Help me out with my male...

[Sorze]

Allright, please help me straighten out this model.
It's my first real serious attempt at a human body, so be nice...

I's actually not taken me very long to do this, and so far things have been going pretty fast.
It's boxmodeled, and I've tried to model it atleast slightly like the human anatomy, but it could be so much better..

It's got a symmetry modifier (so it's mirrored), and has no smoothing groups. When I tried out some smoothing groups before, it really looked like crap.
If I smooth everything, it naturally looks like a piece of clay, and if I use different smoothing groups theres ugly lines where the groups meet, which don't really seem natural on a human body.

Please give me some tips on how to improve it, and be gentle..

 

[random.hero]

hey, i know what your going through. im a weapon modeler trying to get into the whole character scene, but im not really going anywhere. anyways, someone recommended this tutorial to me. as tutorials go, its pretty crap cause it doesnt explain it well, but his methods look really sound.

using cylinders, check out how he has rotated the rows, to fit the muscle structure of the arms ( seeing as this is the only bit so far i can do well ). im afraid im crap at the other parts, so someone else will have to help you there.

my advice is, try to find a good tutorial, one that explains everything fully.

*edit* looking again at your model, the calf on your man...its very boxy, and doesnt look natural at all. if your not sure about how things should go, you inhabit one, so go and look at your own body, it helped me work out the original arm structure for my WIP alien dude ( that thread's somewhere in these forums ).

 

[Sorze]

Wow, now that's an in-depth tutorial!!1

hehehe, thanks for the help, I appreciate it.
Like you said, it seems to be sound methods he's using in the tut, I'll have to try that...

When I think about it, doing everything from a box seems like quite a bit of unnecessary work... :x

ehh... what's the calf.........? English is not my first language...................
The butt is what looks most off in my opinion, but I just might try the cylinders approach instead, and leave this guy behind...

I'll show you a pic of the new guy when I've done something, I don't have time just now.

see you later.

 

[SidewinderX]

Also, the Joan of Arc tutorial (look in the tutorial sticky) is quite good.

 

[random.hero]

hehe, nps man. btw the calf is the big mucsle on the back of the lower leg, just below your knee.

and yeah, i was just loking at that Joan of Arc tutorial today. its much better, but i think so of the methods would be different for low poly characters. talking with the character modeler on our mod team, he recommended the low poly character modelling book for Max...im hoping for that for my birthday , too lazy to do anything about it now

 

[Sorze]

Thanks for your help, both of you!

Please come back later, I'll show something new.. (Seems I have to check out that tutorial, then)

Happy modeling



EDIT: Phuk!! the joan of arc tut is gone! Doesn't work for me atleast, I get a "woops, someone screwed up" page..

Well that sucks... tell me if you know of any other good tutorials.

 

[random.hero]

heres the joan of arc tutorial man. im making the head atm. ive got to the bottom of page 3 so far, thats half way and its looking pretty good right now. maybe ill post some shots if youre interested :E.

have fun

 

[Sorze]

Thx for the link, it didn't work for me before. It looks like a great tutorial!

anyways, I've started modeling another guy, using cylinders as starting point. It looks allright, and it was pretty fast to get him this far.
Check the pics and give crits...

And yeah, random.hero post some shots, share!

Edit: I don't get how to use smoothing groups (or mesh smooth) properly! know any good tut for that (or can you give some general advice)?
The smoothing in the joan of arc tutorial is sexeh, but my smoothing always looks like crap.
My polygons are quads, and nothing is very wrong, but smoothing always sucks when I do it... :angry:

 

[random.hero]

first off, when hes talking about keeping polys as quads, thats for a good result in Meshsmooth, not normal smoothing.

ok, now i can give you a quick idea of what smoothing groups are...ok, so i just tried to explain it in words, and even i didnt understand it. ill do some very quick pictures to illustrate it easier.

 

[random.hero]

ok, so this is very a quick tutorial, probably quite crap as well.

so if we start off with a cylinder with 3 stacks ( segments ) and remove the smooth groups we get this...

now, select the middle stack of polygons, and give them a smooth group of 1...

select the end stacks and give them both a smooth group of 2...

now you should be able to see how smooth groups are useful. we can distinguish between two areas of smoothing without having to model a ridge to 'physically' separate the two.

now, if you select any of the polygons bridging the gap between the end stacks ( i used the one running along the top ) and give them the same smooth group, you get this...

if you mess about with them, you can do loads of stuff and theyre quite useful...

*edit* why cant i link directly to the pictures :dozey:

 

[Sorze]

Thx for your help, but I kind of know what smoothing groups do, but not really how to use them......................

I've included a few pics for examples..

In the first one, there's as much smoothing as possible, on the whole mesh (which doesn't seem to be the way to go for me, but the joan of arc-tut does that, right?) and it looks like crap.

The second pic also smoothing on the whole mesh, but less smoothing. (Doesn't look good either)

The third pic is me trying seriousely with smoothing groups, and it looks like crap...
It was easier with guns...

ps. Does it matter what the number is to the right of the "Auto Smooth" ?? It does doesn't it? I've had som huge number (50 or something) and things look a little better now..

But still, when you use different smoothing groops on something organic.. There usually aren't distinguishable lines on animals, humans etc... errr.. Sure is now.

Needless to say, I'm not the smoothing group masta.

 

[random.hero]

for characters, one single smooth group should be used for skin areas, because your skin is continous, whereas on guns and such, they are used much more.

i think your problem is that you dont have enough sides on your cylinders, or the edges are too sharp.

PS. ill post some pics of my Joan of Arc head later...if i have time

 

[random.hero]

ok, i had a bit of time, so i rendered and uploaded a few renders for you guys to see...

 

[Sorze]

Nice!
Are you doing the whole tut or the head only?

I might try the Joan of Arc tutorial too, but right now I'm just checking out the techniques they use.
They use mesh smooth in JoAtut... That doesn't work (ingame) unless you collapse it right? Doesn't that create lots n lots of faces ?

 

[random.hero]

im not gona do the whole tut, well not for now anyways. it was so i could see what technique he used, and to get and idea of the general face shape, like the cheeks, eye sockets and chin.

for game models, you shouldnt use Meshsmooth, its only used in high poly modelling ( and sometimes in animating ), where a low poly mesh is created and given a meshsmooth to make it look...well, smooth. if you want, ill show you my low poly head, before the meshsmooth. ingame, it would create more polys than are needed and does the whole mesh, rather than places that really need it more than others.

 

[random.hero]

hey, i got an update. ive finished the main head, she doesnt have any ears yet, and ill probably do them some other time. all in all, ive done this in 3 sittings, so it wasnt really that long and its turned out well in my opinion.

any crits are welcome...and compliments :dozey:

 

[Sorze]

So smooooth...
Me Strokes the cheek..



Nice! :thumbs:


She's got a bit pouty lips, maybe that's how it's supposed to be? It doesn't look unnatural or anything, just Angelina Jolie-esque...


Err... I have nothing new to show.. Haven't modeled for a few days now.. I've been drawing instead..












Psst!! Go to the art forum!!

 

[random.hero]

hehe Pendragon, its not part of my alien project, its the Joan of Arc tutorial . i dont know whether to take that as an insult or just laugh :dozey:. anyways, thatnks of compliments...well . not bad for my first head.

PS. yes Sorze, she does look a bit like a duck with those lips, but i cant be arsed to change em now...

 

[Sorze]

Me:

She's got a bit pouty lips, maybe that's how it's supposed to be? It doesn't look unnatural or anything, just Angelina Jolie-esque...

You:

PS. yes Sorze, she does look a bit like a duck with those lips, but i cant be arsed to change em now...

err... wtf?
Do you have a duck named Angelina Jolie ? Freaky! :dork:




Yeah yeah, lame joke...





Ps. Go to the art forum!!