Digital humans the art of the digital double
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# 1 19-11-2004 , 03:25 AM
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Hand - need one too

Hey fellows, first time publishing something im working on. I do qualify as a newb and have basically zero artistic talent, but I am also very persistent when I set my mind to something. Anyways, this is my first hand ever. I have read quite a bit on Maya, and fooled around with Maya for some time, but I just started feeling comfortable enough with doing some real stuff and not just stare at the screen in amazement as to how easy it is to make a ball look so cool with just 2 walls and a floor around it. I think this ease with which one can make something look nice is what appeals to me...
Anyways, please take a look at the following pics and let me know what you think. This is all made out of polys and then subd. There is no bump map (I am even more of a newb using photoshop...), all the veins and other detail you see in the pics is in the mesh. I have also rigged this thing and made some poses, but I will include those later. The hand looks better when the fingers are not straight out and are bent a little more naturally.

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# 2 19-11-2004 , 04:52 AM
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Looks very nice. Although the arms is way to flat and square, and the fingers seems a bit boxy too... otherwise neat stuff.

# 3 19-11-2004 , 03:19 PM
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Thanks for the feedback. I also dont like how the thumb looks so I am going to change it. I just found out that when converting back to polys and then back to subd all the creases (for the nails) I had are now gone. Oh well, I guess I wont be redoing them until the very, very end.

# 4 19-11-2004 , 04:26 PM
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Yeah it really sucks that you lose all your creases, but on low-poly models you can work in Poly Proxy Mode... Of course thats possible in high-poly models as well, but it slows everything down A LOT...

# 5 22-11-2004 , 12:02 PM
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I think it is looking really good so far, keep working on it! user added image

# 6 22-11-2004 , 03:20 PM
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Not bad at all. :tup:

In comparison to the size of the forearm, I wonder if the hand might bea tad small?

Other than the flat/box-ness that was mentioned, looks good!

# 7 22-11-2004 , 08:24 PM
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Hey Dude

A word on the Sub D front, if you are working at a higher level of editing on your sub d then converting back, its always gonna do it, I would suggest putting your detail in at level 0 and even then fine tune it a SD level 0. By all means use a higher level of edits on the Sub d but I wouldn't recommend it until you are almost complete and are going to convert to a high poly level once its finished.

_J

# 8 23-11-2004 , 01:13 PM
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Thanks for the comments guys, i am actually in Spain on Vacation this week so I won´t be able to post any changes (I did work on that thumb before i left and looks much better). Jango, you mentioned a higher level poly...are you talking about taking the subd, convert it to poly, and then doing a smooth? Not sure i know of another way of getting a higher lvl poly off of my mesh.


Thanks!!

# 9 23-11-2004 , 08:17 PM
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Hey Dude

No its a higher level of edits on the SubD, that disappears when you convert back to poly. If you turn your model into a SubD, select it with the right mouse button then you'll see the hotbox appear and one of those menus will say finer and another coarser. Pick finer and you'll see SD level edit '1' appear on your model in places where theres detail, you can then adjust these accordingly, the more you adjust the more edits will appear and again you can right click and go to level 2 and so on...I think Maya now has 15 level edits for SubD now but thats just intense!! But bear in mind with these edits when you convert the model it has to have a high enough poly count either in divisions or per face in order to keep the detail, but if you keep the Sub D and rig it, it gets really heavy trying to move it around, which is where a proxy object will come to the fore. Phew!!!! I think that should do it, for now...

Regards to all
_J

# 10 07-12-2004 , 04:49 PM
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Well, finally got back from vacation, here is an update. I tried to eliminated the boxines on the arms and of a couple of fingers. i also reworked the thumb. What do you think?

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# 11 07-12-2004 , 06:48 PM
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very good! big improvement from before. i like it a lot. are these seriously your first hands?

# 12 07-12-2004 , 07:06 PM
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Yes they are. Spent a lot of time refining it though. Now I need to figure out how to color it. I am having the hardest time with the skin color.

# 13 09-12-2004 , 07:27 AM
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You said earlier in your posts that you were unable to draw. I understand this b/c at one time Hands were too difficult for me to drawuser added image My problem was that I concentrated too much on drawing just the shape of the hand. your case is slightly different because you are using a program. But! I would say that you need to add expression in the curves of your hand... (HEY Where's Jango when you need him?) Also remember, the hand is a pulling, pushing, grabbing, twisting mechanism. It has padding to achieve this. I see you've added these on the palm, but there's more padding right on the top of the palm ...which is partly why your fingers appear flat on the palm side. Also the hand inclines down... er... by this I mean that the base of the palm should be stick out alittle more- but after the palm the bottom of the wrist(the side with the tendons visible) should be made more inward as an effect of the wrist being able to push an object.


Last edited by The15thTitans; 09-12-2004 at 07:31 AM.
# 14 09-12-2004 , 08:51 PM
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Thanks for the comments. Indeed the palm of the hand is quite a challenge. I tried putting some lines and create more padding but it doesnt come accross that way on the pictures, perhaps chaging the lighting might help. I'll have to play some more with it. Also the joint area between the wrist and the hand/palm is a bit of a pain. I have a line in there that separates the two areas perhaps too much, the transition between them is not very smooth. Maybe I should have just added those details in the bump map.

Anyways, I think I am going to start working on the skin coloring and such pretty soon before I burn out on the modeling.

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