Essential LightWave 3D- P13 pptx

Figure 14-92: Select the four polys in the top image, then smooth shift to get the results shown in the bottom image... Select the polygons that make up the top of the head, shown at the

Now let’s work on the nose by adding a

basic nostril Select the four polygons

(there will be a total of eight selected if

you’ve got Symmetry turned on) shown in

Figure 14-92

1 Activate the Smooth Shift tool by

pressing <F>.

2 Position your mouse over any of the

viewports and click either the left or

right mouse button Make sure you

don’t move your mouse when you click!

The image at the bottom of Figure14-92 shows the results of the SmoothShift operation

3 Sculpt the nose as shown in Figure14-93 The points around the tip should

be moved outward The points at thetop and bottom of the nostril should bemoved up slightly This will round theoutside of the nostril and create aslightly concave shape underneath

C h a p t e r 1 4 · · · ·

Figure 14-91: Extend the points at the inside of the eye, then size them

down and move them back slightly.

Figure 14-92: Select the four polys in the top image, then smooth shift to

get the results shown in the bottom image.

Looking at our model again, it appears that

the skull of our character no longer seems

to fit the reference image Let’s fix that

1 Select the polygons that make up the

top of the head, shown at the top of

Figure 14-94

2 Activate the Stretch tool and position

your mouse just above the center of

the ear in the Right viewport

3 Hold down the <Ctrl> key (or use

your middle mouse button) and dragyour mouse to the right, stretching thehead horizontally about 107% or until

it more closely fits the backgroundimage

Zoom out and take a look at what you’vedone so far These small changes havemade big improvements In order to make

the rest of our changes,however, we’re going toneed a serious reduc-tion in polys

Figure 14-93: Sculpt the nose region and refine the nostrils.

Polygon Reduction

So far, we’ve achieved the first goal of head

modeling, namely, developing good flow

But the second goal of minimal polygon

count is still unmet You may have noticed

as you worked through the steps in the last

section that even minor adjustments to the

vertices of your model had a serious impact

on its overall appearance Trying to work

with this number of polys can be a real

nightmare and often makes the detailing

process unnecessarily time consuming In

this section we’ll work through the process

of reducing the number of polygons, leaving

us with an object that is easier to edit

Note

Reducing the number of polygons will have

a drastic effect on the appearance of our

model Don’t panic when you see that the

reduction is making things look worse rather

than better.

Modeler has several automated polygon

reduction tools, but frankly, they don’t work

that well I’ve found that I can get much

better results by simply merging key bands

of polygons The primary tool for this is

BandGlue, found under the Construct |

Reduce | More menu

Click the Maximize button in the top

right Perspective viewport to enter

full-screen mode Press the <a> key to fit your

model to the viewport If you spin yourmodel, you will see consecutive bandswhich, if merged together, would not causeproblems to the mesh Figure 14-95 showsarrows running down the center of several

of these bands

Select the two polygons shown on the left

of Figure 14-96 and activate the BandGluetool The result of this operation can beseen in the image on the right of the figure

C h a p t e r 1 4 · · · ·

Figure 14-95: The polygons on either side of these arrows can be merged together to create one new band.

Continue running BandGlue on the groups

of polygons shown in the next 13

illustrations

Figure 14-96: Select the two polygons on the left and run BandGlue to

merge them together The image on the right shows the results.

Figure 14-97

C h a p t e r 1 4 · · · ·

Figure 14-98

Figure 14-99

Figure 14-100

Figure 14-101

C h a p t e r 1 4 · · · ·

Figure 14-102

Figure 14-103: Be sure to turn off Symmetry when selecting these polys.

Figure 14-104

Figure 14-105

C h a p t e r 1 4 · · · ·

Figure 14-106

Figure 14-107

The last step is to eliminate the triangles at

the top of the head You should have already

turned Symmetry off when selecting the

polygons in Figure 14-103 Select the

poly-gons shown in the upper-left corner of

Figure 14-110 Since there are only four

points on the outside perimeter of these

two polygons, we can safely merge theminto one single quad

Press <Z> to merge the polygons as

shown in the upper-right corner of Figure14-110 Now repeat the process for the twopolys on the opposite side of the X axisshown at the bottom of the figure

Figure 14-108

Figure 14-109

Zoom out and take a look at your model It’s

kind of ugly But this is where the fun really

begins! You’ve done the hard work and

achieved the two most important goals in

head modeling: great flow and minimalpolygons Now it’s time to play Save yourmodel and move on to the final phase:advanced detailing

Advanced Detailing

One of the hardest concepts to grasp for

those new to organic modeling is that most

models look awful until they’re about 93%

complete It shouldn’t be surprising, really

When you think about it, people all over the

world share identical features (eyes, nose,

mouth, ears), but the subtle differences in

size and shape determine whether one

person is considered ugly and another

beau-tiful Nevertheless, I frequently see people

in online forums asking for tips on how to

improve their models when quite often,

there’s nothing wrong At least, not

techni-cally Oftentimes, the problem is that

they’ve hit the 90% mark and given up in

frustration They’ve come to a point where

all of the geometry is in place and they’ve

developed a reasonable flow with an

accept-able number of polygons, but their model

still looks bad Almost without fail, the tion in these cases is to push past the 90%mark You’d be surprised at how quicklythings can come together, especially ifyou’ve done everything right from the start

solu-If you’ve followed the technical direction

in this chapter, I can tell you that you’vedone everything right You have created ahead model with great flow and minimalpolys that is 85% complete In the next fewminutes, we will bring that up to the 90%mark The biggest challenge before you,then, is whether or not you’re willing topush past the 90% mark

We are nearing the completion of ourhead model and there is little left for me toteach you It is up to you as the artist totake what you have learned and apply it in amanner that expresses your artistic vision

C h a p t e r 1 4 · · · ·

Figure 14-110: Select the two polys on either side of the X axis and merge

them together.

As I mentioned earlier, this is where the fun

really begins This is where I let go of the

bike and you begin to pedal on your own I’ll

still be here to guide you, but I encourage

you to begin making this model your own

Experiment and play, for that is the true joy

of modeling

Take a look at Figure 14-111 There is

virtually no difference between the model

shown on the top and the model shown on

the bottom They both have the same

num-ber of polygons and exactly the same

polygon flow Yet one looks markedly better

than the other This is due to the subtle

dif-ference in size and shape that I spoke of

earlier By simply moving points and sizing

polygons, your model can go from

“ho-hum” to “holy smokes!” Let’s take a brief

look at how to do that

The four prominent areas of change are

the eyes, mouth, cheeks, and jaw/chin You

should spend time working on each of these

areas

1 The eyes are currently too boxy Begin

by sculpting them with one of the

modification tools (I prefer the Dragtool, but you can also use the Dragnet,Magnet, or even Move tools) Youshould work toward creating a morealmond-like shape Be sure to turn onSymmetry so that the changes youmake to one side of your model will bereflected on the other

2 When you’re finished shaping the eye,select the ring of points highlighted inFigure 14-112 and pull them back intoward the face Doing this causes theinner two rings of points to jut out, giv-ing the appearance of eyelids

3 Grab the outside point also highlighted

in Figure 14-112 and move it down andout slightly This point acts as theupper support for our cheekbone Bymoving this point around, you canmake drastic changes to the shape ofyour character’s face

4 Continue refining the points and gons around the eye to match thebottom two images shown in Figure14-111

poly-5 Reshape the three bands of points

radi-ating out from the side of the nose as

shown in Figure 14-113 The first (top)

band should be moved up and out This

band defines the overall shape of the

cheek and acts as the lower support for

the cheekbone The second (middle)

band of points defines the outer muzzle

of the face The third (lower) bandenhances the middle band Adjustingthe points in the third band determineshow strong of a crease you’ll get wherethe cheeks meet the muzzle of theface

C h a p t e r 1 4 · · · ·

Figure 14-112: Move the highlighted ring of points back on the Z axis to

create the appearance of eyelids Then adjust the highlighted point for the

cheekbone.

Figure 14-113: Adjust these three bands of points as shown, distributing

them more evenly to define the cheeks and muzzle.

6 Redistribute the points below the

lower lip to shape and form the jaw, as

shown in Figure 14-114

7 Select the lower set of points that form

the upper lip highlighted in Figure

14-115 Activate the Stretch tool and

position your mouse in the Back

viewport over the lowest point in the

group Hold down the <Ctrl> key (or

press the middle mouse button) to strain the motion and drag down untilthe points are roughly in line with oneanother Then, with the points stillselected, move them up slightly so thatthe mouth region is open

con-Figure 14-114: The points below the lower lip can be reshaped to form the

chin and jaw.

8 Continue to shape the points in and

around the mouth so that they create

the oval-like shapes seen at the bottom

of Figure 14-115

9 Select the innermost ring of points that

make up the mouth and from the

Mul-tiply | Extend menu run Extender

12 Activate the Smooth Shift tool and,making sure that you do not move yourmouse, click either the right or leftmouse button A new band of geometrywill be created

13 Sculpt the nostril as shown in the tom image of Figure 14-117

bot-C h a p t e r 1 4 · · · ·

Figure 14-116: Extend the ring of points around the inside of the

mouth Then shape the points as shown.

Figure 14-117: Select these four polys, smooth shift, then shape the nostril

as shown.

14 Select the four innermost polygons

from the nostril and smooth shift them

again With the four polygons still

selected, activate the Move tool and

move them up into the nose as shown

in Figure 14-118

Zoom out and spin your model From here,

you should continue adjusting the mesh,

watching the changes that take place in

your smooth shaded viewport If your

model doesn’t look like the background

image, don’t be too concerned The most

important thing is that you resolve any

issues with the overall appearance If the

model looks good to you, then it’s a

suc-cess Continue refining until you’re happy

Then continue reading to build the

remain-ing details

We’re down to the last two details: the

eyes and the ears Let’s start with the eyes

1 Deactivate Symmetry Then go to an

empty layer and activate the Ball tool

by pressing <O> In the Back

viewport, drag out a circle over the eye

on the right side of the head Hold

down the <Ctrl> key to constrain the

Ball tool Position your mouse over the

Right viewport and drag to create a

perfect sphere The size of this sphere

should be roughly the size of the eye

shown in the background image

2 Select the polygons that make up theback half of the eye and press

<Delete> to remove them Since we

won’t ever be seeing the back of theeye, we can safely eliminate the extrageometry here

3 Create a new surface for this object

(<q>) called Eye.

The eye is covered by a transparent surfacecalled the cornea The cornea bulges outslightly at the center It is this bulge thatcatches the light, creating a glint that givesthe eye a “lifelike” appearance Let’s createthe cornea

4 Copy the Eye object to a new ground layer and place the original inthe background From the Modes but-ton at the bottom of the interface,change your Action Center to

7 Use the Size tool to scale the polygons

Figure 14-118: Use Smooth Shift on the inner polys of the nostril and move

them into the nose.

8 Give this object a new surface (<q>)

and call it Cornea.

9 Cut the Cornea object and paste it into

the layer with the eye

10 Finally, use the Mirror tool to mirror

the eye across the X axis

At this stage, you will need to shape thearea around the eye socket so that it fitssnugly over the eyeball Place your headmodel in the foreground and your Eyeobjects in the background Activate Sym-metry mode and then begin sculpting Ifyou can see the background layer pokingthrough your mesh (as in Figure 14-121),

you need to either move the eye back

slightly or reposition the polygons in the

face to accommodate it Sculpting this area

can take time, so be patient and pay close

attention to detail

Before you finish with the eye, make

sure that the points that make up the inner

ring of the eye socket get pulled back into

the eye, past the cornea If these polygons

do not pass through the cornea, you can end

up with rendering errors

With the eyes finished, it’s time to move

on to the ears When new users are askedwhat they consider to be the most difficultpart of the head to model, the ear is almostalways at the top of their list Ears are notthat hard to model, as you’ll soon see Theyare, however, very detailed and require that

Figure 14-121: Reshape the eye socket to better fit the eye.

you pay close attention to the overall form.

As you model, you should focus your

atten-tion on what you are modeling more than

how you are modeling it The most

impor-tant question to keep in mind is not “Am I

following the steps correctly?” but rather,

“Am I making this look like an ear?”

Begin by selecting the four polygons

shown in Figure 14-122

1 Activate the Smooth Shift tool and,ensuring that you do not move yourmouse, click the left or right mousebutton

2 Reshape the polys into the basic form

of an ear The back of the ear shouldbegin to bulge out away from the head

as shown in Figure 14-124

C h a p t e r 1 4 · · · ·

Figure 14-123: Smooth shift the polygons to add extra geometry.

Figure 14-124: Shape the polygons to resemble an ear.

Sculpting the ear requires frequent

move-ment around the Perspective viewport Since

the ear is a highly detailed form, be sure to

check it from all angles as you continue

modeling.

3 Select the four polygons at the center

and the eight polygons forming the

loop around them Smooth shift these

as you’ve done in the past

4 Change your Action Center to Mouse

and using the Stretch tool, resize the

polygons that are still selected after

using Smooth Shift in Step 3

5 Use the Drag tool to continue

reshap-ing the ear The point at the very

center of the four polygons should be

dragged in to create a concave surface

Then drag this same point toward the

back of the head slightly as shown in

Figure 14-125

6 Select the 12 polygons we smoothshifted in Step 3 and smooth shift themagain

7 In the Back viewport, use the Movetool to move these 12 polygons awayfrom the head slightly Then use theStretch tool to resize them as shown inFigure 14-126

8 Continue reshaping the ear as shown inFigure 14-127 The points at the center

on the left side of the ear should lieflush with the rest of the head Thecenter point from our original fourpolygons should continue to be pushedback into the ear to form a concaveshape

9 Select the original four polygons at thecenter of the ear and use Smooth Shiftagain

Figure 14-125: Smooth shift the 12 polys that currently make up the ear,

then size them and continue sculpting.