Essential LightWave 3D- P12 potx

Select all of the points shown in the figure and create a new spline.. Considering that we alreadyhave a top spline created in Step 20, itmakes sense that we should create splinesfor the

placed straight down from the corner of

the mouth (when looking in the Back

viewport) and centered between the

first point and the last point of the

spline created in Step 28 Create a new

spline This will act as the bottom of

our quad cage

Since we now have top, right, and bottom

splines, we need to complete our quad cage

with a left spline

30 In the Right viewport, create four new

points as shown in Figure 14-40 These

should start at the lower lip and run

down the profile, ending at the center

of the chin The points should be

posi-tioned at the very center of the head in

the Back viewport Select all of the

points shown in the figure and create a

new spline

Spin your model around in the Perspectiveviewport and check for anything that looksout of place

We’ve expanded our spline cage, but thearea around the mouth is still open Let’sclose that off Considering that we alreadyhave a top spline (created in Step 20), itmakes sense that we should create splinesfor the bottom, left, and right to complete aquad cage However, there’s no need topatch the region inside the mouth, and thusthere’s no need for a left spline You cancreate one if you like, but it won’t be used.Hence, we simply need splines for the rightand bottom

31 Create two new points as shown in ure 14-41 Select all three points asshown and create a new spline Thiswill be the right side of our quad cage

Fig-318

Figure 14-40

32 Create two additional points as shown

in Figure 14-42 Then select the points

shown and create a new spline This

will be the bottom of our quad cage

By adding these two splines, we’ve created

the inside boundaries for our face, but we’re

now in violation of Tips 2 and 3 The area

over the nose and cheek is much larger

than the other regions in our cage, and thearea around the jaw consists of more thanfour splines We need to address each ofthese issues

33 Select the existing points under thenose and over the cheek as shown inFigure 14-43 and create a new spline.(If you don’t have the points needed to

Figure 14-41: This small spline defines the corner of the mouth.

Figure 14-42

create this spline, you can add them by

selecting each spline and using the

Multiply | Subdivide | Add Points

tool.) This becomes the top spline of a

new quad cage

34 Create two more points as shown inFigure 14-44 Select all of the pointsshown and create a new spline Thisbecomes the right spline in our quadcage

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Figure 14-43

Figure 14-44

35 Create two points along the bottom of

the lower lip as shown in Figure 14-45

Select all of the points shown and

cre-ate a new spline This becomes the

bottom spline in our quad cage And

since the profile spline already exists, it

will act as the left spline, completing

the quad cage for this area

We’ve partitioned off the area under thenose and around the cheek, but it wouldn’thurt to break the entire area into smallersections

36 Create a single point at the top of thenostril where it indents and joins thetip of the nose Then select the exist-ing points as shown in Figure 14-46 and

create a new spline.This becomes the top of

a new quad cage.You’ll notice that thisnew spline is not evenlyspaced between thosearound it As a result,

we have created a row region runningover the tip of the noseand down the side ofthe face This narrowregion violates Tip #3,but the tightly spacedpolygons we’ll get bypatching this region arenecessary to properlydefine the muzzleregion of the face

nar-Figure 14-45

Figure 14-46

37 Create two more points radiating out

from the corner of the mouth as seen in

Figure 14-47 Select all of the points

and create a new spline This becomes

the right side of our quad cage

38 Create two more points below thelower lip as shown in Figure 14-48,then select all of the points in order,and create a new spline This becomesthe bottom spline in our quad cage.Once again, with the profile spline act-ing as the left spline, this completesour quad cage

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Figure 14-47

Figure 14-48

If you haven’t done so recently, now would

be a good time to spin your model and

check for anything that looks out of place It

would also be a good time to save your

model

You can really see the face starting to

take shape! But we still have areas that

consist of more than four splines

(specifically around the jaw and chin areas),

so we must partition these to create a quadcage

Looking at Figure 14-49, we can see thattwo distinct edge loops converge at the jaw

We need to section off the jaw so that each

of these loops can continue along its owndistinct path

Figure 14-49: Two edge loops converge at the jaw, requiring us to divide

the area with a new spline.

Figure 14-50

39 Create three new points that follow the

jaw line as shown in Figure 14-50

Select each of the highlighted points

shown in the figure and create a new

spline You can see that each loop from

Figure 14-49 now has its own path to

follow

Spin your model and check for anything

that appears to be out of place Looking at

the cage, two things are pretty clear First,we’re almost done with the face And sec-ond, we’re violating Tip #3 Although thejaw now consists of a quad cage (whereeach region is bounded by four separatesplines), the areas to be patched are muchlarger than those around them We’ll finishthe face by partitioning these areas

40 Select the existing points shown in ure 14-51 and create a new spline

Fig-324

Figure 14-51

Figure 14-52

41 Select the existing points shown in

Fig-ure 14-52 and create a new spline

42 Select the existing points shown in

Fig-ure 14-53 and create a new spline

Zoom out and take a look at your spline

cage, correcting anything that seems out of

place The face is now complete All that

remains is to build splines for the back of

the head and neck, but if you’ve made it this

far, that will be a piece of

cake

We can use the

exist-ing cage as a startexist-ing

point for building the

remaining splines But

with no ending point to

guide us, it’s difficult to

determine where each

spline should go

There-fore, we must develop a

basic framework to help

guide the placement of

each new spline This

framework can be

cre-ated from an outline of

the head and neck

Take a look at Figure 14-54 The headand neck can be broken down into one largequad cage There are distinct top, bottom,left, and right sides At this point, most ofthe left side and part of the top already havesplines in place We simply need to com-plete the remaining splines to form a quadcage around the entire region

Figure 14-53

Figure 14-54

43 Create three more points at the center

of the head that run over the top

toward the back of the skull Deselect

these points Select the four points

shown in Figure 14-55 and create a

new spline This completes the top

spline in our quad cage

44 Create five more points running downthe back center of the head Select all

of the points shown in Figure 14-56 andcreate a new spline This becomes theright spline in our quad cage

326

Figure 14-55

Figure 14-56

45 Create six new points around the neck

running from the back to the front

Then select all of the points as shown

in Figure 14-57 and create a new

spline Make sure that you adjust the

points for this spline in both the Back

and Right viewports to ensure that the

spline forms a semicircular shape This

becomes the bottom spline in our quadcage

46 Create a single point about halfway upthe center of the neck Then select thepoints shown in Figure 14-58 and cre-ate a new spline This becomes the leftspline, completing our quad cage

Figure 14-57

Figure 14-58

Having completed the framework, we can

wrap up our spline cage by playing “connect

the dots.” The existing splines on the face

end at an edge loop that runs over the

fore-head, down the side of the fore-head, and under

the chin Each of these splines can be

con-nected to the framework created in Steps

43 through 46 (See Figure 14-59.)

We could build each of

these splines as we’ve

done in the past by

cre-ating “in-between”

points, then selecting

the points in order and

pressing <Ctrl> +

<p> However, our

spline cage has become

fairly complex and this

will make it difficult to

position the in-between

points on the back of the head As a result,we’re going to use a different technique forbuilding these splines

47 Select the two points shown in Figure

14-60 and press <Ctrl> + <p> to

create a new spline

I mentioned at the beginning of this tutorialthat the most basic spline consists of threepoints Two act as endpoints, and the thirdacts as a control point that allows you toadjust the shape We’ve just created atwo-point spline which, if you examinecarefully, is perfectly straight It needs a

third control point to alter its shape.

48 Switch to Polygon Select mode Thespline you just created should be high-

lighted Navigate to the Multiply | Subdivide menu and select the Add Points tool Click on the center of the

spline to add a third point Then use

the Drag tool (<Ctrl> + <t>) to

adjust the shape of the spline Makesure you rotate your object in the Per-spective view to check the shape ofthis new spline (See Figure 14-61.)

328

Figure 14-59: The remaining splines can be

created by connecting those in the face to

those outlining the head and neck.

Figure 14-60

You probably noticed that the region we

defined in Steps 47 and 48 has only three

sides (see Figure 14-62) Sometimes, no

matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to

create a quad cage This is one of those

times In circumstances like this, you should

do your best to position the three-sided cage

in a part of the model that will rarely be

seen (as we’ve done here).

49 Continue connecting the dots and ing control points to create four moresplines as shown in Figure 14-63 Besure to check your model in the Per-spective viewport after you shape eachnew spline Remember that the back ofthe head is rounded at the top buttapers as it approaches the neck Yoursplines should reflect this If you feel

add-that you need additionalcontrol points to helpmaintain the shape ofthe splines, feel free tocreate them (I’ve addedextra points to two ofthe splines shown inFigure 14-63.)

Figure 14-61: Add a third point to this spline and adjust its shape using the

Drag tool.

Figure 14-62

You’ll notice that we are skipping over the

ears at this point Ears can be created with

splines, but the process of linking them into

a larger spline cage can be tricky As such,

we’re following Tip #1 by using splines to

create the overall form The detailed process

of creating the ears will be covered in the

final section of this chapter using traditional

modeling tools.

At this point, we have another instancewhere two edge loops converge at a largeempty space (See Figure 14-64.) We need

to partition this space just as we did before

so that each loop can continue on its ownpath

330

Figure 14-63

Figure 14-64: Two edge loops converge at the neck, requiring us to divide

it with a new spline.

50 Select the two endpoints shown in

Fig-ure 14-65 and create a new spline

Then use the Add Points tool to add a

central control point Use the Drag tool

in the Back viewport to move this point

to the left slightly, creating a subtle arc

in the neck

We have a nearly perfect quad cage, but theback of the head and the neck are com-prised of areas that are much larger thanthe rest of our cage We must not forget Tip

#3! These areas should be divided intosmaller sections so that the same patch set-tings can be used on the entire model

Figure 14-65

Figure 14-66: Keeping Tip #3 in mind, we must section off these large

areas by creating a new spline.

51 Select the existing points shown in

Fig-ure 14-66 and create a new spline

running down the back of the head

52 Create the three remaining splines

shown in Figure 14-67 using the

tech-niques you learned earlier

53 The last thing we need to do is sectionoff the neck so that its surface area isnot so large Select the existing pointsshown in Figure 14-68 and create anew spline

332

Figure 14-67

Figure 14-68: Divide the neck area into two halves with this new spline.

Spin your model around in the Perspective

viewport and move any points that seem

out of place If you feel that you need more

control over your splines, you can add

points to help adjust their shape When

you’re finished, save a new version of your

model

Before we wrap up this section, there are

two more things we should do

The first is to run a Merge Points

opera-tion on our model As I menopera-tioned earlier,

the number one cause of the “Curves Do

Not Cross” error is splines whose points

are not welded together By running a

Merge Points operation, we can ensure that

any stray points are fused together and

pre-emptively ward off this infamous error

message

Press the <m> key to bring up the

Merge Points window Accept the default

settings and press OK.

The second thing we should do is merge

a few of these splines Take a look at Figure

14-69

The image on the left shows two splinesthat follow the same path from the top ofthe eye to the back of the head At the pointwhere these splines meet, there is a sharpdip This dip isn’t a major problem andwon’t affect our ability to patch this region,but it will have a subtle effect on the overallshape of our model As such, it’s a good idea

to merge these splines together

With the two splines selected, press

<Z> to merge them into a single spline.

The image on the right of Figure 14-69shows the effect of merging these splinestogether Note that the slope is now muchmore gradual

You can continue working through yourspline cage at this point, merging splineswhich, like those mentioned above, followthe same basic path but meet at sharpangles The splines highlighted in Figure14-70 are just a few of the ones I would rec-ommend merging

Figure 14-69

Merging splines can be beneficial to the

overall shape of your cage, but it can also

be detrimental if taken too far and can

ulti-mately affect your ability to patch the cage.

For example, merging the profile splines

that run from the front of the head to the

back will cause havoc when you try to patch

your cage As you merge your splines, keep

in mind Tip #2: Build quad cages Try to

keep the top, bottom, left, and right splines

distinct from one another Merging a Top

spline with a right or left spline could have

adverse effects If you find that you are

get-ting erroneous patches (or patches that

don’t fit the area you’re attempting to fill),

try splitting large splines into two or more

parts You can do this by selecting the spline,

then switching to Points mode, selecting the

point where you’d like the split to occur, and

pressing <Ctrl> + <l>.

Note

At this point, I recommend saving your object with a name such as “Generic Spline Head Cage.” One of the great things about modeling with splines is that a basic cage can be used over and over to create similar objects In this case, a variety of head mod- els can be created from this one basic cage.

Congratulations!! Using the tips and tricksoutlined earlier in this chapter, you’ve built

a very complex spline cage This cage is notonly efficient, but it has exceptional flow —one of the most crucial factors of a goodhead model

334

Figure 14-70: Merge these splines to refine their overall shape.