Creating a Bird

Posted on March 31, 2014 by WeeMidge

box
3 smooth
extrude out wings-fix shape
cut in half
design one half until happy with shape
duplicate and add together
make sure basic shape is good before making changes
add edge loops to help shapes
eg eyebrows, cheeks etc
if you can get it looking nice when its boxy it will look lovely when smooth.

smoothness is key

merge verteces

threshold bring up to 5

it helps to draw out bird before modelling.

move vertices for face eg, cheeks etc
rotate to get shape
when brought back into smoother shape shape will look much better
fix harsh angles so that it ‘flows’ better
camera can go off axis alot, hit F
F means frame
beak can be added in or just added to model
look at references eg penguin from Wallace and Gromit, and happy feet
try extruding faces for beak
always check there are no faces inside a model
try, try, try again
if you take 4 times to model it will take about 10 to rig it
always make sure there are never any triangles in the model
try and avoid boxiness
smooth everything
use lattice to change structural problems if preferred
can save lattice in history so its part of model
can create lattice for one part of the model, eg head
if you make a model look sad, he will always look sad
decide wether the eyes are going to be on top of the skin or in a cavity

Beak

detach beak
select were you want cut
duplicate special reset tool
select everything that isnt the beak
delete
extrude an extra short edge on the beak (may come in handy later as there needs to be an inside to the mouth)
make inside of mouth have said amount of edges as beak
if you do this with all models, an inside mouth can fit them all
merging edges can cause problems
shortcut G and merge

Eyes

make sphere
texture editor
phong
change to colour map
ramp
change one part white and one black
lattice around eye
master and servant, pupil will follow, eye will keep shape
using ramp can make pupil larger or smaller
look up tutorials for other eyes
for eyelids cut slice of sphere, but eyeball inside
do this for 3 different eyes
open, half closed, closed
remember to always delete history once finished a piece of modelling
add joints to a piece of modelling
shift wile clicking will open full menu of parents etc
NURB circle controls skeleton
reason we don’t see skeletons in models we download is they are hidden by creator
its okay to wing it
check how its working every time you add something new
label joints well or you are well and truly pooped

Basic Boolean Operation

Posted on March 31, 2014 by WeeMidge

take square and circle
intersect objects
polygons-mesh-boolis
becomes one object
downside smoothing goes to shite
vertices will go batshit
hit difference- cuts object in two
becomes one object
if edges pull out diagonally click blue dot and pull from there
use edge loops to fix edges
can use edge loops to measure (example- making a hole in a sink)

Modelling a Tree

Posted on March 31, 2014 by WeeMidge

I had originally began modelling a tree using CV curves as i had seen in a youtube video but i found i was running into problems that i wouldn’t have had if i created the tree the way i had in my head.

Tutorial directions

space bar- front view
create- cv curve tool
draw base of tree
space bar- perspective view
create- NURBS primitives- circle- attributes- inputs NURB circle- fiddle with sections etc until happy
change size of NURB circle depending on how thick you want the tree trunk
select circle and curve- select shift to do so
change shelf from polygons to surfaces
surfaces- extrude menu
set to tube- path- component-profile normal
output geo- polygons
control points
extrude
click circle- can change scale
extrude 1- click word scale
middle mouse click to drag size (1 changed to 0.5)
right click-edge- edit shape
click curve (inside trunk)
select control vertex
change tree shape
when done making changes go to edit- delete by type- history
delete curve- delete circle
window- uv texture editor
polygons-layout menu- world- layout UV’s
edit
duplicate
make as many branches from duplicates as needed
place branches
continue to change shapes as wished

after doing all of this i decided to create the tree a different and simpler way

create cube
change smoothness to 3
extrude upwards
extrude, scale, rotate etc for trunk
extrude out branches until happy

here is how this looked

i then assigned new material and made it brown

to create the leaves a create a sphere, flattened it, and then childed many small circles to it (to look like leaves) i coloured these autumnal colours and duplicated as many as desired until happy, i then attached these and placed them onto the tree. Here is how it looks at the moment, i would hope with another days work this tree will be complete and ready to place into our set for our film.