Opinion/Help on Geometry.

demonskunk

I'm working on a humanoid 3d model for class, and it's basically the second 3d model I've made - ever. This is a link to the Maya file for it.

http://d.pr/f/QodS

I have a couple of problems in particular, and have attached images pointing at the locations I'm having issues with.

1: (Chestleft.png and chestright.png) Does the geometry for the front of the jacket look right? There are supposed to be three large buttons that are going to go on the front when I'm done, but the geometry looks really dirty right now, and it's bothering me. Any ideas for improvement?

2: (Crotch.png) I've never modeled a humanoid form before, and therefore have never modeled a groin before. This is what I ended up with, and it doesn't look very groin-like. Any ideas on how I can fix it without completely demolishing my model?

3: (hand.png) I have a triangle on the back of the hand that is apparently unacceptable, and I'm not sure what to do with it (other than adding an entire edge loop, which seems a bit excessive)

Thanks to anyone who can lend me a hand. Here's the reference image for the model... I want to get those creases around the buttons, too, but they seem like a lot of trouble.

GeeDave

Are you allowed to have floating geometry for the buttons? If your lecturer forbids it then I suppose that's final, but in a real life situation, floating geo would be most appropriate here. I have a feeling this would make your hands a great deal easier too, as I guess the problem you're having is connecting with the wrist area?

For crotches, as with most other parts of the body I tend to visualise them in chunks, and be aware of how those parts will move. Here's a crude paint over as an example:



That's just a general topology guide, that doesn't even make sense if you try to copy it exactly, but it gets the point across.

demonskunk

Yes, the buttons are going to be floating geometry, it's just a matter of getting the creases in the jacket to look like the buttons fit into them.

and for the crotch: any way I could get that look without ripping the model apart? I'm incredibly green when it comes to the software (Maya 2013) and techniques involving this sort of thing.

GeeDave

Oh yeah, I completely forgot to comment on the creases... can you not just take care of that with the texture? You wouldn't normally model in creases for a low poly object. Baggy jeans for example would have the silhouette of looking baggy, but the creases/surface detail would be dealt with in texture.

As for altering your model, can't help you much there. You've made things tricky for yourself by welding most things together, especially if your brief is to use full quads. I would imagine your life would be made a lot easier if you were to start separating elements for a starters.

demonskunk

GeeDave wrote: »

Oh yeah, I completely forgot to comment on the creases... can you not just take care of that with the texture? You wouldn't normally model in creases for a low poly object. Baggy jeans for example would have the silhouette of looking baggy, but the creases/surface detail would be dealt with in texture.

As for altering your model, can't help you much there. You've made things tricky for yourself by welding most things together, especially if your brief is to use full quads. I would imagine your life would be made a lot easier if you were to start separating elements for a starters.

Separating elements?

GeeDave

Objects can be made up of multiple elements, Perhaps the terminology is different in Maya, I don't know. The buttons as floating geometry would be a good example, they'd be a part of your character mesh, but still separate, thus not welded into place.

The problem with you joining everything together is that your edge loops can get wildly out of control. For example... your hands. the easy solution here is to cut in some edges that go down the wrist, if the hand/wrist section was a separate element, you could easily achieve this without having to run edge loops all the way down the arm, and god knows where else.

demonskunk

GeeDave wrote: »

Objects can be made up of multiple elements, Perhaps the terminology is different in Maya, I don't know. The buttons as floating geometry would be a good example, they'd be a part of your character mesh, but still separate, thus not welded into place.

The problem with you joining everything together is that your edge loops can get wildly out of control. For example... your hands. the easy solution here is to cut in some edges that go down the wrist, if the hand/wrist section was a separate element, you could easily achieve this without having to run edge loops all the way down the arm, and god knows where else.

ah, yeah, that probably would have been a good idea. it wasn't suggested to me at the time, though, so I just sorta figured he wanted us to do them as one single model. except the head, that's going to be separate.