Week 3

Character Modeling Continued

Continuing with the character mesh character last week, today the basic construction techniques of creating a hand were demonstrated. The useful bridge tool and its customisable settings were also introduced, particularly emphasizing the ability to add additional segments then adjust the taper settings to add bulges to bicep muscles for example. This is an extremely useful feature which can rapidly add definition to a character mesh however manual tweaking of the individual vertices is required for a more realistic and refined result.

Hand Modeling

Before starting the modeling process it is important to consider the actual physical appearance of a human hand so that vital features aren’t missed out. However the level of detail will depend on how realistic the end result is intended to be, a cartoon character for instance may have a totally smooth hand with only 3 fingers like in the well known program “The Simpsons”. Whereas a 3D render for a motion capture sequence of a CGI focused film would require modeling very specific details such as finger nails, wrinkles and creases in the palm of the hand.

Given these facts the more complex a mesh is the harder it becomes to animate, this is simply because a higher number of vertices are going to require intricate manipulation which can prove exceedingly difficult during the rigging stage and setting up the bone’s envelopes.

Using a hand mesh that was produced last year for the 3D Modeling & Animation unit, the basic modelling techniques will be described on how to model a human hand. Given the fact that the hand was modelled in rather specific detail based on my own hand it was occluded from last years assignment as it proved to difficult to sufficiently rig during the Ident animations based on my personal lack of animation skills. However since then I have learnt a great deal regarding the various animation processes as well as how to simplify meshes when needed.

To begin with a basic box primitive was created in the rough dimensions of a palm. This was then given numerous edge loops to provide the necessary number of polygons to then extrude four fingers and a thumb. The palm was then given further edges so the shape could be more refined by moving the vertices to create curved impressions. The thumb was then extruded and rotated slightly with each new extrusion to produce the angled appearance. A vertice on the top edge of thumb was also pulled upwards to represent the knuckle joint in the middle of the thumb.

Palm Shaping & Thumb Extrude

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The fingers were then extruded from selected groups of polygons on the front tip of the palm. Each finger was extruded multiple times and bevelled to roughly define the shape of each finger. Further detail was then implemented by scaling groups of edges and moving vertices separately to add extra definition especially concerning the knuckles and joints.

Finger Extrude/Bevel & Joint Shaping

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Lastly finger nails were created on each finger by insetting selected groups of polygons then bevelling them to produce a curved yet raised impression. The end vertices were also pulled outwards slightly to make the nails overhand the end of the fingers a small degree.

Finger Nail Inset & Bevel

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To finish the hand further edges were introduced to help add shape to the knuckle areas where each finger connects to the palm and give the hand more of an overall organic plumpness. Creases were created by inserting extra edges across the underside of the palm which were pulled inwards to produce linear impressions.

Adding Plumpness & Knuckle Detail

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Palm Crease – Edge Loop Depression

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Final Mesh Smoothed Hand

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Head Modeling

The last stage to complete the basic character mesh was to construct a primitive head starting with a cube object which was given several segments then converted to and editable poly. A “Spherify” modifier was then applied which basically automatically alters the shape of the selected object to produce a rounded result based on the existing number of polygons, unlike Mesh Smooth or Turbo Smooth modifiers for example which add a vast number of additional edge loops to create a smoothed effect. Several edge loops were then inserted as necessary using the edge ring & connect combination, this provided additional edges to roughly sculpt out a basic head shape.

Spherized Cube	Rough Head Shape

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This process was repeated until the main features of the head could be created including chin, forehead neck and eye sockets. Several edge rings were created in a circular positioning for the eyes areas. Polygons amongst the centre of the eye area were extruded inwards to create a basic eye socket. Further edges were inserted surrounding the nose and mouth area to formulate a smooth surrounding edge flow.

The last step involved producing the nose and lips which were merely created by pulling out selected edge rings to create basic definition as needed. The eye lids were fashioned using the same technique expect a higher number of edge loops were used to created a raised ridge effect surrounding the eye. The eyes were created from basic sphere objects which were centred in either eye socket.

Basic Head Features	Eyes, Nose & Mouth	Smoothed

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The eyes and head were then grouped and attached to the original character mesh, which required scaling down in addition to slight vertice adjustment around the neck of the Shirt object so that the head did not clip through the surface of the body.

Merged Head & Hands with Character Mesh