Modeling a Character in 3DS Max

545 Pages·2002·27.83 MB·English

by  Paul Steed

Y
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Modeling a Character in
3DS Max
Paul Steed
Wordware Publishing, Inc.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Steed,Paul.
Modelingacharacterin3dsMax / byPaulSteed.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-55622-815-5(pb)
1. Computeranimation. 2. Computergraphics. 3. 3dsMax4(Computerfile).
I. Title.
TR897.7.S742001
006.6'96--dc21 2001035031
CIP
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Contents
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Part I - Design
Chapter 1 Design Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Make It Cool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Drawing Skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Proportions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Reference Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Influences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Work Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 2 Callisto Designed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Makeover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A Pose to Build By . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Getting Her into the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Step 1: Scan the Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Step 2: Save It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Step 3: Resize the Images in Photoshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Step 4: Darken It. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Step 5: Save it Again. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Part II - Modeling
Chapter 3 The Guide Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Step 1: Bring the Image into MAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Step 2: Create the Guideline Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Step 3: Attach the Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Step 4: Create the Rest of the Guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Step 5: Scale the Guideline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Step 6: Make and Adjust the Head Reference Object . . . . . . . . 54
iii
Contents
Chapter 4 The Head and Face. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Step 1: Create a Geosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Step 2: Scale the Geosphere to Fit the Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Step 3: Delete Half the Geosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Step 4: Tweak the Shape of the Geosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Step 5: Add Vertices By Dividing Edges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Step 6: Tweak the Shape Some More. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Step 7: Switch Viewports and Tweak Some More . . . . . . . . . . 87
Step 8: Mirror the Head Half as a Reference Object . . . . . . . . 94
Step 9: Shape the Mouth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Step 10: Build the Eye Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Chapter 5 The Hair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Step 1: Extrude Faces from the Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Step 2: Move the Vertices to Match the Guide. . . . . . . . . . . 116
Step 3: Add Vertices Using Edge Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Step 4: Weld Excess Vertices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Step 5: Just Match the Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Step 6: Weld the Two Halves Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Step 7: Make Final Face Tweaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Step 8: Shift-Drag Edges to Add the Bangs . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Step 9: Flip “Wrong” Facing Normals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Step 10: Connect the Bangs to the Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Chapter 6 The Torso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Step 1: Create the Spline Cage Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Step 2: Apply Surface Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Step 3: Move and Adjust the Vertices of the Spline. . . . . . . . . 147
Step 4: Delete Any Unnecessary Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Step 5: Create the Breast Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Step 6: Boolean the Breast onto the Torso. . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Step 7: Cap the Faces of the Torso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Step 8: Perform the Boolean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Step 9: Clean Up the Boolean Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Step 10: Add Some Clothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Step 11: Use Soft Selection to Reduce the Chest Size . . . . . . . 173
Chapter 7 The Legs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Step 1: Make a Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Step 2: Shape the Cylinder to Match the Guide . . . . . . . . . . 179
Step 3: Boolean the Leg to the Torso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Step 4: Clean Up the Vertices of the Boolean Seam . . . . . . . . 192
Step 5: Shape the Hip Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Step 6: Shape and Position the Rear for Attachment. . . . . . . . 205
Step 7: Attach the Rear and Complete the Shape . . . . . . . . . 215
Step 8: Copy and Mirror the Lower Torso and Leg. . . . . . . . . 220
iv
Contents
Chapter 8 The Back, Neck, and Shoulders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Step 1: Shape the Back. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Step 2: Create the Neck Mass Using Face Extrude. . . . . . . . . 237
Step 3: Refine and Optimize the Neck Mass. . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Step 4: Prepare the Torso for the Shoulder . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Step 5: Extrude and Shape the Shoulder . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Step 6: Copy, Mirror, and Attach the Shoulder. . . . . . . . . . . 258
Step 7: Make More Refinements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Step 8: Build the Neck/Shoulder Strap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Step 9: Prep the Neck Surface and Attach the Strap . . . . . . . . 272
Chapter 9 The Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Step 1: Merge an Arm from Another Max File. . . . . . . . . . . 282
Step 2: Shape and Attach the Arm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Step 3: Mirror-Copy the Arm to the Other Side . . . . . . . . . . 300
Step 4: Add Detail to the Left Arm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Step 5: Loft the Tubing for the Left Arm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Step 6: Build the Left Shoulder Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Chapter 10 The Boots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Step 1: Merge a High-Res Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Step 2: Identify Key Vertices of the Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Step 3: Hide More Non-Essential Vertices of the Boot . . . . . . . 332
Step 4: Build the Low-Res Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Step 5: Optimize the Low-Res Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Step 6: Mirror the Boot to the Other Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Chapter 11 Optimizing the Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Optimization Explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Consolidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Hidden Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Sacrifice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Relative Face Distribution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
The Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Step 1: Optimize the Hair. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Step 2: Optimize the Forehead and Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Step 3: Optimize the Mouth and Chin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Step 4: Optimize the Nose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
The Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Step 1: Detach the Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Step 2: Use Polygon Counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Step 3: Optimize the Throat and Upper Shoulders . . . . . . . . 370
Step 4: Detach the Asymmetrical Chest Geometry. . . . . . . . . 372
Step 5: Delete Half the Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Step 6: Optimize the Back, Sides and Midsection . . . . . . . . . 376
Step 7: Optimize the Chest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Step 8: Optimize the Rear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
v
Contents
Step 9: Optimize the Legs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Step 10: Give the Body One Last Look . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Step 11: Copy, Mirror, and Join the Optimized Body Half . . . . . 400
Step 12: Tweak and Attach “Frontal” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Step 13: Optimize the Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Step 14: Optimize the Hand by Turning It into a Fist. . . . . . . . 417
Part III - Texturing
Chapter 12 Mapping the Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Texturing Explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
UVW and XYZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Applying Coordinates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
“Skinning” Your Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
The Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Step 1: Apply an Edit Mesh Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Step 2: Arrange the Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Step 3: Adjust the Vertices for a Planar Projection . . . . . . . . . 442
Step 4: Apply a UVW Map Modifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Step 5: Use Texporter to Create a Bitmap Template . . . . . . . . 455
Step 6: Create and Apply the Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Step 7: Apply Unwrap UVWs and Turn Off Edit Mesh . . . . . . . 460
Step 8: Tweak UV Problem Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Step 9: Use Texporter, Make a New Bitmap, and Reload It. . . . . 465
Step 10: Refine the Bitmap in Photoshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Step 11: Load the New Bitmap and Tweak the UVs . . . . . . . . 470
Step 12: Assign Mapping Coordinates to the Bangs. . . . . . . . 478
Step 13: Create and Apply the Material to the Bangs . . . . . . . 479
Chapter 13 Mapping the Rest of Callisto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Minor Adjustments... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
Create a Quick and Easy Leg Texture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Step 1: Apply an Edit Mesh Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Step 2: Position and Adjust the Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Step 3: Apply a UVW Map Modifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Step 4: Make the Bitmap Template with Texporter . . . . . . . . . 493
Step 5: Align the Mapping Gizmo to the View. . . . . . . . . . . 494
Step 6: Merge Lights into the Scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Step 7: Apply a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Step 8: Set the Background Color to Gray . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Step 9: Render the Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Step 10: Create and Apply a New Material . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Step 11: Apply Unwrap UVW and Turn Edit Mesh Off . . . . . . . 500
Arranging the Body Pieces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Step 1: Arrange the Torso Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Step 2: Arrange the Leg Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
vi
Contents
Step 3: Arrange the Right Arm Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Step 4: Arrange the Left Arm Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Step 5: Arrange the Boot Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
Step 6: Arrange the Elements and Assign the UVW Map. . . . . . 509
Step 7: Attach Head to Body and Reorganize the UVs. . . . . . . 511
Step 8: Make a New Bitmap Template with Texporter . . . . . . . 514
Step 9: Create and Apply the Template Material. . . . . . . . . . 515
Step 10: Create the Final Texture/Material . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Step 11: Copy, Mirror, and Attach the Missing Geometry . . . . . 516
Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Texturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
vii
Acknowledgments
WritingabookisawholeheckofalotmoreworkthanIthoughtitwouldbe.
It’sadraining,soul-searching,sleep-deprivingexperiencethatIcan’twaittodo
again!TherearemanypeopleIwanttoacknowledgeforreasonsrelatedand
unrelatedtothedirectcreationofthisbook.
Jim,Wes,Tim,andBethareamazinglypatientandendearingindividualswho
areverygoodatwhattheydoatWordware.Theyputupwithallthevarious
manifestationsofmy“firstbook”angstandtookitinstride.Icommendthem
andthankthem.
PeterC.Lewis,co-workerandpalwhogavemeanextrasetofeyesasmy
technicaleditor,broughtexperienceasbothanindustryveteranandteacherat
DigiPentohissuggestionsandcorrectionstothemanuscript.Beer’sonme
nexttime!
Thankstothecreatorsof3DStudioMax:Discreet.I’vebeenusing3DStudio
since1992,andwhatevertheycalltheiroffspring,Autodeskhasmuchtobe
proudofwhentheylookatthemakersofthemostwidelyused3Dtoolingame
developmenttoday.
AspecialthanksalsogoesouttomyidMomma,too.Iloveyou,Ms.Donna!
OverthepastfiveyearsI’vemetanamazingrangeofpeoplewhoareapartof
theonlinecommunity.Someoftheoneswhohelpkeepitrealare:Sean“Red-
wood”Martin,someonewho’salwaystheretohelpeveryoneoutandnottake
sides;Milla“Chiq”Bennett,atruegamergirlwhounderstandsthemaleanimal
andlikeshimanyway;Drew“Rogue13”Rischatthe“paragonofcool”site
knownasPolycount;andfinally,thevivaciousyetsagemomandwebmistress,
Jen“Mynx”Bailey.
Dedication
Tomyfamily:Marion,Trent,andBrianna—thisone’sforyou!
Introduction
Introduction
Likemostofmypeersinthecomputergameindustry,I’mself-taughtinwhatI
do.I’velearnedhowtocreateartwithacomputerbyreadingmanuals,doing
tutorials,andsimplyputtinginthehoursworkinginthegamingindustry.I’ve
beenfortunateenoughtoworkforsomegreatcompaniesandwithsomegreat
artists.I’dliketosayI’velearnedalotfromthoseartists,butunfortunatelyI
haven’t.I’velearnedtogetfasterbecausetheotherartistnexttomeiscrank-
ingthestuffoutfasterthanIcan.I’velearnedjusthowbadmylatest
masterpiecesucksbecauseofhowcoolthestuffisthatotherpeoplearoundme
aredoing.Manyofthoseartistswouldlovetositdownandtutorothersintheir
ways,butunfortunatelythere’sbarelytimetolearn,letaloneteach.There’s
justnotenoughtimeinthedaytogetyourworkdoneandbebothstudentand
teacher.Timeisaluxuryandaveryhotcommodityinthegamedevelopment
world.
WhileIcan’tpointtoanyonepersonasamentororteacher,Ihavedefinitely
pickeduptipsandtricksbysimplywatchingothersdoartonthecomputer.
That’showI’veapproachedthisbook.Iwantyoutowatchmedomything.I
wanttosharewhatI’velearnedandhopefullyteachyouafewthingsinthepro-
cess.IwanttosharewhatI’vestuffedintomyheadandfingersoverthepast
nineyears,fourcompanies,andninegamesbecauseIknowhowhardthatkind
ofinformationistocomeby.Evenifyou’reexperiencedatmodelingandcreat-
ingcharacters,Iguaranteeyou’lllearnatrickortwofromjustobservinghow
someoneelsedoesit.
Bypurchasingthisbookyou’vedecidedtoseeifsomeoneelsecanhelpteach
youtoteachyourself.Specificallyyouwanthelpinlearninghowtocreategreat,
low-polycharactersinMax.I’mbettingthatsomeone(me)can.Beforewarned,
though,I’mnotjustaddinganotherdidactic,strictlyeducational,drytechnical
manualtoyourcollection.Iwantedthisbooktoreflectalittlemorepersonality.
I’veincludedoccasionalanecdotal“authorizeddigressions”orsmalltalesoflife
“inthetrenches”asadeveloper.I’vealsoincludedFYIs,ForYourInformation
factoidsorobservationsthatpertaintothematerialbeingcovered.Filethem
awayforreferenceorskippastthem—it’suptoyou.
ix