3d Max 9 Modeling the Character

[Aqua1405241549 0]

Modeling the Character

The first step in the production is to model the cartoon moose character. The modeling process is divided into several simple tutorials. In the first one, you load the reference sketches that can be used to line up polygons as you model. Then we'll create the head and body objects by modifying primitive objects. The final tutorial focuses on the iterative process of editing the model.

 

The following tutorials show one character modeling technique, but many others exist. As you explore the various modeling techniques, find and develop methods that work well for you.

Tutorial: Loading reference sketches

Our first step begins with the task of modeling the character. We start by loading the reference sketch and positioning it where we can use its dimensions. If the sketch gets in the way, we can simply hide it.

 

To load a reference sketch, follow these steps:

 

1. Select Create Standard Primitives Plane, and drag in the Front viewport to create a plane object. In the Parameters rollout, set the Length to 848 and the Width to 416 with 1 Length and Width Segments. The plane object's dimensions match the pixel ratio of the sketch. This ensures that the sketch will appear without distortion. In the Name and Color rollout of the command panel, name this object ref sketch.

 

1. Choose the Polygons subobject mode in the Modify panel, and select the top of the leg. Then extrude the polygon about half the distance to the waistline.

 

2. Select the Vertex subobject mode, and redistribute the vertices so that only two vertices lie along the midline where the pelvis region will be mirrored, but keep the rounded area on the outer side of the leg; just make it larger as it goes upward.

 

3. Extrude the top polygon six more times to form the torso and shoulders. Then move the vertices to align with the torso on the reference image, and round the top extrusion to form the shoulders.

 

4. Use the side view, and cut a hole under the shoulder where the arm can be extruded. Select and remove edges with the Remove command, and add new edges with the Cut tool.

 

5. Select the polygon where the arm will be located, and extrude out six segments to form the arm. Use Vertex mode to select and orient the arm so it extends and so the edges are located on either side of the elbow. Then taper the arm slightly along its length.

 

6. Select the polygon at the end of the arm, and inset it; then move the polygon within the arm. Then extrude the polygon to form the wrist that extends from the arm sleeve. Extrude the polygon again, and cut it to create polygons so the fingers can be extruded.

 

7. Extrude three fingers and one thumb to the side to complete the hand. Then move the vertices to shape each of the fingers to give them a cartoonish look.

 

The moose with its torso, arm, and hand completed.

All that is needed at this step is a rough shape of the character. Later we apply a meshsmooth to the character to smooth out the sharp edges and make the entire character flow better.

Tutorial: Mirroring the body

Before moving to the head, which is easy to sculpt as one entire object instead of as a mirrored half, we begin this tutorial by mirroring the body and welding the two halves together.

 

To mirror the body, follow these steps:

 

1. Select the body half, and attach the leg and shoe to the body half. Then select and delete all the polygons that will be enclosed when the halves are joined. Choose the Tools Mirror menu. In the Mirror dialog box, select the Copy option with an Offset value that aligns the two halves.

 

2. Select and attach the mirrored copy, select all the vertices along the midline, and open the Weld dialog box. Slowly increase the Threshold value until the number of vertices decreases and the midline vertices are all welded.

 

3. In Vertex subobject mode, select and move the vertices along the midline until the body is smooth and no crease appears down the middle of the character.

The moose body is mirrored and welded together along its midline.

 

Tutorial: Adding a head

With the body halves connected, we can add the head and include the details like antlers or glasses.

 

To add a head, follow these steps:

 

1. Using the reference images, add two GeoSpheres that overlap one another. Use the Icosa option when creating the GeoSpheres because they have better resolution. After the spheres are elongated with the Scale tool, position them, select one of the spheres, and Boolean union the two spheres together using the ProBoolean computer object. Using a Boolean removes the interior polygons that are trapped within the overlapping volume. Then convert the spheres to an Editable Poly.

 

2. Add another sphere where the nostrils are located on either side of the front of the head, and use a ProBoolean subtraction operation to remove the nostril portion.

 

3. Create the antlers by tracing over the reference sketch with the Line tool and extruding the resulting line. Position the horn on one side, and mirror it to the opposite side.

 

4. To create the eyes, trace the sketched eye outline and extrude the eye shape. Then add a black sphere pupil in front of the eye shape. Then carefully position the eye so it lies on the front of the head. Then mirror the other eye.

 

5. Create the glasses using some simple cylinders with a rendered spline joining them. Position the glasses on the front of the nose.

 

 

Welcome to the moose head, complete with glasses.

Some details are still missing, but the moose looks pretty good. We could spend lots more time refining this model, but I want to move onto other phases, including materials and animation.

 

Tutorial: Editing the body

One final modeling task is to smooth the entire character. Max offers several choices, but the TurboSmooth modifier is preferred because it is so fast.

 

To smooth the entire moose character, follow these steps:

 

1. Select the body object, and attach the head, eyeballs, and pupils to the moose object, but not the antlers.

 

2. The glasses can be a separate object. Convert one of the glasses lenses to an Editable Poly, and attach the bridge and the other lens to it. Name the object glasses, and then link the object to the body object so the objects move together.

 

3. Select the body mesh, and apply the TurboSmooth modifier. This smoothes the entire surface and makes it look more organic and flowing, particularly around the hands and fingers. Then right-click the Modifier Stack, and collapse the entire stack. Then attach the two antlers to the body mesh.

 

 

Smoothing the moose body makes it flow better and look more organic.

With the body smoothed and looking more organic, we're ready to add some materials.

 

Tutorial: Adding materials

The next step is to add materials to the moose model. Because the entire character is a single object, we need to select certain subobjects and mark them with a Material ID that can be referenced by the Multi/Sub-Object material.

 

To add materials to the moose's features, follow these steps:

 

1. Select the Rendering Material Editor menu command (or press the M key) to open the Material Editor. Click the Standard material button, select the Multi/Sub-Object material from the Material/Map Browser, and click the OK button. Select to Discard the old material, and click OK.

 

2. Quickly count the number of unique materials that the moose needs. In the Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout, click the Set Number button and set the number to 7. Then type a name for each material you need, including black, shoes, pants, jacket, skin, eyeballs, and antlers.

 

3. For the materials that need only a color, you can set the color in the box to the right of the material button. Change the colors for all sub-materials. Then click those materials that need more specularity and change the specularity level. You can click the Go to Parent button to return to the list of all materials.

 

4. Apply the material to the body object by dragging it from the Material Editor to the body object. Some materials already are assigned to the various subobjects that were created when the model was built.

 

5. Select the Elements subobject mode, select each of the various parts, and in the Surface Properties, set the Material ID that matches the ID number for the Multi/Sub-Object material. For example, the ankles are separate elements that can be marked with the Material ID of 5 for skin.

 

6. For the shoes, pants, jackets, and hands, you need to select all the polygons that make up a material group and then set the Material ID.

 

7. Return to the Material Editor, and create another Multi/Sub-Object material for the glasses that includes two materials, one solid black for the bridge and the other mostly transparent for the lenses.

 

 

Adding materials to the moose character better differentiates the various body parts.

Adding materials helps to define the various character parts.

 

Tutorial: Creating and fitting a biped

The easiest way to animate this character is to add a biped skeleton underneath the skin mesh. The closer you can make the biped fit the character, the less work in manipulating envelopes is required.

 

To create and fit a biped to the character skin, follow these steps:

 

1. First let's hide all the objects you don't need to see. Select the reference image, right-click, and select the Hide Selection command from the pop-up quadmenu. Then select the moose mesh, open the Edit Object Properties dialog box, and enable the See Through option. This makes the moose transparent so you can see the skeleton underneath.

 

2. Select the Create Systems Biped command, and drag in the Top viewport to create a biped that is the same height as the character and positioned directly behind the character.

 

3. Open the Motion panel, and click the Figure Mode button in the Biped rollout to enter Figure mode. Select the lower leg bone in the Left viewport, and click the Symmetrical button in the Track Selection rollout to select both lower leg bones; then scale the bones in the Y-axis to shorten them. Repeat this step for the upper legs. Then select the Body Vertical button in the Track Selection rollout, and drag the entire body downward until the pelvis bone is in the correct position.

 

4. Select both upper leg bones again, and use the Rotate tool to rotate the bones to align with the character skin legs in the Front viewport. Repeat for the upper arm bones. Make the arms parallel to the skin arms, but they shouldn't match up just yet.

 

5. Select all four spine links, and scale them along the Y-axis in the Left viewport until they are correctly aligned with the skin arms. Select the neck link, and scale it along the Y-axis in the Left viewport until the head bone is align with the skin head. Then tilt the head forward.

 

6. Select the Front viewport, and change it to show the Back view. Then start with the head bone, and scale it horizontally to fit the width of the skin. Continue down the skeleton with each bone until they are scaled to roughly fit the skin. Be careful with the top spine and the pelvis bones because the arms and legs are attached to these bones. Be sure to scale the feet to fit the enormous shoes.

 

7. Next, move up and down the arms and legs scaling them to fit the skin arms and legs. The hand bones in particular need to be rotated to fit the skin, and the feet need to be scaled in length as well as width.

 

You can see the bones through the skin if you open the Object Properties dialog box and enable the See Through display option. The effort put into aligning bones will be apparent in the next tutorial when we attach the skin to the biped.

 

 

Notice how closely the biped bones are aligned with the skin.

 

 

Tutorial: Attaching the character skin to a biped

This next step sounds like it should be easy enough, but depending on how complex the skin mesh is and how well you've aligned the biped bones, this could be the hardest step. Each bone has an envelope that surrounds it. All the skin vertices that are contained within a bone's envelope move along with the bone. If any skin vertices aren't included in an envelope, the vertices are left behind when the biped moves.

 

To attach a character skin to a biped, follow these steps:

 

1. Select the character skin mesh, and choose the Modifiers Animation Skin command to apply the Skin modifier to the skin mesh.

 

2. In the Parameters rollout, click the Add button. Then open the Select Objects dialog box, choose the Bip01 object (which is the root for the biped), and enable the Select Subtree option to select all the biped bones.

 

3. Click the bones added to the Skin modifier list, and enable the Edit Envelopes button. As each bone in the list is selected, its envelope is displayed in the viewport. Look for vertices that are outside of the envelope (the antlers, for example), and expand the envelope to include them.

 

4. To fix any vertices that are outside an envelope, follow this step. In the Modifier Stack, click the Skin modifier to access its subobjects, and select the Envelope subobject mode. Select the left hand link, click the Cross Section button in the Blending Envelopers rollout, and resize the two sections so all vertices are within the outer envelope.

 

Another way to fix the envelopes is to use the Paint Weights tool to paint over the vertices that need to belong within a certain envelope. You also can press and hold the Alt key to remove vertices from the selected bone's envelope.

 

 

Skinning associates all the skin vertices with the right bone.

If all vertices are accounted for, then you're ready to animate the character using the biped controls found in the Motion panel.

Tutorial: Animating a character's motion

For the animation sequence, let's keep it simple. We use Auto Key mode and have the moose dance around a bit. He is a dancing moose, after all.

 

To animate a character dancing, follow these steps:

 

1. Click the Auto Key button, and drag the Time Slider to frame 5; then select and rotate the arm bones, and raise one of the feet. The pre-built IK solutions added to the biped skeleton makes the other bones follow as they should.

 

Note If a dialog box appears stating that Keys cannot be set in Figure mode, then you need to open the Hierarchy panel and click on the Figure Mode button in the Biped rollout to disable Figure mode.

 

 

2. Drag the Time Slider to frame 10, rotate the arms in the opposite direction, and return the foot to the ground. Set a key for the opposite foot.

 

3. Drag the Time Slider to frame 15, and rotate both arms to their original positions. Then move the opposite foot upward.

 

4. Drag the Time Slider to frame 20, and return the raised foot to its original position.

 

5. Select and hide the biped skeleton, and then click the Play Animation button to see the resulting dance.

 

Animating the character is as easy as positioning bones.

Quite a bit of deformation is caused by improper skinning, but the simple dancing moose gives you an idea of what is possible.

[Sten 0]

weve got 3d max at school.ive never used it though cos i didnt even no wot it was until now.is it just something like blender?

[unimatrix 0]

Yes, 3D Studio Max is like blender as it is a 3d modelling/animation/rendering program. 3D is preferred by many modellers over other packages and has a large userbase in the game development world. Most 3D games have their models developed by MAX developers. Personally I use Lightwave 3D, another package, and Blender for 3D projects. The main reason being that I am on OSX as my computer platform and Lightwave and Blender both have OSX versions unlike MAX, which is windows only. There are a lot of arguments to which one is best. I think it depends. Lightwave has been a fixture in TV land for years starting with Bablyon 5 and today Battlestar Galactica uses it for all their 3D CGI work. Blender, to me, was always molded closer to Lightwave back in the day. Since then it's taken on it's own UI, but in the early days it reminded me of using LW 5.6.Also, on a more personal note, I generally find MAX modellers to be an extremely arogant lot that like to save things in .MAX format which nothing else reads and then release a model for use by others in the public domain knowing darned full and well no one else but other MAX users can use the model. Is releasing a model in .3DS or export to .lwo really that much to ask?

Edited August 27, 2007 by unimatrix (see edit history)