Thursday, January 24, 2013

Character Modeling tips and tricks

1. research

2. use reference planes!

3. draw - even in Maya!

4. establish "flow" as early as possible

5. Plan challenging areas in advance

6. Understand extrusion and smoothing

7. Quads everywhere

8. Use split poly, not interactive split tool

9. repeat thematic shapes and cuts throughout the model

10. Plan edges in advance

11. "Round out" the box model

12. Sculpt (move points) either the existing detail or scaffolding for future detail before adding additional detail.

13. Understand muscle structure and anatomy

14. Use snapping

15. Model symmetrically using reflection or by mirroring the geo

16. Mirror geo with merge verts SUCKS - use this script instead, and lower mergeThreshold until good:

polyMirrorFace -ws 1 -direction 1 -mergeMode 1 -ch 1 -mergeThreshold 0.01;

17. Look on cgtalk at killer models and see if the artist posted wires. If so, study and deconstruct

18. Use a wacom tablet, set it to mouse mode, and make the two pen buttons MMB and RMB

19. Use G (repeat last command) and Y (repeat last tool)

20. Save often!

21. Use soft select (B) to make gradual shape changes.

22. Delete the history as you go. 


23. Use F and A to frame selected and frame all - huge time savers!

24. Duplicate "good" models in progress and move them off to the side. Keeping copies of your progress helps to prevent progress loss.

25. Understand how to up and down res topology

http://www.3dworldmag.com/2011/09/21/create-the-best-character-models-for-games/

http://poly-face.com/Article_3D_Modelling_-_8_Tips_on_How_to_Make_Incredible_Character_Modelling

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