I
was inspiratated by Disney's cartoon
"Little Mermaid". My idea
was to create a vicious looking shark,
but also has a cartoonish look.
It
should have a small and compact body
so that at first sight you reckon
that he's a stout and strong fellow.
And inthe end it must look funny as
well.
To
model the Shark I used 3DStudioMax R3.
The Modeling technique is same I used
for SadMike.
I
started by assigning reference images
to the right and left views as well
as to the front view. These images
are going to be very helpful in the
modeling process. When you are importing
image as backgrounds always tick"fit
image"!
In
the right view draw a box over the bakground.
It's not to be wider or taller than
the shark. My Box had 6x4 segments and
2 side segments. This box will be one
half of the shark. Maybe in top view
the box does not fit the reference image
of the shark. Don't move the box - try
to rescale the background image so it
fits the box. After fitting, lock the
background so that when you move the
box the image goes with it.
You
might face a problem: My box had black
colored edges. That is because I have
white background in the reference
images. But by default MAX' setting
is white edges on selected object.
Thus you can't see them, when they
sit over the images. To solve this
go to Customize / Preferences / Colors
/ Main UI and under Selection pick
some dark color like black
Like
I said before the box is just one
half of the Shark. This is good because
we are going to clone this box as
an instance and mirror it. We will
work only on one half of the body
(box) - every time a change is made
on one half, it can be seen on the
otherone too. So the whole process
is cut to half.When I was satisfied
with the dimensions of the box I collapsed
it to an Editable Mesh.
Note:
The Shark or any other organic entity
is not perfectly symmetrical, so after
one half is completely modelled, connect
both halves to form one object and
then make some modification so the
model is not symmetrical in every
part.
And
another thing, before mirroring the
box delete faces on the side where
the mirror object is going to be.
Now
just jump to the top view. I began by
moving vertcies of the box so followingthe
shark-drawing's edges.
Note: leave Ignore Backfacing unchecked,
so when you select one vertex all vertices
below it are selected as well.
I
did the same thing for both the side
and the top view. In the making of of
SadMike I had reference images for only
one side so it was difficult to see
all dimensions of the model and modelling
was more done by feeling thanaccording
to the concept sketches. Here it's easy
because you know the exact dimensions
of your model.
Most
of the modelling was done in Perspective
viewport. Here you cannot see the reference
images, so I drew two planes, exactly
of the size of the reference images
in that view, one in top and one in
side view and assigned two materials
with the respective reference image
in the diffuse channel. Make sure that
you check "Show map in Viewport"
Now
you have helpers even in the perspective
view.
Note: hide the model while drawing
these planes - that makes it easier.
Unhide
the model to see if everything fits.
Now it's going to be difficult to model
with these planes in the way so move
them outside the model like on the image
below.
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After
some move-vertex-here-move-vertex-there-time
this is what the model looks like.
You can see some big difference from
the box. Most of work at this stage
was moving those vertices on the sharp
edges of the box to make some smooth surfaces
out of them.
The
whole thing about box modeling is
to work with as few vertices as you
can. Afterwards you apply a meshsmooth
modifier and get a nice smooth rounded
model.
Another
view of the model and moving those vertexes
to match the look you want. Reference
images in perspective view are just
to see what the model should look like.
You cannot see the exact place of the
fin because of the perspective, though.
To see the exact locations of parts
like the fins, eyes, etc. use top and
side views.
