Plane modelling help.

Chaosv49

Hey guys, as you know I do alot of prop modelling and sci fi stuff but over the past view weeks I've been looking into more character and creature modelling. I've been trying to do it with boxes ever since I got 3dsmax years ago but it just confuses me with vertices on side views on see through mode lol.

So here is a test of using planes its clearly a WIP but do you think its a good start? Am I going in the right direction? I really like the flow when you get the hang of it but I'm worried about how I'm gonna make it all more 3d and add a back and stuff but I have poly count to back me up

rooster

hah, given the recent joke threads I was half expecting someone asking for help modelling a quad

imo, you're getting into too much detail too soon here- quads are too small at the moment. if it was me, I'd be focusing on blocking the whole thing out with quads no smaller than twice the size of yours atm, unless it was really neccecarry. then, go in and cut it up for the details.

now, I can't see these pics and not try to pimp the 3d concepting technique which I enjoy so much, because (to me) it offers such nicer guidelines for this kind of modelling

http://www.redprodukt.com/post/3dconcept.pdf

what you can do here is chop up the guide planes and position them into more realistic 3d positions, to give a better sense of the concept in space. this helps a lot with those tricky 3/4 view bits- a big pitfall for just modelling with front and side ref

well, that's my advice

PS- don't forget that if you don't like modelling like that, or you're finding an area tricky- you can use splines. duplicate a bunch of splines up the arm, torso, leg etc, and arrange them to conform to cross sections of the body. then you can loft(or is it extrude?) them together into one continuous mesh- I think its touched upon in the doc

renderhjs

just do it and learn from that. You seem to favour patch modeling thats fine - I use it often for character faces.
The thing that suprises me is that you already have so many subdevisions even though you just started. I myself (I am not saying its the right way) usually would have far less polygons at such a state. Because its usually easier to add/tweak loops later once you have all body parts roughly in place.
As for the character reference: very us-comicstyle clich

Chaosv49

Patch modelling? Plane modelling? lol. Actually I don't favour them at all.. I just got into it. The concept was from a blue print site and wasn't mine. Thanks Renderhjs and Rooster

samgriffiths

I find it easier to block out a character using boxes and then add loops/ adjust topology from there, I'd say that in this case and perhaps IMO it would seem there is too much detail too fast.

Though It's all about finding your own work flow, experiment, If you get good results then why not.

Avanthera

I always work with way too high polycount when starting out on a project, and the amount of pain and patience it takes to tweak it, even slightly has made me think about changing my ways, but I just cant seem to get out of it :P
anyways, looks like a good start to me!!

bounchfx

the only recommendation I'm going to make right now is that you don't need your reference planes centered and crossed like that.

I used to do it that way but found that it quickly became annoying and got in the way of my actual modeling and or viewing the entire ref quickly. since you're only really using those for when you're in front and side camera views feel free to push them WAY out of the way.

When you switch back to Left/Right or Front view they should still appear to be in the same place.

Chaosv49

Hey guys, I'm not sure where to start next. I'm not sure how to get the arms going. Should I do the back and weld the end verts to the end verts of the front? Any help?

Mechadus

As a side tip - you can make your planes much less obnoxious in the viewport.... If you invert your images in photoshop (so its black with white lines) you can drop your maps into the opacity slot of a standard material, then set a color and turn self-illum all the way up - with transparency turned on the result is like a colored wireframe, rather than a huge obnoxious plane in the middle of what your trying to model.

-N

Chaosv49

I moved the planes. I used "see through" mode which works well. Thanks for the tip.

Chaosv49

Can anyone tell me how to go about doing the back? I really wanna finish a decent plane modelled character. I have no idea how to : Attach the back or limbs. thanks

raiskul

a few suggestions for the rest of the model:

1) look at images of muscle builders just so you can see how everything flows together (it helps in blocking out shapes)

2) check out Notic TheSheriff's tutorials on youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/NoticTheSheriff he does an entire character with plane modeling

3) the arms and legs try modeling them seperately from the body first and then attaching it makes it easier when your just focusing on one part at a time.

Chaosv49

Thanks man!

Chaosv49

Hey, I finished the legs but I want to attach them now. I attached the objects together. But for some reason I can't target weld the vertex's to the hip area of the chest. (In max right now the legs are beside the hip area)

renderhjs

check backface culling (right click object, properties > backface culling must be on) - so perhaps your faces are flipped

Also the way I would connect them is propably through bridge. Just slect the pair of edges you want to connect and hit the bridge button which will create faces between those edges

Chaosv49

renderhjs wrote: »

check backface culling (right click object, properties > backface culling must be on) - so perhaps your faces are flipped

Also the way I would connect them is propably through bridge. Just slect the pair of edges you want to connect and hit the bridge button which will create faces between those edges

The chest has back face cull checked. I cannot bridge the edges aswell. Are they flipped?

Chaosv49

Anyone?

renderhjs

step by step:

1.) selelct either chest or legs and convert to poly, In the editable polytab click "attach" and select the other body part. Now booth are 1 Poly/ Mesh

2.) go right click on this object and go: object properties > backface cullig

3.) now if some faces seem to be flipped select them and hit "flip" in the editPoly tab


for any other help just post screenshots so people can help you better

Chaosv49

I done exactly as you said and nothing is happening.

renderhjs

should work,- can't see anything odd,- the other way to create faces is
A.) goto face mode and rightclick in the viewport and select "create face" - then click through 4 vertex points which you want to define as a face (in circular order).

B.) in edge mode extend the edge holding shift and move them in a direction. The move those new extruded or extended edges to the other pair- select booth edges and try to weld veir vertex ends.

Chaosv49

Is it because it has no back? Its just a plane modelled chest.

Chaosv49

Does anyone want to have a go at this? I've got the exact same set up Render sugested. I cant weld a single vert to the hip or anything.

Chaosv49

I can't actually select the verts on the legs... only the chest. But they are one object...

Okt

Chaosv49 wrote: »

I can't actually select the verts on the legs... only the chest. But they are one object...

Go into the vertex sub selection mode of the poly mod and click on the unhide all. See if that gets you anywhere.

ez_jamin

Try deleting the polygon that's closing off the leg.. That's the only thing I see... could be something more complex tho.