Ok.
I've put this off for a long time, so
I've finally decided to sit down and
write a tutorial on modeling. After
going through tutorial after tutorial
on modeling in poly's/sub-d's, I've
come up with a workflow that works very
well for me and hopefully you too. My
co-workers jokingly call it "the Dave
Way" .
First
off you should have a side
and front
view of the object (sometimes top too,
but I don't need one in this case because
most of my detail can be defined in
the front and side). When creating these
pictures it's a good idea to use graphpaper
so that you can make sure your detail
is lined up horizontally.
Once
your pictures are drawn, scan them in
and save them as jpegs (it's a good
Idea to make them no larger than 400
pixels wide. The larger your images
are, the more memory they will take
up and it will slow your progress).
Then create a project directory in maya
and save your images in your source
images folder.
The
next thing you're going to want to do
is create 2 planes. One facing the front
view and one facing the side view. Create
a material for each of your drawings
and assign them to the appropriate plane.
Turn the transparency of the materials
down to about .5, then assign the 2
planes to a layer. Assigning them to
a layer will allow you to do 2 things...
1.)
it will allow you to reference the planes
so that you don't accidentally select
them while you are modeling
2.)
it will allow you to make them visible
and invisible at the click of a button.
Once
you have all that out of the way, you
are ready to start modeling.
Using
your create polygon tool
(located under polygons>create polygon
tool), draw a silhouette outline of
your picture in the side view. If you
misplace a point while placing them
down you can always hit the backspace
key to undo the point or press the insert
key to edit its placement.
After
you've created your polygon silhouette,
the next thing you're going to want
to do is subdivide it using your split
polygon tool (located under edit polygons>split
polygon tool). The trick to keep in
mind here is to follow the contours
of your drawing while keeping the amount
of subdivisions down to a minimum. The
more subdivisions you put in on this
step, the more points you will have
to move in the future. Keeping your
subdivisions low while placing them
in points of detail will make your modeling
go much smoother.
1.)
Start out by creating the contour that
defines your eye and cheek bone. You should
end it off at the bottom of the chin.
2.)
Then create a split in the opposite direction
that begins on the ridge of the nose,
goes through the center of the eye, and
ends in the back of the head.
3.)
Now is probably a good time to define
the jaw line. Take this split up through
the top of the head. When placing your
splits, try and stay half-way between
the two outer edges (this will create
a cleaner mesh in the end).
4.)
Next, define the line where the mouth
will be. Then bring it to the back of
the head (notice how I'm placing my edges
half-way between the outer edges).
5.)
Then split up the top of the head a little
by drawing an edge from front to back.
6.)
Define the lower edge of the brow by running
an edge from front to back.
7.)
Next define the snout by running an edge
from the nose to the bottom of the jaw.
8.)
Break up the neck a little by running
an edge half-way between your two outer
edges.
9.)
Next, define the outer radial of your
mouth by creating an edge that meets with
the corner of the mouth.
10.)
Finally... split up your mesh a little
more so that you have even spacing between
your edges..
(located under polygons>create polygon
tool), draw a silhouette outline of
your picture in the side view. If you
misplace a point while placing them
down you can always hit the backspace
key to undo the point or press the insert
key to edit its placement.
(located under edit polygons>split
polygon tool). The trick to keep in
mind here is to follow the contours
of your drawing while keeping the amount
of subdivisions down to a minimum. The
more subdivisions you put in on this
step, the more points you will have
to move in the future. Keeping your
subdivisions low while placing them
in points of detail will make your modeling
go much smoother.
