My first human character on Maya.

# 1 14-11-2011 , 12:04 AM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

A character I've created, starting by following this tutorial: https://www.3dtutorialzone.com/tutorial?id=32 but then I went on my own road.
Added a few things such as nostrils, making the nose a bit smaller, making the eyelids however I could (they're not perfect though, but oh well...)
Made the ears.
Added teeth with the help of this tutorial by TheMayaTutorials: Maya Tutorial - How To Model Human Teeth - YouTube
Created the body and then smoothed it.
Made the fingernails after the whole mesh was smoothed.
Optimized Scene.
Deleted history on all objects.
No reflections in the scene.
No refractions, they are all turned off.
Made the shoes with which I've had problems making the shoe laces. Left shoelace left intended untied.

Problems:
1) I'm still pondering whether to use nCloth (it gives me a ton of problems such as not keeping the settings if I export the file to another machine, it's also lagging even if I create cache if I test just moving the character's facets to deform the clothes and record the animation) or just rigging the clothes along with the character + adding passive rigid body to one of them and active to the other.
Haven't rigged anything yet in Maya, on 3ds max it was easy though so I wonder if it will be harder in Maya.

2) Hands - may need to remove a few edges there and make the nails look shinier or something, as they barely show up in the render, yet they shine a lot in the viewport.

3) Tongue - not sure if it would be a good idea to create it as an extension from the character or to add it as a separate mesh, similar to the eyes and scalp that holds the hair.

4) Render time is between 38 and 50 seconds with Maya Software. All tests point to the fur being the culprit. Any way to speed it up?

5) Will I be able to add other meshes to the skeleton of the character (such as the eyes and scalp that has hair, teeth) so that they will move, but not deform, with the character?

6) Are the shoes too big? Should I flatten them from the sides?

Goal: It has to look somewhat cartoonish but also nearly realistic. Will be used in a 3D animation series I'm planning to make on Youtube as a hobby.

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Last edited by SilverFeather; 14-11-2011 at 12:16 AM.

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# 2 14-11-2011 , 09:36 AM

The Nurb Herd
Join Date: Oct 2007

Location: London

Posts: 2,381

I think if the goal is to have it look some what realistic then I would work on the model more. Try to add more detail and work out the proportions a bit more. Right now I think it looks blocky.

Btw, 50 second renders are fast.

Last edited by honestdom; 14-11-2011 at 09:39 AM.

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# 3 14-11-2011 , 11:32 AM

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Location: Australia

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Good stuff mate...I agree with dom though...try to round off the arms and body a bit...and the legs look a little too long for the torso....good start though mate...keep it up

cheers bullet

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 4 14-11-2011 , 12:36 PM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

I think if the goal is to have it look some what realistic then I would work on the model more. Try to add more detail and work out the proportions a bit more. Right now I think it looks blocky.

Btw, 50 second renders are fast.

Originally Posted by honestdom

Indeed, I also think it's blocky, the problem is that I don't know how to make the char look rounder. It's already smoothed / no longer with simple edges, so any other way to fix this other than moving edges around / smoothing? Or maybe I'd have to add more edges and shape them differently, but that might still require smoothing again.

Yes, it may be fast, but not for a model that's not even complex and all it has is a patch of fur (hair) that will slow the whole render down. Oddly, on anything else, adding fur doesn't do this as much, with a fur ball taking less than 5 seconds to render. And if I want to put the file on another computer, must I also copy the Maya folder in My documents so that the fur settings stay too? Same with nCloth?

Thanks for the review.

Good stuff mate...I agree with dom though...try to round off the arms and body a bit...and the legs look a little too long for the torso....good start though mate...keep it up

cheers bullet

Originally Posted by bullet1968

The arms are rounded, it's the jacket that took that shape. Jacket is not part of the char's body though so it's a separate mesh.
I wonder if I can make the legs shorter... the jeans would be easy to make shorter but I don't know about the legs. Will try.

Thanks for the review.

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# 5 14-11-2011 , 04:35 PM

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Location: Budapest, Hungary

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I think you re trying to learn too much thing in the same time. I mean modeling, ncolth, fur, rig, render... First you should make a perfect model or later you ll have more problem. If your wireframe is no good, your rig wont work the way you want user added image

Try to post some wireframe screen & I'm sure this community ll help you. 4 example why the arm not rounded or how you should change to get a better result!

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# 6 14-11-2011 , 05:04 PM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

I think you re trying to learn too much thing in the same time. I mean modeling, ncolth, fur, rig, render... First you should make a perfect model or later you ll have more problem. If your wireframe is no good, your rig wont work the way you want
Try to post some wireframe screen & I'm sure this community ll help you. 4 example why the arm not rounded or how you should change to get a better result!

Originally Posted by Joey81

There is a way to restore the model to a simpler subdivision, i just need to remember how, it was something with changing the number of subdivisions on the mesh. Can someone please tell me where it was located again? It was on the attribute editor i think.

Wireframe with smooth shade or all wireframe? If the latter, it would be confusing but I will post those too.
I think it has waaay too many subdivisions (a mistake of mine done when I have double-smoothed the mesh).

Is there any way to edit the model without having to start over again? I'd sure hate to start over since it took me more than a month to get this far.

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Last edited by SilverFeather; 14-11-2011 at 05:44 PM.

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# 7 14-11-2011 , 06:39 PM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

I think you need to start again, sorry. Put it down as a month of learning how to use some of the tools, also get your self a good tutorial I know Jay has done a few, and last get good reference material..............dave

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# 8 14-11-2011 , 07:01 PM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

I think you need to start again, sorry. Put it down as a month of learning how to use some of the tools, also get your self a good tutorial I know Jay has done a few, and last get good reference material..............dave

Originally Posted by daverave

The only tutorial i've been using for tools is this:
https://download.autodesk.com/us/maya...ted/index.html
I tend to learn more out of practice than theory, as theory just confuses me more (GecT had a guide where it explained a common problem of users who followed this guide in the link above or similar ones, such as the "Q: I'm trying to follow a tutorial and it says I need to go to the "Modeling" menu set, its not there, why?" but for me it was the "Select the Polygons menu set." to which I've found the solution few weeks ago after googling)

I am unsure how to start again, as I have read before that there is not just a single way to model a human character. I'm more familiar to using cubes as a start and then adding edge loops / creating edges and extruding. Other people use planes to create a face and the rest of the body. So in the end which is the right way to start? Is there any online tutorial for modeling human characters that could be considered the right way?

Last edited by SilverFeather; 14-11-2011 at 07:03 PM.

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# 9 14-11-2011 , 07:24 PM

The thin red line
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Location: England

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The method you use depends on witch way you like best, I use the extrude method but I know some very good modellers use the box way, I have left a link to some thing I did a while back will give you an idear how to use the extrude way..........dave

https://simplymaya.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35443

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# 10 14-11-2011 , 07:35 PM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

The method you use depends on witch way you like best, I use the extrude method but I know some very good modellers use the box way, I have left a link to some thing I did a while back will give you an idear how to use the extrude way..........dave

https://simplymaya.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35443

Originally Posted by daverave

Yeah, the one in your tutorial is the harder way which I have trouble with (no images to put on plane that will look like the character I want to make). I've had an easier time box modeling, as I don't use image planes, but I cannot find a good box modeling tutorial and another problem was with mirroring so I gave up on trying to mirror too.

I tried to follow the Maya tutorial, only to get a problem such as the edges going crazy whenever I wanted to unite the halves of a mirrored mesh (mesh smooth caused an almost box-like shape to appear around the two edges of the shape I just united). That being the Helmet tutorial.

Last edited by SilverFeather; 14-11-2011 at 07:38 PM.

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# 11 15-11-2011 , 06:41 AM

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I agree with Dave and the whole notion of starting over. I have started things over and over time again. This is a process everyone goes through. Just remember that your model should be at a 8 head scale. With the torso in the middle comprised of 4 heads above the hips (including the head) and four below the hips. It takes time. Trust me I am still figuring many things out...

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# 12 15-11-2011 , 11:06 AM

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You ve choosen a really difficult topic, the human body. I did the same way 1years ago.. Not a good choice. I made a ghost in the shell character "Bato" & when i finished the body it looked rubbish. I tried to do my best but it was not enough user added image

Then i made a few steps back. tried to do much simplier models. Cartoon models.
I googled Pocoyo, saved a lot reference picture then i made a sketch in photoshop. If you re a beginner it helps you a lot.

small, easy characters re good! You can change a model fast, change the topology fast. I learned to measure the "weights" & make the topology with cartoon modeling.

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# 13 15-11-2011 , 11:57 AM

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Yes it is a hard topic....here is a shot of my first feeble attempt...I went back to buildings and aeroplanes LOL

cheers bullet

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bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 14 15-11-2011 , 12:55 PM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

You ve choosen a really difficult topic, the human body. I did the same way 1years ago.. Not a good choice. I made a ghost in the shell character "Bato" & when i finished the body it looked rubbish. I tried to do my best but it was not enough
Then i made a few steps back. tried to do much simplier models. Cartoon models.
I googled Pocoyo, saved a lot reference picture then i made a sketch in photoshop. If you re a beginner it helps you a lot.

small, easy characters re good! You can change a model fast, change the topology fast. I learned to measure the "weights" & make the topology with cartoon modeling.

Originally Posted by Joey81

Yeah it would be easier, but I want to make characters for my own movie. Not after an already existing character. (it's also the reason why I don't use real-world reference pictures to model)
I have an idea of what the character has to look like (which the current model quite resembles, only that it has those edges as leftovers from the cubes I made it from).
The model doesn't have to have excessive details since it's mostly covered by clothes and will be all the time throughout the series.

I'm trying to make something similar in style to the characters in movies such as How To Train Your Dragon or the humans in Ice Age 1 - that's what I meant by cartoonish.
But also, I'd have to make the body as close as possible to the shape of a real human (includes head, hands and overall shape). I don't want to make something super-detailed either, but I have to find a way to box model without ending up with square edges like the first model has.

Also, the time I have available is until probably March for a 20 minute (approximately) video, because then I'll have to go to college, which means no time for anything. (the college has very little connection to my hobby, it's all about scenario writing for movies)

Yes it is a hard topic....here is a shot of my first feeble attempt...I went back to buildings and aeroplanes LOL

cheers bullet

Originally Posted by bullet1968

That's quite close to a real body, only the legs seem a bit weird in the pelvic region.

Last edited by SilverFeather; 15-11-2011 at 01:11 PM.

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# 15 15-11-2011 , 01:34 PM

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Thanks mate, they are seperate meshes thats why it looks funny...thats where I stopped short of sewingmeshes together. I think its FAR from good though...it takes LOTS of practice and I havent practiced at all...but I will

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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