3D modeling help

[Chicky]

I've been doing a lot of 3D modeling the last couple of days and am currently working on a female character.

As of recently i'd never modeled before, only designed maps so this is a first for me.

I was wondering where i'm meant to go from here:



I've got my front faces sorted out and if iwanted i could connect up the sides but then the sides of my model wouldnt be rounded, just strait? I've been trying for hours and i really don't understand how im supposed to make the sides of my model round aswell as the front and back.

And help would be great, or pointing me in the direction of a tutoral (the one i'm following is pants).

cheers,

[scotch]

I can't really offer much advice at this stage other than follow along with some tutorials, and get a better program.  Milkshape isn't exactly renowned as a modeller. I'd recommend 3ds Max or Maya (since there's a lot of guides to both of them), or for a pure modelling program with less confusion, Silo.

Generally you start off with 3d shapes and cut into them to create detail, rather than just making the front alone like that.  But sometimes that approach works too.

[Mozesh]

A simple way is to make a sphere and give loads of vertexes, try to shape the sphere to the images.
It's a bit hard to do with realistic stuff but with cartoony character it could do the trick.
Note that if it should be used in game instead of 2d art you shouldn't use this, it uses way to much useless vertexes.

[Gregjazz]

You're using reference sketches, so you're on the right track.

The idea is to start out with as basic meshes as possible, and then add detail later as needed. The basic mesh serves as your foundation for the detail--if you don't spend time on getting the basic mesh perfect, it'll be a waste of time, because once you start adding detail, it's difficult to go back and make any corrections to the basic mesh.

There are many techniques of creating a character in 3D.

A popular method is to base the character off of a cube (with maybe 3 subdivisions on the front and 2 on the sides). Basing the character off of a sphere generally isn't a good way to start out because the vertexes tend to be all funky--in other words, spheres aren't as easily mallable as cubes, if that makes sense.

Another way of creating characters is to create the mesh from scratch, creating vertexes and then creating faces from the vertexes, etc. This is a very powerful way of making an awesome mesh, but you have to spend time beforehand figuring out how you will approximate certain curves and shapes. Drawing your mesh on paper first is a good way to do this.

There are some other lofting techniques, starting out with 2D shapes and extruding them, then modifying them, but those are more difficult to make good results with.

Good luck!

[ildu]

Haha, I used to use Milkshape for like 4 years since 2000, until I completely moved on to 3DSMax.

Well, you seem to be missing one of the most fundamental things in modeling. If I understand you correctly, you wanna get round shapes and you only know how to Ã, connect boxy shapes. So, brace yourself for the obvious: You gotta do every little curve, bump and shape manually with vertices. That's it.

Milkshape doesn't have any competent smoothing functions, so you really gotta do everything yourself. And it's awfully difficult and time-consuming work. Whereas in 3DSMax you could make a relatively simple boxy model and smooth it down accordingly, in Milkshape every vertex has a purpose. That's why it's called a low-poly modeller.

You gotta think 3-dimensionally. If you make 4 vertices for each of your body's sides, of course it'll turn out to be a box. Just look at your own body. A cross-section of your stomach isn't square, it's round, so you need at least 8 vertices to make it look round (octagon). Your boobs (if you have any) aren't flat, so they need to be rounded. And you gotta do everything manually. I don't mean to sound smug, but I just can't believe you didn't know this before you started modeling.

Here's a paintover. I added the bare essential vertices to make your model look like it's drawn. Looks like a lot, huh? Well, that is what is needed. I also connected half of the front view and all of the side view vertices, to simulate what it should look like. So when all those vertices are in place and connected, you should have quite a boxy model, but much more resembling of a person. The smoothing groups in MS3D will smooth it down to a presentable version, though.

[Chicky]

Well i've got Gmax, which is a lite version of 3ds i do belive. If anyone knows and good tutorials for that i'd apreciate it, i don't want to learn to model with milkshape if it works differently to everything else. I'll just start over in gmax.

[Mordalles]

generally you build only the left or right side of the body, and then mirror the other side. the breast area only gets added once your happy with the shape of the torso. its easier to built the arms, leg and hands seperately, and then attach them at a later stage.  for really cool detail, zbrush is the one and only answer.

there are really good tutorials out there. the "joan of arc" tutorial is one of the best, and second reality (not sure exact link, just search it) has some pretty good tutorials. especially for taking muscles in consideration for animation. plus, for the best place to learn anything about anything about 3d, got to www.cgtalk.com. there are loads of tutorials, and best advice from the guys who know how.

[Chicky]

Hey, i completely remade the torso using the technique from many tutorials on the net where 3d shapes are used to build up the major parts then making the rest of the mesh by placing the vertex's yourself. It's looking really good at the moment so i'll post a screencap when i've finished her

[The Inquisitive Stranger]

Use Blender. It's a bit weird when you start out, but once you get used to it, it's awesome. Plus, it's open-source.

[KristjanMan]

Well you could use Anim8or there are very good tutorials for this too and it's the easyest program I have tryed (for 3d modelling)