I am currently working on a project in school. The topic is on the evolution of humans. It is thought to have known that we had many ancestors. A familiar one to many would be Australopithecus Afarensis. I was given Paranthropus Robustus.
Now, this project is one in which leans MORE towards the visual components! My teacher is anxious to see what creativity lurks in our brains. So, I thought… What a great way to learn more about Blender!
One problem. I am extremely inexperienced. But, the good thing is, I have three weeks to work on this, and I am willing to dedicate MASSIVE amounts of time on this.
To begin, I have decided to model the very beastly beast, itself.
The problem, of course, is my lack of modeling skills. I understand one of the first things to do is to find reference images.
My question, at the moment is, are these sufficient images to get modeling today?
I cannot find anything else, so is it better to draw the images (to scale? not to scale?)?
you can search on WIKIpedia there should something about my boss i mean the beast your talking
but i think you have more problems with learning blender it is a complicated peace of soft
so go to the site and try to find some tutorials on modelisation
begin with basic and then learn it as fast as you can
whether its enough or not is only a question of how good are you at visualizing the parts that aren’t shown. If you’re good at it, yeah its enough. I’ve modelled full charectors with only the face and left half of the upper body visiable in the ref used. But if you can’t visualize the “things that aren’t there” you’re going to need more ref’s.
I think you are right. I will need more reference images, particularly for the hands and feet and such.
To be honest, I DON’T have a general visual of how it looks seeing as it is an ancestor of us (and I no-one knows for sure how they look like; they just visualize through their fossil remains). But, the good thing is, no one can blame me for imperfections and such. I mainly wish to showcase him as a model to point at during my presentation. I probably won’t go as far as to produce a small film shortage (maybe some renders).
Anyhow, I am interested in how I will begin modeling now. With the references I have, I suppose I can start on the head and work my way down. I know it is a matter of preference, but is it generally easier to start with the body and work downwards, then upwards from the core, or is it just as simple to start with the head and work downwards?
By the way, thanks for the quick responses, everyone! I am hoping that I will be able to do a marvelous job at this project.
Yeah, I watched all those videos from spaghetti moon a while ago. It’s a good thing you brought up the links again.
I will start with the feet and legs then. But, first, need to seek better reference images… cannot quite figure out the true anatomy to Robustus’ feet and legs.
Just wanted to know if I’m on the right track or not so here are a couple of pictures showing some wireframes, and some really terrible shadowing because the anatomy of its face is clearly not well-shaped yet…
As HouseArrest claims to be able to visualize… I am not using the lips in the reference image on that particular background… I’m using some of the other references I posted above.
By the way, I am following Tony Mullen’s book on Character Animation. I know it’s not that suitable for something animalistic like this, but I decided to try it. It SEEMS to be working?!
look at the render
it looks like you need a bit more definition so i think you should add more faces in your model
that would define more the details of the face
around the eyes this need to be more inward deeper and also the nose is not good at all its got be big and bulky like the model
it;s a good beginning
your skull does;’ fit the prehistoric man Paranthropus robustus
look at the real supposed skull
the eye are way bigger than you monkey face
the back skull is a bit more screwed than you model
post a wireframe - at this stage it is more important. Look at other threads here about face modeling and see their wireframes, and use it as a guide to get yours running right.
If you mean the loops Tony shows you in Chapter 2, they will absolutely work for any kind of animal with a face. I’ve done a lizard, a camel, a dog, a fish, a giraffe, and flamingos with those loops. You’re on the right track.
Darren, where did you get those refs,are they from 2 different sources? My first impression is that the nose is not following the shape in the picture as close as it could in the front view ,but it does seem to in the side view. Keep up the good work.Ive done ape-peeps from my head before and the nose took some work.
JF
it looks like you need a bit more definition so i think you should add more faces in your model
that would define more the details of the face
around the eyes this need to be more inward deeper and also the nose is not good at all its got be big and bulky like the model"
look at the real supposed skull
the eye are way bigger than you monkey face
the back skull is a bit more screwed than you model
K. Going to fix up the nose and eye and eye sockets. Also, I will start to work on the back of the skull.
jcode:
Darren, where did you get those refs,are they from 2 different sources?
Yes! They are from two various sources. I tried to offset the background image and such so that it matches as close as possible. I realize, the two are still off but much of it is, again, visualization. So, it is not really matching the reference images completely.
I will continue working on this tomorrow or Wednesday. Busy with a million things this Monday and Tuesday. I’ll be back!
but ckeck the size of you eyes - a bit small
and you need something for the eyebrow some volume
and the eyelid too
for eyebrow there is a small vid on blendernation
try to upload an isometric view to see more the 3D effect
is there 2 meshes on your pic or only one it looks weird !
Salutations
When I add loop cuts around the eyes, it does not allow me to create a decent loop cut around. I am aware this has to do with the geometry of the face, but I simply can’t get it right. What is advisable to fix this?
It looks like your moth was pulled all the way in without scaling it up? I extrude mine in , then scale in the vertical, extrude again, either scale down on the second, or do it one more time before shrinking down the back. Didn’t see that eye thing coming in your first shot. There are usually 2 concentric rings in the center of the eye socket. You will need to cut your loop into the existing geometry first ,then rework the resulting faces till you get what you want. There may be other solutions but that is what I do.
JF
I understand one of the first things to do is to find reference images.
Here’s the problem… I’m not sure if the mouth region is supposed to be so cluttered with vertices:
