method is not the quickest. However, it will take you through some of the important features of mesh modelling to practice them. Warning: it is really easy to make mistakes along the way, so save your model frequently. You don t want to have to repeat everything again. Creating the torso: From the create menu, choose box and, starting in the Top view, make it 50 in length, 50 wide and 100 high Ensure that there are 3 segments in each direction to work with 25
3D Animation Centre it in the world by right clicking the Move dialogue spinners. Add an Edit Poly modifier to the box Turn on sub-object editing, by clicking on the plus sign in the modifier stack and choose Vertex from the list, you can also press 1 on the keyboard or press the button further down the rollout that looks like a series of stars. Ensure that you do not have the Ignore Backfacing box ticked because some vertices will not be selected during the next step if you do Drag to select the middle two vertices at the front of the box (these will be at the bottom of the square in the Top view) Move the vertices down to make the form rounder Rotate your model, using Arc rotate in the Perspective view to check the result Move the corner vertices in so that the shape is less square to begin with too. Make a neck Choose the polygon in the centre of the top face in Top view. Toggle on the Extrude button, right click in the Front view and pull up from the top surface to interactively set the extrude height until it looks approximately like the illustration below. 26
Modelling Organic Objects Using Slice Plane To use our mirroring technique we need to cut the model in half. So far, to make it easier to extrude a neck we used an odd number of segments. Sometimes if we use an even number and extrude two polygons they will separate with the Mesh modifier and create two necks. There are remedies for this, but it s easier this way. We now need to add a central line of vertices so that we can cut the model in half Drag to select all of the polygons in the model to be sure In the Edit Geometry rollout toggle the Slice plane button on The plane appears, but is in the wrong axis Choose top view and right click the Rotate tool, rotate it 90 degrees in the Y axis Press Slice Deselect the Polygons before you exit this mode (always good practice to do this otherwise occasionally you will get odd effects) Now if you return to Vertex sub-object mode you should see the new line of vertices Drag to select the right-hand half of the model vertices and delete them Come out of sub-object level editing. 27
3D Animation Using the mirror modifier We need to make our model totally symmetrical and to do this we add a mirror modifier. At the top of the stack, choose Mirror from the modifier pull-down. In the options, click the Copy box and with View coordinates the current system, choose X as the mirror axis. Add a MeshSmooth modifier Come out of the sub-object mode and apply a Mesh Smooth modifier on the top Toggle on the Show end result button. Note: Sometimes you may wonder why you can t see both halves of your model even when the show end result button is toggled on or you seem to be working above the Edit Poly modifier in the stack. This is usually because one of the sub-objects is still active. It s important to always deselect your sub-object. Go into Edit Poly and check that none of them are highlighted to see both halves. 28
Modelling Organic Objects Non-Uniform Scale We will make the bottom of the torso narrower. In the Front View select the bottom row of vertices Choose the non-uniform scale button and using the central triangle drag to make the lower part of the torso narrower Move the left-hand vertices to the right towards the central axis of the model, to make sure that there is no gap down the centre Repeat the action with both of the bottom rows selected to make the shape more realistic. Chamfering Select the Edge sub-object In Front view drag a selection area over the top-left-hand corner of the torso to select the edges shown in the illustration below In the Edit Edges rollout area, toggle on Chamfer In the Back view (right click to change the view) drag to interactively add a chamfer to the edge to round off the torso Toggle on Show end result to check you are happy with the result Reduce the width of the torso by selecting the back and front vertices (avoiding the neck area) and moving them until you are happy with the shape. 29
3D Animation Making Arms: Adding new vertices Go to edge sub-object mode. Select the top edge as shown Select Insert vertex and click in the centre of the edge. Go to vertex sub-object mode and move two vertices on either side of it down, to make the arm rounder (if you move the new vertex up, the shape will be correct but it will be higher than the level of the torso) Add another vertex in the same way to the lower edge of the same polygon and move that down to make a rounder shape for the arm socket. Using Ignore Back facing The arm socket is a bit small, your arm might be a bit spindly Switch on Ignore Back Facing in the rollout and drag to select the points shown and pull them down slightly You should find that no other vertices are selected. Using Bevel Make a small Bevel (an extrusion that narrows) to make a flexible shoulder. Use the dialogue and enter a height of 2.0, outline 1. Now make another small Bevel with a height of 2 and an outline of -1 to form the second part of the joint 30
Modelling Organic Objects Move the end polygon down slightly as in the illustration Make a Bevel for the upper arm, make this height 20 with an outline of 1 Move the polygon down again, but note that by now it is in the wrong orientation. Use the Rotate tool to make the polygon perpendicular to the extrusion. We will now make an elbow joint with a couple of small extrusions with a height of 2. Alternatively you could make this bulge using a positive bevel for the first part. See if you can do this. Make a Bevel for the lower arm height 20, outline 2. 31
3D Animation Video Make an alien torso For a better understanding of this exercise, watch the video Torso.avi on the CD for this unit. Reading Making a torso Note that your textbook Dutton and Doran has another version of making a torso that you can go through for practice. This is in Chapter 3 and starts on Page 3-82. 32
Modelling Organic Objects Test Understanding With the Polygon shown in the illustration selected, make a leg using the same extruding and bevelling methods we used for the arm. Don t worry if it doesn t look perfectly proportioned, it s an alien leg anyway remember! Make a Foot To save time I used the hand model and adapted it to make a foot like object, I deleted some of the thumb vertices, leaving the ones remaining as shown, and then I moved the last vertex to line up with the foot. Then I moved the joint vertices up as shown. Finally I selected the border around the deleted thumb part and used the Cap tool to fill it in again. 33
3D Animation Adding Hands and Feet If you open up your file alienwithhands.max you will notice that I have merged the hand file we created earlier, I have rescaled the hand using uniform scale and positioned it on the end of the arm. Then I mirrored it to make the other hand. I haven t actually joined the separate geometry together. I can make them move together for animation purposes anyway. We will review this in the next unit. Making a head To make a head that allows animated speech and a range of expressions takes quite a lot of modelling experience, and it is unfortunately beyond the scope of the course. Ideally you would model an excellent head separately and then join it onto the body. There is an example in your textbook. Reading Make a head In your book Harnessing 3DS Max, by Ross and Bousquet, there is an example in Chapter 9 of how to use Paint Deformation and TurboSmooth to make a head, but it uses advanced modelling techniques. It is on page 656. You might want to do further investigation and read the relevant sections to enable you to understand more. However, it is not compulsory for this course. We will make a two-headed alien using a more simple method. Take the polygon that forms the neck and bevel it outwards with a height of 3 and an outline of 3. Then extrude it upwards for a height of 20. Drag the poly to the left in top view so that the two heads separate slightly Adjust the vertices so that the heads are wider in front view. In the final version, I merged the eyes we animated earlier too and added a hemisphere for an eyelid. Note: the mirror in this case has the effect of duplicating the geometry separately once the MeshSmooth is applied. This is why we extruded our neck first. If you only want one simple head it is a good idea to do it early on if not first of all in the process for this reason. 34
Modelling Organic Objects Reading Using reference pictures As we have seen, a good approach to starting the character design process is to sketch out ideas. It can help to import your sketches as backgrounds to use as a template for making your models. This can help you to map out the main features with guidance. Page 659 of Harnessing 3DS Max by Ross and Bousquet gives you some tips about how to generate the Image Planes to add your reference images to. There is also a different example of generating a character that will give more information about the process. Reading Character Modelling The 3DS max 9 tutorials on the help menu contain a useful example of modelling a more realistic, human-like character with clothes on. Go to Help-Tutorials on the top menu and click to open the Modelling folder. Click on Modeling a Low-Poly Character and follow the instructions. Other Character Features We have considered how we make the basic anatomy for a character body. However there are other features, like eyes, teeth, hair and clothing which can make a figure all the more realistic. Eyes: You had experience of forming a realistic eyeball with textures in unit 4. You can add an eyelid to the eyeball by adding a secondary sphere of slightly greater radius and then cutting it in half. You may remember that you can do this by making it a hemisphere, or using the slice feature in the sphere rollout. To animate the eye blinking, refer back to the reading exercise we did in Unit 2. (Chapter 6, Lesson 1, starting on page 1-14 of your textbook, 3DS Max Revealed by Dutton and Doran.) We covered this when we considered the kind of elements we could animate, and the number of segments, or the slicing of the sphere is one of the properties that we can change over time. Teeth: You can use basic geometric primitives to create a set of teeth. You could for example start with a basic rectangular shape, with a few segments and add a mesh smooth. Don t forget the array tool if you want to make a row of several, and use the scale 35
3D Animation transformation within the array dialogue box to decrease or increase the size as they appear. You can even create an array along a path to make them follow the jawbone. Hair and cloth 3DS Max has some special tools to create lifelike hair and clothing objects for your character. These are beyond the remit for our course. However, if you want to learn more about them, there are a series of tutorials available that ship with 3DS Max on the subject. When you open up the Tutorials from the Help menu, Hair and Cloth is one of the main menu categories. You can work through the examples as you wish. There are several different ways to make sure that your separate features will follow your animation. In some cases you can attach the meshes to each other using the Attach command in the rollout for the Edit Poly modifier. You could also simply link them to parts of the mesh or use a follow constraint. However, in the next Section we will cover a simpler way when we include the separate hands in our animation of our torso. 36
Modelling Organic Objects! Key Learning Points Mesh modelling allows us to work with the sub-objects of simple primitives to create relatively complex shapes from them. The Edit Poly method provides us with Vertices, Edges, Polygons, Borders, and Elements to work with; it has added features compared with Edit Mesh, which it has superseded. Edit Poly can be added as a modifier, or alternatively, our models can be collapsed to an Editable Poly mesh. It is better to adopt the first procedure, to keep the modifier stack while we work, and then duplicate and collapse the model to make it suitable for animating. When it is collapsed it has a smaller file size and will take less computer power to animate and render. We can add extra detail to parts of our geometry. This may be to create particular features like a fish s fin, or where the mesh of a character needs to deform during an animation like at a knee joint. This can be done with a variety of editing tools, including Cut, Slice etc. We need to create models that are economical in terms of their use of Polygons to make the animation process efficient. We can add smoothness and convincing organic curves using added modifiers like MeshSmooth. It is ideal to create an outline for our characters before we begin modelling. We should consider character creation as part of the story development. We can subsequently use our sketches as reference material within 3DS Max, using Image planes, to get the model correctly proportioned. There are some principles we should follow when creating geometry for our characters, that will allow us to rig and animate them more effectively. These should influence the posing of our model and the density and distribution of the mesh that we create. 37
3D Animation 38
Modelling Organic Objects Formative Assessment 5 40374/05 Sub-Object Editing 1 Which of the following is not a sub-object for the Edit Poly modifier? a b c d Border Face Vertex Edge 2 If you want to divide a model in half which is the preferred method? a b c d Cut tool Connect tool Slice tool Add Vertex button 3 If you want to subdivide a single polygon so that you have a smaller area to work with, what is the best tool to use? a b c d Cut Connect Slice Bevel 4 Which tool can be used to make new forms or geometry from an existing polygon? a b c d Bevel Extrude Chamfer All of the above 5 What is the best way to make a smooth organic form from a low polygon model? a b c d Add more vertices Add Edit Polygon modifier Add a subdivide surfaces modifier Add a chamfer to the edges. 39
3D Animation 6 How can we ensure that a character model is ready for animating? a b c d It should be in a neutral pose We should have extra loops (connected edges forming contours) around the knees and other joints where the model deforms Where possible, square polygons should be used to keep the grid uniform All of the above 7 To create a symmetrical torso for our characters we should: a b c d Use a background reference image Use bevel and extrude on the same settings for both sides of the model Cut the model in half and add a Mirror modifier Make sure we have the same number of polygons It s very straightforward to complete this Test Paper online by logging on to the ICS Student Community at www.icslearn.co.uk. From here you will be able to submit your answers and see your results straight away helping you progress faster through your course. For detailed instructions on using this service, please refer to your Getting Started Unit contained within your course materials. If you do not have access to a computer please call 0870 9000 381 to request answer cards so that you can post your answers to ICS. Now send your answers to ICS. 40
Modelling Organic Objects Bibliography Kalwick, David, 3DS Max 6, A Real World Approach, Charles River Media Maestri, George, Digital Character Animation Volume 1, Essential Techniques, New Riders Walker, Chad and Eric, Game Modelling Using Low Polygon Techniques, Charles River Media 41
3D Animation For Your Notes 42
Modelling Organic Objects For Your Notes 43
Copyright 2007 International Correspondence Schools Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form, by photocopying or any other means without the permission of ICS Ltd.