Teeth and gums, how do I do it?

System

Whenever I model characters I always left out the teeth and gums, and simply model a closed mouth.

Then reason for that is quite simple, I have no idea how to model this!
What is the best way to this, do you start with a single tooth or start out with the gums? Also anyone who has some good reference?

Zelly.

xk0be

I guess you'd model it just like you'd model anything else. Make a simple mouth piece type thing that boxers use, just put it up higher so it will act as the gums. That's how I'd do it anyways. Box model each tooth. Depending on how much detail you need you can sculpt it, remember you have the perfect reference, just look at your mouth with a mirror.

Rwolf

Easiest way is just to model a C/Horseshoe, and use textures for teeth/gums. I guess then, use that as refrence if you want to go into more detail.

You can also find orthographics of teeth layout from the top bottom side etc.

ZacD

I actually have a model of some teeth/mouth I got somewhere, I think it was a tutorial or some sort of freebie thing.

Here's the obj



If that was my result from modeling, I'd probably bake it to 2 c shaped planes, might go more detailed if I wanted an open mouth screen shot.

System

Wow thanks alot ZecD what really helped me understand the proportions!

Calabi

You can get some free teeth from a gnomon tutorial.

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/category.php?page=3

There probably the source of Zacds ones.

Mark Dygert

It depends on so many things.

Is the character going to open their mouth?
Is the character going to talk a lot or just smile a toothy grin once?
How important are the teeth?
How close does the camera/player get?
What is the overall scope of the game? Is this an RTS unit or a MMO quest giver person of interest?
What else is going on in the environment?
What kind of hardware is the game running on? iphone, PC or somewhere in between?

butt_sahib

I'd stay away from C shaped planes for teeth. With the polygonal limits generally in the air, id probably go in make a low res version of the gums.

Also,
use the search function to check out more info

BradMyers82

Making teeth look right especially if they are showing a lot is really tough.

To be honest, it just takes a lot of patients, tweaking and looking at reference.

When I sculpt teeth and gums, I always open max and make a curved evenly subdivided block for the gums (top and bottom). Then I make sub divided blocks for the teeth and throw a relax or two on them. I make the gums one object, and the teeth teeth another, so I can move them independently when in a sculpting app.
I then use zbrush or mudbox and sculpt away.

Again, lots of reference and lots of patients is what you need. Here is an example of something I sculpted a while back that I never quite finished. Good luck!

Eric Chadwick

Here's an example of low-poly teeth from the FaceTopology wiki page, might help you.
http://wiki.polycount.com/FaceTopology?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=JuliusHettig_game-teeth.jpg