https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5398233/manikin/legribbons.blend
as part of a set of items for MakeHuman i need to do the ribbons found on a ballerinas lower legs what would be the best way to model these
1 with as few verts as possble
2 using only quads
3 not doing this by hand
?
they should match the shoes in the blend
What the ____ is a pointe shoe ribbon?
If you want to import the model in MH you can only use quads.
If it has to deform with the character you need more verts. How do you want to render it: realtime, offline?
And seriously, what does that ribbon look like? Any picture?
getting a proper picture is a bit fiddley but http://weheartit.com/entry/group/3151337 is a decent copy.
the ribbons are used to secure a ballerinas pointe shoes.
part of the advise thing is using as few verts as i can
“part of the advise thing is using as few verts as i can”
what is that ADVISE THING?
Not super familiar with MakeHuman requirements, so grain of salt etc. But in general for trying to wrap something thin around a pre-existing form, I tend to use Snap During Transform set to faces, then you can extrude edges along the surface quite easily. Use just enough vertices to keep it following the limb rather than clipping through it. At most you’ll need a similar number of faces as are in the base form, and possibly can get away with fewer.
Once you have the layout you can use shrinkwrap modifier with offset to get the new mesh above the base form if needed, or you can solidify modifier so the outside surface is above the base form (this makes it pretty convincing that it’s a tightly wrapped ribbon). Which approach you use depends on what the final render is going to be like - at longer distances you won’t see much difference between a plane and a solid, but if you’re intending to do closeups of the ribbons it should probably look solid. If you’re really trying to be frugal with faces you can delete the inner surface, keeping only the edges.
Now, the “not doing this by hand” part…probably impossible 