Modelling : Character

Here are screen shots from my character that I have created. He was made within Maya, and is a high poly mesh. The techniques i have used all built up to create this mesh was basic polygon modelling techniques such as edge loops, extruding, moving vertex's around and mesh smoothing.

Here are the images that I found that I wanted to model from. I did not draw these, and simply found these images off google and thought they would be perfect for me to practise on, it turned out well so I decided to use it. Its most likely already been turned into a 3d model yet I wanted to take my own shot at it.

Here is the front and side view of the character:

 

After finding these images I then found the model that they were made into(Found an image on Google), and this became my inspiration for the piece, and how to set up my model, and pose him in a certain way. I feel that finding references to look at can help with the modelling process, except that this was primarily used once the mesh was finished, and used to render a good looking scene. 

The source is : http://pic.gbstuff.com/items/CG-1674/1.jpg

 From there I set up a scene using two planes, so I could use these images while I modelled as reference. I set the planes as their own layer and that was set to "reference" so I couldn't accidentally move them.

After that was set up I started modelling, I started with the chest and used the modelling menu to shape him correctly. Using the lattice animation deformer to shape his waist because its easier that moving vertex's around. After that was down I deleted a hole for his arm and legs and selected the edge loop around the whole and extruded them out to the wrists and the ankle then I added edge loops in to define the shape even more. After that was done I moved onto the hands and feet. 

The hands were the hardest part but I just created one finger using a simple box, and added edge loops around the  side and middle to shape it to fit the reference pictures, from there I copied it across 4 times, one for the thumb and 3 for fingers. Once they were shaped and placed correctly I used the vertex snap tool, and then vertex merge tool to ensure that it would smooth correctly, then I extruded the wrist across and used the same technique to connect up the thumb and fingers, and that was the hand complete.

After the hand was completed I moved onto the model the foot. All i did was extrude the ankle to the base of the foot to create the heel, then extrude the front out to create the rest of the foot. This doesn't need to be accurate because I will be modelling a shoe out of this, so I can leave it basic.

From there I started modelling the head. this was started with a basic poly cube, that was smoothed over with a basic smoothing group of 1. From there I proceeded to model the head, adding the  chin and neck detail, and the basic horn shape. after that I added in more edge loops and pulling them in and out created muscles that would reinforce the shape of the neck and back of the head. I then used the scuplt geometry tool to move and relax vertex's around to ensure the muscles were not too strong in shape.

Once this was done the basic low poly mesh of the character was complete! I could of UV unwrapped him there, maybe taken him into Z-brush or Mudbox and detailed him further, but I wanted to create a high poly version of this mesh straight in Maya, so I started detailing him further.

From the basic mesh I started using the poly cut tool, which allows me to draw lines and vertex's straight onto the mesh, thus editing the topology of the mesh to my liking, to form things like muscles and bends in the skin. This is what I did until the whole body was looking realistic enough for me to be happy with.

From there I wanted to model the hood. I did this in the same way I started the mesh. with a half cylinder that I bend into shape and added extra detail to like vertex's and lines to ensure that it fit to his head. I added rips and wrinkles to his clothing by adding more topology and extruding out the bits I wanted, when smoothed this created a nice torn effect.

I then moved onto the tunic, in which I just copied some of the mesh from the hood down and curved it round his body, then I modelled the belt, which was just a cylinder flatten and shaped round his waist, and then extruded out to give it some depth. 

From there the boot were simple to model. I just took the existing basic mesh of the foot I created earlier and then shaped it to how I wanted. Adding edge loops in where I wanted wrinkles to be and smoothed the whole thing over.

After that was done, the only thing I had to do was to model this bracer's this was done by created as simple  poly cube and then added edge loops in so I could change the shape of the whole object. from there I deleted the middle. Then extruded the faces to give it some depth.

After this was completed the high poly mesh was done, the next job was to add textures, which was done using simple methods such as a coloured blinn for his skin, then add a leather texture for a bump map, but ensuring that the bump mapping property's were not to high, just to give the skin a little bit of texture.

The same was done for the leather equipment as well.

Here is the finished result: