With or without orthographic modeling

Boban

Hey.

I want to ask you guys. When you modeling something, let's say hard surface. I want to start with hard surface, and and in meantime i'll learn anatomy, but i want at least to model something in Maya.

But i can't find photos from all 4 sides, no matter what i look for.

So, it is wise, good, or bad and stupid to model with or without orthographic in Maya? Can i achieve the same thing, as i will model with orho. but this time without them?

Damian Nachman

Most of the time you won't find orthographic references. (unless you're working from blueprints).
You just have to get better at analyzing forms and replicating them from different angles.

Nosslak

Modeling from orthographic views is always easier of course. You will most probably not always get concepts that show the object from more than one side (depending on where you eventually end up obviously) so it is a good idea to try learning how to work without them and do some design decisions yourself on the fly. If you really need orthographic views you might want to learn how to draw them yourself.

The biggest problem with working without orthographic views is to get the correct proportions, but if you start with a simple blockout and keep adjusting it till you're happy with the proportions that shouldn't be too big of a problem. It usually helps a lot to try to set up the camera in a position as close as possible to the concept art/photo.

Boban

So how to model a vehicle? Ship? Car or anything like this? Do i need to get as much as possible reference material, and analyze the form and try to replicate it?

WarrenM

Yes, the number of times you'll have concept art nicely drawn from each ortho perspective, outside of tutorials, can be counted on zero fingers. Learn to deal with the 3D sketch. :P

SnowInChina

do a rough blockout first and tweak it so long until it fits

Justin Meisse

WarrenM wrote: »

Yes, the number of times you'll have concept art nicely drawn from each ortho perspective, outside of tutorials, can be counted on zero fingers. Learn to deal with the 3D sketch. :P

quoted for truth

McGreed

And when you take photos of objects, like front and sides, remember that you closer you are to it, the more distorted it will be (fisheye effect). From what I tried, it's better to stand further away and zoom in when taking the pictures.

Boban

I thought that at studio, you'll get orthographic view for whatever you model.

WarrenM

Usually the concept artists are so over tasked (everybody wants a piece of them) that you get a nicely drawn sketch of the object but ortho views are few and far between, in my experience...

MM

Boban wrote: »

I thought that at studio, you'll get orthographic view for whatever you model.

at a studio you are expected to model from anything and everything. to be a accurate modeler you have to be able to visualize the form in your mind without extensive help from multiple reference materials.

either way, having ortho reference doesnt mean you should use it.

in almost all of the projects where my client provided orthographic concept art it was inaccurate to begin with.

by inaccurate i mean the front ortho did not properly correspond to side ortho and neither of them matched up properly to the 3/4 perspective view.

i much rather prefer perspective 3/4 from front and back.

only in case of real world objects where there are blue prints then there might be accurate ortho reference to use for modeling.

ExcessiveZero

you gain a eye for proportion eventually, orthographic is good and all especially for humanoid reference, but you can get a idea of scale and theme and progress from that.

I remember early on I needed reference images and liked orthographic views now there's more of a artistic majesty to eyeing it and making it look right, its like riding your bike without stabilizers, its scary at first but freeing.

you get shitty concept art that has no detail and doesn't give you much than form and some colour you should smile, cause that there has just given you a wide open door to express your artistic freedom.

Oniram

sometimes what ill do is make a rough ortho sketch that has my intended size/shape.. say i get a concept of a car at a 3/4 view.. ill find a similar one that exists and use points of reference in a sketch (wheels and door position, height, etc). doesnt take very long and saves a lot of the guesswork while building the asset.

Justin Meisse

for characters I typically don't even get a back view unless there's an important detail back there I would miss. Plenty of characters I work on have 3 level progressions so the time needed to do orthos or back views is spent concepting tiers 1-3

ExcessiveZero

Justin Meisse wrote: »

for characters I typically don't even get a back view unless there's an important detail back there I would miss. Plenty of characters I work on have 3 level progressions so the time needed to do orthos or back views is spent concepting tiers 1-3

kind of funny that though as in most games most of what you see of a character tends to be the back.

passerby

even if you do get concept art sketched with multiple ortho views. it will cause problems, since the detials on each view wont be in the exact same space.

Just learn to work with what ever reference you get, which will mainly be perspective sketches, and photos.

Boban

Speaking of reference.
Where to find a proper anatomy reference from people? I tried to search by body type on google, but i am not getting from all angles or to get part of the body. For example if i want to search for overweight, i am getting only half of the body, not entire.

sprunghunt

Boban wrote: »

Speaking of reference.
Where to find a proper anatomy reference from people? I tried to search by body type on google, but i am not getting from all angles or to get part of the body. For example if i want to search for overweight, i am getting only half of the body, not entire.

here
http://www.3d.sk/

Boban

Thank you.