[Lunatique]

I've been modelling a prototype female, and this is what I have so far. She still needs some tweaking, but the hard parts are all done. I don't like ultra-realism too much, so I tried to stylize her so that she's more idealized than realistic(I used Wing3D and Maya for this one. She's a polygon model). I also made her bones and muscles more pronounced than a normal person, because I wanted to make sure that down the line, my topology and deformations will be where I want them (I could always take things down a notch if need to.)

Sitting ten feet away from Steven Stalhberg everyday definitely made a difference in how fast I improved. Just seeing how hard he works at his models, it inspires you to work harder on yours. Steven is a very nice and patient guy, so whenever I have a question, I just kidnap him for a few minutes.

These images are just viewport screen-grabs. I'm too impatient to sit there and wait for the extremely long time it takes to render a sub-d model (I converted her to sub'd for these. I tried just smoothing the polygon model and the result wasn't very good).















Wireframes:








To see the rest, go here: http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/3d/prototype_female/prototype_female.htm

[radical travis]

That's insanely good! I'm envious, specially because I'm buckling down and learning 3d right now and that image is exactly the sort of thing I'd like to be able to produce. muscle and bone definition is great! And your mesh is amazingly low poly for that detail, can I ask what method of modeling you use and could you go into some detail if you get the chance? soaking up every tip I can right now.

only critique of the girl is personally I don't like a torso that cinched, although they do exist, I likes me some meat.

[Lunatique]

radical travis- Thanks for the comments! I'm actually pretty new to 3D. This is the first "almost" finished 3D model for me. But I've done a lot of R&D into topology beforehand, so I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to achieve.

This mesh is just a prototype template, which I'll use as the starting point for all female characters from now on. She has "extreme" characteristics because that way, I can turn up or down certain aspects into any unique character, without having to change the topology.

I basically modelled the low-poly mesh using a similar method that Dave taught in his tutorial: http://www.thehobbitguy.com

Then, it's really just studying how the muscle definitions/wrinkles/bones affect the appearance of the body--in all the probable positions you can think of. There are certain conflicting positions that might become headaches, and you have to decide for yourself which ones are more important. For example, if you look at the webbing between your thumb and forefinger, and move those two fingers around in various positions, you'll see that there are two distincet directions that the webbing stretches, and they converge in a middle position--things like that are always nightmares when it comes to modelling for deformation. I ended up favoring one over the other, while I do have some topology lines going the other direction too--just so that I can get the deformation in there when I need to--but in the default position, only one direction is visible.

You might have read in many places the fevered preaching of edgeloops and using only quads. I was sucked into that in the beginning too, but since working with Stahlberg, he has proved to me that one needn't go overboard with those theories. The most important thing to keep in mind are wrinkles and deformations. Make your edgeloops, but don't strain your brain trying to terminate every single edge in a loop--that's just not necessary. Same thing with quads--you can have n-gons and it's ok. Just try to avoid 6-sided polys, and only have 5-sided on areas that are don't need to deform, and triangles at areas that need to have some kind of a pinch in the surface anyway. (This stuff might be mostly true for Maya, since other 3D packages smooth/render differently, I can't say for sure this way of working is best for other apps.)

You might want to check out the topology research thread in the modelling forum at cgtalk.com, and the topology research page I have in the 3D section on my website.

Hope this stuff helps.

[Max]

This is really good Lunatique!! I don't know much about 3d htought but I have seen alot of models and this one is really impressive, especially because I love the mix of naturealism and style you achieved here.
It must be a pleasure to work with Steven.....I wish you good luck for your project

Keep it up

[AndyT]

I usually don't like 3d models ... but the wireframe of the back and a.....
that might be a fetish I have that I didn't know of.

The details make her look skinny but I bet it's perfect for studying the body.
I can imagine how much it helps you with the understanding of anatomy.

Can't wait to see what you do with the model and knowledge.
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[radical travis]

ah thx for the info on how you did it luna.

a lot going on in modeling right now and I see even the masters are in disagreement over which way to do things.

myself I'm looking towards a solution that has a real muscle system beneath the skin like using ACT 1.6 with 3dsmax (it's also in beta for maya I think) I like realism and the effects of muscles sliding under the skin are important i think

anyway happy modeling and good look with your animations

[The Real Mark]

Wow Fantastic model! I tried modelling a high-poly character once (i'm a game modeller/animator mainly) spent sooo much time on it, jsut getting the toes right. I eventually got the toe-nails to fold into the skin, but it took some serious time.

What you have to there is awesome. How long did it take you to get there?


P.S. IS length between the elbow and wrist correct and also between the elbow and shoulder? Not too sure.

[Lunatique]

Max Kulich- Thanks. Yeah, Steven is a very nice guy. We have lots of fun working together--especially when we are co-creating/writing stuff.

AndyT- It really does help! I discovered things I didn't know before just from working on this model. If you liked the wireframe, there's a better version of her ass on my website. . ..

radical travis- We're probably going to try ACT for Maya soon. Let's hope it does all the things that it's promised to do.

The Real Mark- Yeah, I know! Don't toes just suck? It took forever for her toes too. It's hard to calculate how long it took, since I worked on it on and off. If I had to come up with a number, I'd guess about a month maybe? But it's also my first 3D model, so I pretty much started modelling this from day one of learning 3D. Then, the model went through an evolution(remapping topology). This one is like the 2nd version.

Her arms might be a bit long, but I'll be reshaping her as I need to for various characters anyway.

[ken�t]

Realy nice model!
however, the head looks maybe a bit too much bigger to me
but well...

[Ylla]

oooh, neat! she has a nice ass

i think her head is a bit too big... and her boobs look to me like they're attached too low on her body... but otherwise, very good job
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