This is a Detail-up modeling technique.
Detail-up implies specifically detailing geometry for defined regions, then
building them together to form one full mesh.
The term form-down implies
beginning with general forms and then working details into this by slicing or
extruding extra geometry. Of course, both techniques work great together,
as well as with other techniques such as splines
The
Task at Hand...
is
a head. And not one of those slick, young catwalk heads with nothing but cheekbone
to model. No, we’re diving headfirst in the deep-end. I found this interesting
profile in a magazine and painted a gestural of it in Photoshop. As you can see,
it offers all of those intimidating organic elements that you might not look forward
to if you haven’t modeled them before: flesh, veins and wrinkles. After this
tutorial, you’ll be modeling Cindy Crawford with wrinkles. It’s that
much fun.
Preparation.
I like to add bold hatch marks to highlight the more prominent features.
This helps to get a quick grip on the contours while modeling. Save and open Lightwave’s
modeler.
Open
the display panel (d) and select the z-axis panel under ’backdrop’.
It’s default position is BR, or bottom right. Load the profile of our character-in-waiting
under the image panel, crank the resolution up to at least 512 and reduce both
brightness and contrast so that the white points and polygons don’t disappear
against the image. You can also set the size of the image and model in scale,
or scale afterward.
It’s
also a good idea to save these presets for future sessions, particularly if you’ve
setup numerous view ports with imagery.
Note:
key-jumping your views Use the numeric keypad (1 - 9) to quickly jump
between preset display configurations. Holding the Contol key down while pressing
a numeric opens the configuration setup window (above). Use this to assign shortcut
attributes to the active key. (Make sure numeric lock is activated.)
Volume.
Again: there are basically two approaches to modeling an organic figure,
with no clear line dividing the two: form-down and detail-up. Both go hand-in-hand
though, in modeling and in prepartation to model. I often build my whole model
quickly as a cartoonish volume study, then pack it in a background layer to help
keep me on track.
If
you’ve ever sculpted with clay you’ll be familiar with the following
process: add material, work it into the model and then add detail. Well, I
do the same thing in in 3D.
An
earful!
Let’s start with the hardest task of all:
the ear.
First
we need material: I’ve started with a flat cone, then deleted the innermost
polys.
Now
spread the material out to follow the outer rim of the ear. Have the move, drag
and rotate tools at hand (know the shortcuts). If I need more material I knife
a row and then tweak the new vectors.
It
may not look it, but half the battle is over. I’ve now skillfully and adeptly
built a hole! If I manage to fill it up, I’ll have my model!
I
decide on a prominent contour running horizontally through the center of the ear
and create a polygon 'bridge' by selecting the points in sequence and creating
a polygon [p]. I do this twice to create two adjacent polygons.
Then
I knife [k] and tweak [ctrl t] these ‘bridge’ polygons to create enough
geometry to follow the contour.
3DTotal
Advertisement - We need your support!
I
also begin resolving the depth of the geometry, as I want to make sure there’s
enough geometry for the lip of the ear.
Tada!
Now we have two holes instead of one and the process starts all over again.
Well, that's about it!
You’ve
gotten this far, you’ll do fine with the rest. Have fun! Go on!
Oh
alright, I’ll show you how I continued - but the groundwork has already been
laid out: find the contours and add sufficient material (i.e. polygons). This
leaves holes, which you bridge with more material, which you lay out along the
contours, which makes more holes. Until there are no more holes...
