Please Post Some Tips on Organic Modeling...

Support Modeling
#1

I have been looking at: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=93651
and seeing anyways of corrected different 3D models, but I have trouble starting to model that character and placing the vertices where they are suppose to be… (I know these are all stupid questions, but I am really new to Blender and have been searching for help…) The trouble is I have been using tutorials I have found on the Internet but they only show me how to make their specific character or they only say do this, then this, and this and don’t give an explanation. I need help on finding away that I can Model my own 3D characters by using a certain thought process to get it to work. I am not totally sure what my problem is but I was wondering if you could offer me any advice on first starting and how to improve and have correct edge loops and etc… I also need help of forming the character with the least amount of polygons as possible while keeping them all quads.

Any help or advice or anything else would be greatly appreciated, please just don’t laugh at me… :frowning:

#2

Mr. Bomb has a few really good detailed video tutorials that you can down load for free. These are high poly organic (human faces and ear) modeling. You should find them very useful.
http://montagestudio.org/Site/Tutorials.html

#3

This is a tough question to answer, greenleaf52. The thread you reference is an advanced technique. It’s useful, vital even, but doesn’t make a whole lot of sense until you’ve had a certain amount of experience with organic models. Without seeing any of your work, it’s hard to figure out where you are in the process. And the “first step” or the “next step” would depend on how much you know now.

Most people start with a variation of box modeling. Use a six or eight sided cylinder to rough out an arm or a leg or a torso. If you start with quads, and just use loop cuts or extrudes to add vertices, your mesh should stay all quads. It’s when you start using the knife tool that you can get tris on the adjascent faces.

Box modeling usually doesn’t have good edge loops, but it will teach you how to get the vertices where you want them. You get a decent three dimensional shape, but it won’t deform well if you rig it.

Then people get into poly-by-poly modeling, where they actually do the characteristic edge loops first, then fill in the connections later. Very few people have the 3d spacial sense to jump straight to this without going through the box modeling phase. It’s an ability that develops with time and practice.

If you want to do really low poly organic modeling, I’d recommend starting with a cube, set smooth with subsurf at level 2. Then start extruding faces, pushing verts around… basically play with it to see what shapes you can get with subsurf. Don’t try for photorealistic portraits right away. Do some cartoon bears, or fish, or lizards.

Mr_Bomb’s tuts are poly-by-poly. Try them out, if you get good results, great, if not, do some box modeling for a while, then try them again.

When you start doing realistic modeling, use reference images.

#4

Thanks everyone for the help so far… I was wondering if telling you that I currently use the method of creating a plane and mirroring it and then extruding it to make the shape would help in the discription of what I am trying to do… I start on the nose area between the eyes and extrude down and create the nose and the nostrils (similar to the way in the video tutorial by mr_bomb that is found under the “Articles” link at the top of the page…). Then I try and do the eyes and the rest of the face… Then after a while it’s starts to get really sloppy. I don’t really want to make anything complex, just a mediumly complex cartoon character (I know cartoon and complex don’t belong in the same sentence I just couldn’t find the correct wording…). Is there some way of thinking that can be used to decide how to make a model, like some basic rules or guidelines that usually help to keep the 3D Model neat?

Thanks Again…

#5

Ah…that’s what you want. There are a whole series of Youtube video tutorials on making a cartoonish character called Dragonrose. It helped me a lot.
http://www.youtube.com/user/kipitku

#6

this is how i started so i don’t know how much help it will be to you be here it goes.
download makehuman> create a simple charicter you wish to make> inport i to blender> then start modeling either useing a vert by vert method or by box modeling.
the reason i found it better to use as a refferance rather than a 2d pic was for 2 reasons one was because unlike a background image you can see it from all angles, also if you get stuck and are unsure of how to go about placeing the verts you can always fick the make human model into edit mode to get a rough idea of where to put them. now im not saying you should follow the edge loops exactly as they will not suite every model or are they suited to every task but they can be helpful in gettingyou started.
ill try and posta make human link soon.
edit
here’s a link to make human
http://www.dedalo-3d.com/
hope it helps