The basic process, work flow, that
I am going to use here while building
this character is Nurbs to Polys to
SubDs. To give you the dirty low down...
I build the character roughly in nurbs
first. Why do I do this? Because this
gives me clean geometry when I convert
to polys. Why do I convert to polys?
Because I can add in localized detail
much easier. So, what about the SubD's?
I convert to SubD's because they are
the best of both worlds. Basically
they allow me to have a nice smooth
character that will deform well when
I go to animate.
Creating
the Control Cube
There are two things I do before I
dig into the character. I build a
CONTROL CUBE and I put in character
references.
What
is a control Cube? Well, just that.
It is a cube with an added attribute
to control the transparency of the
default shader. This makes it easier
to match up your model to your character
sketch. When every you make an object
in Maya it gets assigned the default
shader. So, this little cube will
control the transparency of just that
material. The process is easy.
1.
Make a polycube rename it Control
Cube and delete its history
2. Nav. to Windows__/General Editors__/Channel
Control
3. move all the Keyable controls to
Non Keyable.
4.
Now you have a nice clean Channel Box
for your Control CUBE
5.
Nav. to Modify__/Add Attribute
6. Name = Transparency;
Data Type = Float;
Numeric Att. Prop. Min = 0 Max =10 Def.=
0
You
will now notice that in the Channel
Box we have a transparency attribute
w/o all that other junk.
Lets
get this working with the shader now.
To do this we need to use a set driven
key that is linked b/w the control CUBEs
Transparency attribute and the transparency
of the default shaders transparency.
Easy enough!
1.(Animation)
Nav to Animate__/Set Driven Key__/Set
(options)
2. Load Driver = Control Cube; Load
Driven = Default Shader
(To
load the default shader you need to
go to your hypershade
and select Lambert 1 then hit Load
Driven. The attributes you are going
to control will be the transparency
RGB.)
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In
the set driven key box hit KEY at
the following.
3.Control
CUBE Trans = 0 Set Def. Shader trans
to 0.
4.Control CUBE Trans = 10 Set Def.
Shader trans to 1.
(When
the Transparency attribute is set
to 0 the labert1 transparency has
no transparency. When the Transparency
attribute is set to 10 we go in and
change the lambert1's transparency
all the way up then we set a key.)
You
should get the following result
Now
that we have the control CUBE made we
will be able to control the transparency
of our default texture with ease.
Making the Character Reference
Most
of the time people model characters
they like to have a reference to model
by. Some use an image plane I on the
other hand like to map an image to
a polyplane. I do this for two reasons.
1.
I can put the plane on a layer which
gives me layer options.
2. I think it is much easier to move
a plane.
Now
that I have my Control Cube and my reference
plane in I am ready to start modeling
the character.
