|
|
 |
|
Introducution to Polygonal Modeling Added on: Sun Aug 20 2000 |
| Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 |
Overview
Though this tutorial is aimed at intermediate to advanced 3D artists, who should know what a face (polygon) is and how to build one, I will still go through the basic steps with you.
When you begin creating the model you. ll be starting from scratch, no primitives which get extruded and shapes into objects will be used, you start with a 1 vertice and place another and another and another and then connect them up.
Though that may sound like a very tedious way of modeling when you could just create a sphere, collapse it into NURBS and pull away until you have what represents a blob with a partial face in it, using polygons will not only be efficient and effective but straight forward, what you see is what you get.
There are upsides and downsides to all techniques, I use NURBS, surface tools and other techniques at times, when it is necessary, but this technique usually is effective enough to get the job done without any hassles. One downside is that faces are planar, whereas NURBS and surface tools have splines which curve and bend a lot more effectively when it comes to organic models, and also don. t require as many faces to look round, but as I mentioned earlier, each modeling technique has it. s ups and downs.
Before beginning any model (apart from a soccer ball or cube) always sketch the model you are about to make out on paper. At least sketch the character in one stance, in larger projects or complex models it. s good to sketch the character in front and side views, sometimes break the object up into multiple pieces, doing the arm front and side and then the face front side and in several different expressions and so forth. For a helicopter you might break it down into the rotor blades, the door, the actual body, the tail and so forth.
It is important to get your visualization down on paper and use it for reference.
When actually modeling your character when you begin it. s a good idea to scan your sketches and output as bitmaps or tiffs that you can use in 3dsmax to trace over. Or else use splines as reference outlines to help visualize where the detail is to go. This will all be explained later on in detail. But it is good to have reference material when modeling such as photos or sketches or something to work with.
Getting Started
For this tutorial I am going to be modeling a full female body. At the time of writing this tutorial I did not have access to a scanner and therefore was unable to scan any images to trace over and use as reference material. This is an upside to you guys since you will get to witness another technique which helps visualize the model if you don. t have a scanner to scan your sketches.
Begin tracing the outside of the model, draw the legs the hips the head and arms and the rest of the body. Make it perfect to the shape you want it to be, now freeze the selection. This is going to be your reference spline which you will use to model over using it to guide you around the shapes and curves.
|
 |
|
|
