I just wanted to know other people’s thoughts about using MakeHuman rather than modeling your own humanoid from scratch.
MakeHuman definitely takes away from the personal touch only because the computer pretty much does everything but the final pose that the creator does using the included rig.
But… MakeHuman takes away ALL errors in modeling the human body, including structure, typology, etc. And it’s a quick, easy way to get almost if not exactly what you’re looking for.
At this point I prefer using MakeHuman, only because my pictures have more than just the human, it’s not like I’m modeling a portrait or anything (or haven’t yet for that matter).
There’s nothing wrong with starting with a Makehuman mesh and altering it to your needs either. In fact, in The Incredibles, nearly every character was an altered version of one of their “Universal Man” meshes.
Like blend_b said only background character and one of the TD’s even jokingly protested that those characters went supposed to be seen up close but suddenly like in the case of Bernie the were extreme close ups.
I think you should use what tools get the job done, make human, models off blend swap, your own old models, kit bashing etc. save time for what really matters.
I use makehuman because I am horrible at organic modeling. I am working on it, but its MakeHuman in the meantime. I have even used MH base meshes to sculpt on at times.
Depends on what you want to do. If you want more generic realistic people, then use MakeHuman. For exaggerated caricature-type people and characters that aren’t “realistic” in some way, you have to make those with a sculpting method (sculptmode, sculptris, zbrush etc.)
Even sculpt apps need some sort of basemesh, but usually not as detailed, more of a basic silouette type mesh.
Personnally i like creating base models/shapes in Blender and sculpting them in Sculptris, then retopologize them in Blender.
But often i do not end with something like a generic human or with generic proportion, they have “my touch”, and if for whatever reason i really need a character that look like a generic human in both shape and proportions, makehuman can be an excellent solution, especially if development time is limited.
Nothing wrong in both developping your own character or using a makehuman character base, just do what gives you the most satisfaction or what give you the better result if you have a specific goal and deadline.
Makehuman is good for general human character models. It’s also a good way to create a base mesh for non-human characters. Even professionals use character model generators to get the job done as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Way before software like Makehuman, modelers kept libraries of pre-made character models and body parts to pull from when starting a new project. If working modelers had to create character models from scratch every time they started a new project, they wouldn’t be in business for very long. There is no shame in using Makehuman…
Depends on the working environment, but I say build one from scratch just to expand your experience and also to get exactly what you want, if you have the luxury of time. But, I feel that way about most things though- it’s kind of like how they teach you the long hard way of doing calculus before letting you in on the easy secrets
