WIP: Female blender character

Skandal · Post by **Skandal** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:57 pm

http://home.student.uu.se/frax0795/womansuit5.jpg

I thought I'd show off a model I've made with Blender during my spare time. It is far from finished, the model lacks textures, hair, weapon holsters, rigging, animation, proper eyes etc. It is the first model I ever made which I dare to show publicly. Proportions might be slightly off at the moment, but I intend to put some effort into this character so all critique is welcome. The character is intended for use in a future Ogre3d project.

Jerky · Post by **Jerky** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 5:34 pm

Arms are too skinny and too long(they look like they were shorter and someone just stretched them out farther, cause they taper). Those arms look like they would go down to the kneecap if lowered, and they should only go to mid-thigh. You could do some work on the shape of the head as well. The ears might need to be a bit higher as well. The key is photo reference. places like http://www.3d.sk/ are great for this.

All in all, its a good start. Don't get frustrated and keep practicing.

Skandal · Post by **Skandal** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 6:56 pm

Yeah, you're right, arms are a disaster, I've been working on them a little bit after I posted but they are difficult to get right proportion wise.

The head is actually modeled after photo reference=) I actually thought that the ears looked kind of funny when I traced the profile. I do think that the top of the head is a bit squarish, and maybe a bit conelike. My dear models hair is probably quite a bit thicker than I estimated it to be.

I'll post an update later when I've made some more progress.

Post by **Kencho** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 7:07 pm

Can I suggest http://forums.cgsociety.org/ and specially the threads about 2D WIP->Anatomy? They helped me a lot in 2D drawing and painting, and though I'm not a master in 3D modelling, that understandment of the human body meant in a significative improvement modelling human features

Jerky · Post by **Jerky** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 7:39 pm

Yeah, CGTalk is an awesome place. I go there all the time, sometimes just for inspiration.

Looking forward to the update.

Skandal · Post by **Skandal** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 8:13 pm

Thanks guys

I've made an ortonormal shot of her arm, I think the arm has the correct total length since she can reach a few centimeters below her crotch. For the moment I'm most unhappy with her hand.

I also added more geometry to the arm, but perhaps I need more still.
http://home.student.uu.se/frax0795/womansuit8.jpg

I altered her head so it is less square and conish on top, it's slightly more spherical now.

http://home.student.uu.se/frax0795/womansuit7.jpg

Jerky · Post by **Jerky** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:18 pm

Looking better. Keep working on it.

Max.Power · Post by **Max.Power** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:03 pm

It looks like it's coming along nicely, but it has a lot of poligons and not a lot of detail. I would also recommend that you research some anatomy as you build the model, and maybe do some sketches of the anatomy you're studying so you get a better feel for how everything flows together. Even the skinniest people have some muscle definition and shape.

Skandal · Post by **Skandal** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:28 pm

Thanks for the comments guys:D

I've made a few changes since yesterday. The arms have been redone completely because the mesh was really ugly there. I made a wire of the model to make it easier for you to judge the geometry.

http://home.student.uu.se/frax0795/womanwire.jpg

Also, when this model is fully decorated with holsters and additional clothes I hope to keep it within 5000-7000 polygons. (Alyx in Half-life 2 is 7000 polygons). Currently this model is 3300 polygons at the first subdivision level. When it's not subdivided at all, it is 800 polys.

This image is just an updated image at a higher subdivision level

http://home.student.uu.se/frax0795/womansubdiv.jpg

I'm having a lot of trouble fitting the eyes into the model

http://home.student.uu.se/frax0795/womaneyes.jpg

I don't know if this is the right method for realtime models? Are the eyeballs exactly spherical or can I compress them slighly on one axis? (It would make animation harder though so that's probably a bad idea)

I think the eyelids protrude a bit too much from the face if I fit them as close as I want them to the eyeballs. If anyone knows of a good tutorial somewhere it would really make my day=) (The tutorial does not have to be blender specific)

Post by **Kencho** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:51 pm

Hope you don't mind much, but took the freedom to do some quick sketches on one screenshot you submitted.

Here I drew the main bone structure in green, and the most importnant muscles in blue. I based the drawing on "Anatomy lessons from the great masters", though any anatomy document or book should do the work. Pay special attention to the length of the bones (even in my drawing, the forearm is too long; it should be a bit shorter than the arm), and to the thumb. Though the hand palm is too flat, it's fine, but the thumb should be slightly below the axis of the forearm/wrist. Also, forgot to add the cheeks in the skull!

Another note is the shoulder. When the arm is risen up, the deltoideus muscle contracts and grows wider, so the shoulder should have a shape similar to that one.

Here I drew how the model should look like (it's a sketch, so it's not correct either!) according to the anatomy study above.

Hope this helps (and hope not to sound too academic and know-it-all ^_^' )

And yes, she looks anorexic even in my sketches, hahaha ^_^'

Skandal · Post by **Skandal** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:26 pm

Thank you very much Kencho:D

I'll send her off to the gym, and I'll post some screens when she gets back:D

danharibo · Post by **danharibo** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 7:44 pm

WOW! you know how to use blender!

Jerky · Post by **Jerky** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 8:45 pm

Nicely done Kencho. Anatomy is hard. If you want a real challenge, do a horse. My first model in ZBrush was of a horse. Took me a long time to get the shape right. Even professional games, like Darkfall Online, have a hard time making horses look right. Personally, I dont like the look of theirs. WoW, on the other hand, does a nice job.

Skandal · Post by **Skandal** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:41 pm

Sorry for the sudden lack of updates, real life showed its ugly face in the form of work and an old statistics exam. I'll post some updates later next week.

danharibo · Post by **danharibo** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:03 pm

how do you aply textures in blender?

Skandal · Post by **Skandal** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:12 pm

Check out the material tutorials on this page

http://www.blender.org/cms/Tutorials.243.0.html

Good luck

danharibo · Post by **danharibo** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 9:10 pm

thank you!

Skandal · Post by **Skandal** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:46 am

I've beefed up and shortened her arms slightly.

I've tried setting up armatures for animation and it seems I have to rework the geometry near seams to get her to animate properly.

http://home.student.uu.se/frax0795/womangym.jpg