I'm new to 3D modeling. I'm working on the online Joan of Arc tutorial foud at Joan of Arc. I'm having trouble with shaping the objects. Every time I finish a section, I have three problems: 1. Ridges along the axis of symetry. I showed my sister the face I was working on. First thing she said was 'why does she have forehead ridge'. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. All the tutorials I can find have heads with them in one step, and then they disappear in another. Is there a trick to fixing it, or is it just a matter of eyeballing it? I'm very bad at eyeballing. 2. Contour features I'm having trouble with features that aren't outlined in either the profile or face shots. Specifically the indent in the butt and the temples on the face. I've been just eyeballing them for a while, but the results aren't as nice as I'd like. I know the problem will escalate as I try for more subtle shapes, like shoulder blades or spinal ridges, etc. 3. Roundness - in many ways this is a subset of the brow ridges problem. My heads seem to look too much like they've been squeezed together, as though they are two bellcurves glued together. I'm sure others have dealt with these problems. Does anyone have any tips?

I have been working on the Joan of Arc tutorial for a few weeks. I can feel your pain, I have probably modeled Joan about 20 times now, and have just come to like my most recent model. I have an issue eyeballing curvier features as well. If you have max 7 you could try turbo smooth and then use paint to soften, or relax your curves. Push/pull works well to to bring out indentions. I think these are all fetures of the Modifier Editable Poly. I figure one or two more goes at the body, since I got the head almost perfect, and I will have a full nice looking model.

If you don't have max 7 try working in perspective mode and make you low poly model look as smooth as possible, other than that, practice makes perfect.

dimebag

One of my biggest problems when first modeling was that I didn't realize how flat the front of the head actually is. It doesn't really start to curve a lot until the temple area, so that could be why you're having problems with it. This would also account for the 'head ridge' phenomenon. I've seen it too, many many times =D. Aim for that part of the body (around the symettry axis) to be flat, because even if you go too flat, it will show up less than if it's too pointy. Maybe a simple thing for you to do would be to select all the verticies on the contour line and scale them uniformally until the ridge goes away.

Another issue I've had to adjust for in the past is knowing that if your hand drawn faces for reference (I'm assuming you use them in the background, cuz if not, you really really should) and they look good to you, modeling them orthogonally without perspective will make things look out of whack when you DO view in perspective. You naturally project perspective onto your drawings with human anatomy, so if your head is looking squished or streched, it's because you're trying to match a perspective drawing with a model in orthogonal view. Get what I'm saying?

Sadly, playing around is often the only way to get a hold of what NOT to do when modeling. It's as much an intuitive art as it is a technical one.

Hope this helps.
As ever,
**Cosmic**

If you have a very noticeable ridge, it may be because of smoothing groups. Most organic characters have no sharp creases (except possibly for areas where the thigh meet the crotch, etc). Thus, select all faces, and make sure they all have the same smoothing group assignment.

I've figured out the ridges problem. I can fix it either by creating another set of lines around the axis of symettry, or scaling the axis back. I'll have to play with it more to really figure it out, but I think I'm on my way.

For roundness, I guess I'm going to have to shape a strip around the back of the head first, and then fill in the rest.

I guess there really aren't any tricks left. I'll keep practicing.

Here's the body I finished. I used the ridges to good effect if I do say so myself. Tell me what you think.




[Edited by - Numsgil on November 17, 2004 5:35:59 PM]

Here are a few screens of my model, about the 20th version :).

http://luckybob33.tripod.com/front.jpg
http://luckybob33.tripod.com/back.jpg
http://luckybob33.tripod.com/side.jpg

I am working on the accessories now.

dimebag

Those are nice pics dimebag. If I could suggest, I'ld lower the gloss and add a bellybutton. That's just me though.

Here's a pic of a head I did today. Took me about 5 or 6 hours, which is faster than the 3 days the last one took me.

You can clearly see the ridge along the axis of symettry. Also, there's a secondary ridge running parallel to the first that I'm not sure what it's from. I'll see if I can make it disappear.

Also, you can see the pointyness of the chin, a clear issue of contour features. I'll try to work it out to be rounder.

My main concern is the ridge along the axis of symettry. I'll work on it some more.

Those are nice pics dimebag. If I could suggest, I'ld lower the gloss and add a bellybutton. That's just me though.

Here's a pic of a head I did today. Took me about 5 or 6 hours, which is faster than the 3 days the last one took me.

You can clearly see the ridge along the axis of symettry. Also, there's a secondary ridge running parallel to the first that I'm not sure what it's from. I'll see if I can make it disappear.

Also, you can see the pointyness of the chin, a clear issue of contour features. I'll try to work it out to be rounder.

My main concern is the ridge along the axis of symettry. I'll work on it some more.

I considered the belly button an accesory, because she will have a shirt on, so the belly button is not important in this model. I know she is quite shinney, I have not textured her yet, the color is skin tone and all other setting are default. I am almost done with the accessories and then it is on to textureing.

I noticed the ridges on you head model, add some cuts to smooth it out, or use the push/pull - relax technique to soften it up(under editable poly->pait deformation).

dimebag

I think I know what's causing the ridges, even if I don't know how to fix it. The ridges are forming everywhere MAYA thinks is a border edge.

Here's a pic of what happens when I select merge edges tool. The lines in purple are border edges, and happen to be the same places where smooth creates ridges.



I guess this is more of a MAYA question, but how do I get rid of what MAYA thinks are border edges, and set them as regular edges?