Simple Character Modeling Test in 2.5
on October 13th, 2009, by angela
Please note, this simple model is *not* our actual character for the movie. The purpose of creating this simple model is merely to test 2.5 modeling, rigging, animation.
My task last week was to test 2.5 modeling tools by creating a quick, simple, young female character – as well as reporting any bugs, missing/broken hotkeys, etc. along with the team. Most were fixed last week, while the rest were noted and I continued on using work-arounds. Among some modeling features planned for and discussed over the course of the week: sculpt, retopo, bmesh/ngons.
Next up on this model, testing facial setup & shape-keys!
Angela
October 13th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
That is really well modelled! ;D
October 13th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Dang, imagine what they will be able to do when 2.5 is actually more feature complete. It would be nice to know what modeling techniques were used. For example was it sculpted/propportional edited etc. What problems did you encounter? Did you have do any of the work in 2.4x and then move it to 2.5?
October 13th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I’m really liking the stuff I am hearing, I’m a tough audience, glad to hear about this “workflow” for development purposes….I also like the way all of you have been blogging this stuff, as opposed to one or two of you doing all the blogging….BTW: Dr. Ton, Go make some pancakes!…or is his week over?
seriously, good stuff.
October 13th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Wow. If this is a “simple” model I can’t wait to see the detailed ones.
Excellent modelling! Durian FTW!
October 13th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Very nice model 😀
October 13th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
This is a really cool model! I like the natural proportions, ie. ample hips and cleavage you won’t loose a badger in, I hope those ideals stay in the final model 🙂
Three thumbs up, Angela (I have a spare… war trophy 😉 )
October 13th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
What a clean model! And cute too, can’t wait to see this one in some animation tests etc. Keep it up!
October 13th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
this is a very skillful demonstration of modeling and i’m really enjoying studying the topology–very clean lines. thank you so much for sharing!
cheers to Angela and the Durian team 😉
October 13th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Excellent work on the clean model, and creating it with 2.5 ( and of course for reporting the bugs to get fixed – initially it must be a bit frustrating, but you have some world class coders there at your command! 🙂
It’s great to see the team communicating a lot more with Durian – even at this early stage, the $$ for the DVD was worth it!
Keep up the great work, and the reporting ( from the whole team! )
October 13th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Nice work on the model 🙂 I’m enjoying the blog so far!
– Alastair / DivX
October 13th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Thanks for your comments!
@ Terry Wallwork: No sculpt tool used. Majority of the model created with face extrusion, adding edge loops, mirror tool, proportional edit. Clothing’s starting point created by duplicating body mesh. In order to keep the model light, unnecessary body geometry hidden underneath clothing were deleted. Right arm body geo underneath the sleeve was preserved for cloth sim (sleeve & hair). Necklace string created using curve. For arm bands I first created a flat band encircling around the arm, added shrinkwrap, applied it, then modeled the rest through extrusion, adding edge loops, manual modeling/tweaking.
One new feature I particularly like is the ability to update an added mesh’s resolution in real time!
Some problems encountered while modeling: For necklace ornament, torus didn’t exist at the time, so I started with a cylinder instead. Flip normals (ctrl + n) a bit buggy (so used ctrl + f), no retopo tool, no skin/loft too, proportional edit hotkey (o) does not work, “brush selection tool” (b+b) has been replaced with “circle select tool” (c) though options to scaling the brush currently doesn’t work, and has to be re-pushed with each selecting/de-selecting stroke. These have been noted.
Last week fixes included: Edge loop delete, “v” rip, shortcut to vert/edge/face mode, hide select/unselected in edit mode
Some fixes this week include: Torus & skin/loft ported from 2.4, hotkeys for window types now work, a new snap option has replaced retopo.
@Mal: Yes, we’ve been keeping our world class coders very busy! 🙂
Angela
October 13th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Wow – this “simple” model looks awesome!! Downloading the blend file now…
I am very excited that *you* are modeling the main character. The best female CG characters I have seen was created by females. Thanks for the update and good luck! 🙂
October 13th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
WOW! That’s a really nice model!
Opened in 2.49a too! Crazy!
Looking forwaed to the real one!
October 13th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
@Angela: Have you tried C for the brush tool? 😉
October 13th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Thanks for sharinhg the blend
October 13th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
What a beautiful model. Your sense for proportions is fascinating.
Thank you, Angela!
October 13th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Great stuff. Nice to see you producing real women. 🙂 Considering all the hoopla going on with fashion mangazines touching up women to look unnatural, its nice to see at least the concept of a female hero looking realistic. 🙂
October 14th, 2009 at 12:12 am
thats nice 🙂
how many hours did you use to model it.
October 14th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Nice ^^
October 14th, 2009 at 12:42 am
@Wahooney
She is talking about The brush selection tool which is B+B in edit mode.
October 14th, 2009 at 1:13 am
The “brush selection tool” (B+B) in 2.4x is now the “circle select tool” (C) in 2.5
October 14th, 2009 at 1:28 am
@TheGrayK:
Try pushing ‘c’ in edit mode… It does have to be re-pushed if you want to keep selecting/deselecting, but otherwise I think it’s the same. At some point it will probably be moved (to a mouse button I rather hope?) and fixed to act more like before. It is there, though.
Anyway, very nice, clean model, congratulations! I’m looking forward to seeing the next step.
How come the interface is laid out in 2.4x fashion? I guess it’s so anyone can see it normally in a standard release, but I wish it had been in 2.5. 🙂
October 14th, 2009 at 1:32 am
Oops, took too long to post. You beat me to it, Aligorith. 🙂 Was still admiring the model. 😉 C=circle select, okay, makes sense. Probably better than a two button push.
October 14th, 2009 at 2:44 am
Nice Topology! 🙂
October 14th, 2009 at 2:48 am
I do hope the actual character will be wearing a bit more clothing!
October 14th, 2009 at 4:15 am
This. looks. way. awesome!
October 14th, 2009 at 4:44 am
@ Jared Spurbeck
are you offended by bellybuttons, knuckles and collar bones? how risque!
if it was a thong and bra i would understand you concern, but jesus h. …
here’s an idea… let’s have a character made of starched and pressed fabric…
October 14th, 2009 at 7:16 am
que tal…
muy bonito el modelo; tanto que no me resisti a meterle mano…
aquí les dejo lo que me salio…
http://www.4shared.com/file/140755613/2170e91a/model_test1.html
definitivamente a Angela es a la que más voy a estar viendo en el transcurso del proyecto 🙂
saludos…
October 14th, 2009 at 9:32 am
@invertedNormal:
I was thinking the same thing as Jared, not because nudity offends me, though. It just seems strange, that typically the female fighter/hero-type is always depicted half-naked, which seems highly impractical. I for one would not go battling a dragon with large patches of vulnerable skin unprotected… 😉
October 14th, 2009 at 9:34 am
forgot to say… awesome model!
October 14th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Haha, already the too naked/not naked enough discussion from both the ethical and practical point of view. Fantasy girl model for a, what Ton called, an adolescent fantasy movie with dragons and fire and stuff. And with fire she would probably also use face protection? Or maybe she’s a cyborg after all 🙂 (Sci-fi/fantasy cross over)
I just assume she was just enjoying her day when being attacked by a dragon leaving no time to put her battle gear on 🙂
Maybe the final character starts out in full battle gear and the fight make her loose her clothes bit by bit. The big dramatic story point will up the ante…. making sure she defeats the dragon before being totally naked 😀 Then we have the best from both worlds, eh? (And saving the best for last 😀 )
Anyway for a quick test this model looks awesome!
October 14th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Just a question about the durian project. It willl be a cartoon or a realistic project?
October 14th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Yes, “brush selection tool” (b+b) has been replaced with “circle select tool” (c) though options to scaling the brush currently doesn’t work, and has to be re-pushed with each selecting/de-selecting stroke. These have been noted. (Updated my response comment above).
@lich: 1 week (Monday start to Friday deadline), around 40+ hours of test drive. Much of this time also included communication between artist and coder.
@MuMu33: We keep this surprise for the Blender Conference 😉
October 14th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Thanks Angela.This is a great resource for a beginner like me!!
October 14th, 2009 at 11:40 am
It’s reminds me of ATI’s Ruby 😛
http://www.co2-solid.ro/uploads/2009/01/ati-ruby.jpg
October 14th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
angela Hi! your work is awesome !! it inspire me to mesh human tryout.
I’m happy to see very good result of my work.your very lucky to have gone to work for the Blend foundation.I wish I had.anyway best wishes !
cheer!
October 14th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
angela Hi! your work is awesome !! it inspire me to mesh human tryout.
cheer!
October 14th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Amazing model! I can almost see her in the film…. maybe a sidekick 😉
October 14th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
One thing I thought I wanted to note after looking at the mesh was that there was one slight anatomical abnormality in her face.
Even if it was intentionally part of the style, I thought it might be insightful for some to note that the curve of the face outline at the level of the mouth when seen from the front is usually caused by the jaw.
In this model, the curve was instead given by the cheeks, making the girl have bulgier cheeks and abnormally narrowed jaw. This normally is not acceptable if you were striving for realism.
The fix would simply involve spreading out the jaw of the mouth and sucking back her buccinators to normal.
Just thought I’d people know. 🙂
October 14th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Wow,awesome model.thanks for sharing!Clean edgeloops and modeling,this is like pure gold for learning topology!Will you post the rigged version as well?
Good luck Durian team,you are the BEST!
October 15th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Excellent model Angela, she definitely has a very human feel to her- I’ll bet it got to that weird point when modeling when it was like she was looking back at you….
October 15th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Some questions.
Is there anyone using OSX version of 2.5? I’m curious how do you develop Blender there. Do you first develop windows version for example and then OSX and Linux…, or all side by side?
And are you using “inside version” of 2.5 or just some version from http://www.graphicall.org/builds/ ?
Anyway, looks very promising! Keep posting 🙂
October 16th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Great model. Very clean mesh. Thank you for sharing!
October 16th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Hey Tak, from my experience building blender for linux is significantly easier then windows or mac, mainly because getting the development tools and dependencies is more straightforward on linux.
That said, there are some tutorials around that show how to build blender for OSX and Windows too, so it depends a bit on the docs available at the time and how experienced you are with development tools.
At the moment blender 2.5 has had some fairly big changes like switching to python3.1 which complicates building in some cases, this also puts some docs out of date. Once things are a bit more stable we’ll update docs to make it easier for newer devs.
Currently we use trunk which is the same as what you would download from graphicall. possibly we’ll use a branch later on but this will still be available for people do download and test.
October 18th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Looking great, keep up the great work!
October 25th, 2009 at 8:40 am
nice character look at some character modeling at http://www.cgwhat.com
October 26th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Dang! I’m getting so hyped just by seeing this model.
More! more! 🙂
October 26th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Great, great, great !!
very exciting to see the next !
November 7th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
thanks for the source…
November 18th, 2009 at 6:47 am
I like the model from the waist up. I just dont think the hips, legs and boots match the rest of the model. The top of the model has a nimble kind of look and feel to it, but the bottom half looks clunky. The items on her wrists suggest a home-made leather wrapping kind of thing. Perhaps that same type of approach could be used on the boots. Basic boots with leather wrapped on top for more protection.
July 2nd, 2011 at 2:33 pm
angela, i think your model is really good but as a pro in 3d modeling/topology; I think you should consider extending the ‘lower-body’ a little more to match the fascinating realistic proportion of the ‘upper-body’. If you understand what i mean, please check out my work on the “Vitruvian-Woman” at http://www.e-3dfuture.com… all the same wonderful work.