Week #6–7125GFS CGI: Character Modelling
Completing the Head Mesh
This week I’ve managed to complete the head mesh of my character. It isn’t much to look at but I’m happy with how it turned out.
From the beginning I’ve been following along with the tutorial videos in the course content. Of course, since a different model sheet is being used, I can only follow the videos so much.
The process of modelling the head has gone slower than modelling Eliza’s head. I attribute this partially to having a different model sheet and also to the fact that I’m putting more effort into this one.
Over the course of development, there have been points where I have had to deviate from the tutorial videos. The most significant of these points, from smallest deviation to largest, were:
- The Eyes
- The Lips
- The Nose
- The Ears
Now that I’m listing them I realise that these are basically all the major facial features…
The eyes and the lips deviated to the same degree and in the same way. Both were much smaller when compared to the eyes and lips of Eliza. Both of them required their surrounding edges to be shrunken in more than the Eliza model suggested. The eyes were only easier to deal with because the large size of Eliza’s eyes were already a problem.
The nose was completely different from Eliza’s so it had to be modelled differently.
I wasn’t a big fan of the way Eliza’s ears looked. Unlike the nose, which I remodelled, I made my character’s ears from scratch. I attempted to create a simplified version of the ear shown in the class reading, Stop Staring: Facial Modelling and Animation Done Right, but it ended up still being too complex.
So I had to remodel it again.
After settling on an ear that I liked, I removed a few edges to match up with the head and attached it.
Issues with Character Model Sheet
Despite putting a lot of effort into my model sheet, there were still some issues that popped up during the modelling process.
First and foremost was the depth of some of the facial features. Specifically, the eyes, nose and mouth.
During the tutorial videos, it was apparent that compromises had to be made when modelling Eliza. In the side view of her model sheet her eyes and lips had been drawn too far back on the head. When translated to a 3D model it looked as though the eyes and lips wrapped around the head.
I thought that I had avoided this issue when sketching my character but no such luck. It turns out that even though I had shortened how far the lips and eyes went back, they were still too far. I think this was because my character’s eyes and lips were smaller than Eliza’s. Which means that I would have had to shorten those features even more to compensate.
As if that wasn’t enough, I somehow managed to run into the same issue with my character’s nose.
It required a little tweaking to fix but I think the result was well worth it.
The other major model sheet problem was the overall depth of the face. I’m specifically referring to the jaw, cheeks and forehead.
It’s a little difficult to explain but I’ll give it a go.
If you place your finger on your earlobe then drag your finger forward and around your head until you reach your nose, you will feel the roundness of your own face. This roundness is what I’m referring to. The jaw, cheeks and forehead all have it. However, character model sheets don’t really provide a good idea of its shape and volume. My first attempts with both the Eliza model and my character model resulted in very little roundness. The initial shape looked closer to being a straight line between the ear and the nose. This resulted in very narrow heads.
I resolved the issue the same way I did with the Eliza model. I repeatedly tweaked the shape until I found a good result. This took a little while though.
Towards the end, after I mirrored the mesh, I made one final adjustment that deviated from the model sheet. I pulled the nose and mouth back slightly. The model looked fine as it was, but I just thought it would look better if the nose and mouth area didn’t stick out as much as they did.
Starting on the Body Mesh
I’ve also just made a start on the body mesh. Unfortunately, I have discovered that the body is going to be much more difficult to model. It differs from the Eliza model far more dramatically than the head does. Meaning that I cannot rely on the course video tutorials as much as I did before.
In addition to being more realistically proportionate, my character model also has visible musculature. I will likely have to consult other sources for effective modelling techniques and good topology.
Since assessment two is due in about a week from now, CGI:Character Modelling will be my main focus of this next week.
There is a lot to do and not an awful lot of time to do it.
