This course focuses on character creation and animation. Even though the course, like others of this kind, is in part software specific, it attempts to be more than that. Be advised that no software is designed to resolve anatomical or design issues for you, let alone originality, that is done the old fashion way with pencil and paper by drawing and studying the human figure. The software can help you in articulating the figure so it can be posed to perform gestures and motion sequences which go above and beyond normal, in other words impossible to be performed by a live actor.

What this course has in store for you:

we'll be involved in the development and creation of two major projects:

1. Modeling and animating a life like human head, modeled and textures after your own. Your goal will be also that of making the head talk.

2. Modeling and animating a complete standing figure of a human character. The animation porting of this project will be done using motion capture files.

Modeling a human like character after yourself, will ad credibility to your work. Keep in mind that plagiarism is not uncommon in the CG field, if you want to give your portfolio  credibility, the best manner to achieve that goal is to use your own image. If you have already modeled a human character in Art 278, you can continue to develop  that character by adding details, facial features, toes and fingers, along with a realistic texture, and you can make that character talk.

Each assignment is backed up by a number of tutorials. The tutorials present the general concept upon which the assignments are based, as well as important instructions concerning tools, and strategies employed in resolving a particular assignment. There are no rewards for students trying to figure things out on their own.

The same pool of assignments is available for both the Traditional Classroom, and the Web/Hybrid versions of this course.

Software used for the traditional classroom course

For the traditional classroom course we'll use Animation Master for the entire semester.

I also provide some support for Autodesk Softimage XSI, but at this point in time I have a lot more tutorial material written for A:M. It would be counter productive to juggle two different software titles.

Software used for the web based/hybrid course

Art 279 is also offered as a web base course, but unless you already own at least one of the software titles I support, I do not recommend taking it.  Currently in the classroom I only officially support one software title: Animation Master.

But I also have a number of other tutorial written for : trueSpace, Softimage XSI,  and 3D Studio Max or Viz. Those tutorials are still going to be available from this web site as a reference for students that insist in working with a software title other than animation Master.

It is true that learning CG software can be done on your own, at home, but not while you are taking a college level course. In particular not when you are expected to meet deadlines, and be creative at the same time.

If you are planning to use anything else, such as Maya, Carrara, Modo, Lightwave, Form Z, Mud Box, Z Brush or Blender, you should rethink why you are taking this course. I do not want you to use that eventuality as an excuse for not being able to do what I am asking you to do.

 If "learning a program" seems to be what is troubling you. You should take  the classroom version of this course instead.

Where to begin

Finding anatomical references

Learning by emulating the master

You should be inspired by what other artists have produced in this field, and value their talent more than the software which they have used in creating their art.

Here below you'll find a series of tutorial that will take you through step by step how to model and texture a CG character. There is also some extra material if you want to go above what I am asking you to do.

Animation Master (A:M) 

The tutorials I have prepared for this course are also available from a separate page here >>> Animation Master tutorials

• 1a)   The Interface of Animation Master, opening and managing files in A:M.

• 1b)   A:M most frequently used Tools.

• 2)     Choreography, staging your models.   

• 3)     Groups

• 4)     High and Low Resolution Models

• 5)     Rendering to File

 Modeling  human character

if you have already done that in Art 278, you can go on to modeling a more detailed head for your character, as well as adding toes, fingers and facial details. The head can be modeled separately and then attached to the character's body.

• 1)    Rotoscoping  

• 2a)  The Mouth

• 2b)  The Mouth with more details

• 3a)  The  Eye 

• 3b)  The Eye with more details  

• 4a)  The Nose with more details

• 4b)  The Nose, modifying an existing model (extra)

• 5)    The Jaw and Cheeks 

• 6a)  The Whole Face 

• 6b)  The Skull (extra)

• 7)    Flattening 

• 8)    Decaling

• 9)    The Mouth Cavity (extra)

• 10)  The Teeth and Gums (extra)

• 11)  The Ear (extra)

• 12)  The Hair (extra)

• 13)  The Eye Ball quick and easy

• 14)  Modeling the Eye Ball like a Pro

• 15)  Texturing the Eye Ball

• 16)  Texturing a model 

• 17)  Photo realistic model surfacing

Modeling a realistic human head is one of the most difficult project you can undertake with any 3D software.

Texturing your character with Adobe Photoshop.

For the most part textures applied to a digital human character is intended to simulate skin or clothes.

The process of applying a texture to your character in A:M is referred to as "decaling".

Creating effective textures can be truly an art form, even when photography is used.

Painting figurative textures in Photoshop

Decaling

Texture maps or decals, can be of different types, the most important and fundamental is the color decal. It's known by that name because it's the only one that contains color. All the other types are Black and White. For this project we'll deal only with the creating and application of color decals.

A complete standing figure is modeled, textured, and rigged in a semi spread eagle position. That position will make all those operation easier to perform, easier than if the arm were hanging from the figure's sides.

Rigging a character.

Rigging is a term that refers to adding a digital skeleton to any object designed to be animate by an Action driven by a rig/skeleton itself.

For a complete tutorial concerning rigging and how to manipulate a skeleton's bones correctly look for the following two video tutorials from the Hash.com web site under Support > Video Manual . The name of the tutorials are: "Move it" which deals with how to manipulate bones correctly, and "Show Some Backbone", which deals with character rigging.

On the other hand Biped walking  is my own tutorial.

In Art 279 we are going to create a BVH mo cap compatible rig, and apply some motion  capture actions to your model.

If you have taken Art 278, most likely you should have a decent model to animate with motion capture data.

Mo caps file are usually not  small, they can contain over a 1000 frames. In order to make the final rendered product smaller, your AVI file should be opened in Photoshop's Animation time line where every other frame or much more can be delete. That will make the file much smaller, and viable for the Internet.

The image here to the right was reduced from 1500 frames to 13 and Saved for the Web as a GIF.

After modeling your character's head, you can make it talk. This will be one of our two major projects in this course.

What you will need is a microphone so you can record your voice. And earphones because there are no speakers connected to the workstations in the CG lab.

The quick example here below illustrates crudely the idea of moving points en mass using bones, but we'll take this project further using the A:M phonetic break down tool known as the Dope Sheet.

Exercise 7: "Can You Say That?"
part1 (13.9MB)  part2 (23.7MB)  zip (36.4MB)

Exercise 7 is not my creation, it's available from the Hash.com web site.
 

Your presentation should address the history of your model's construction, you should address modeling and rigging issues including screen shot showcasing some of your character's most interesting poses. Anywhere between 10 and 15 images will do. Your presentation should also include 5 or 6 animations, but what you are going to say in your own words will make the difference.

Starting January 2009, I will write new tutorials only for Animation Master and XSI.

You can learn Animation Master, and create a portfolio faster than with any other program out there.

Other software

Years ago I was determined to learn all the 3D software available on the market. It took me a few years to realize that it was just impossible and counterproductive to spread yourself all over the 3D graphic industry. Certain software titles claim to fame has changed over the years and it will keep changing.

The tutorials here below may be look at as references. I'm no longer supporting with new material programs like trueSpace, 3D Studio Max, Poser, and Wings 3D. In Art 278 and 279.aside from A:M I will supports only XSI to a certain degree. Because I dedicated a lot of my time in writing these tutorials, I'm not too keen in getting rid of them. The fundamental concepts which constitute the backbone and the foundations of 3D modeling and animation will always be present in old and new software. It's a mistake to approach a software from its version instead from its general concepts and theories upon which a 3D program is founded. Those are the issue you should learn first. Unfortunately that is not always the case.

trueSpace  is now owned by Microsoft Inc., and it can be downloaded with no limitations for free.

3)  Modeling a low poly (low resolution) human figure 

4)  Modeling a head with trueSpace 

     Adding details

     The Mirror Modeler in v 6

     Mirror modeling in v 5

     Subdivision Surfaces  

     Modeling an ear     

     Texturing a head in v. 5

     UV unwrap a head in v. 6.6

Painting an unwrapped wire frame image in Photoshop

5)  Modeling a hand 

6)  Modeling an Eyeball 

3D Studio 

.

To build a model similar to Michael Roger's Joan of Arc you'll need 3D studio Max, You could used an old version of it as far back as 3D Studio Max 2.0 or higher, or 3D Studio Viz,  The modeling of Joan of Arc tutorial can be found at http://www.3dtotal.com  under Free Stuff > Tutorials.

Modeling Joan of Arc by Michel Roger

This is simply one of the best tutorials, as well as one of the most complete that I have seen on the Web, dealing with the modeling tools and texturing capabilities of 3D Studio Max.

If you are taking the web based version of this course because you happen to own 3D Studio Max you can concentrate in working on one project only: the modeling a complete figure using as a guide the tutorial  by Michel Roger: "Modeling Joan of Arc" at http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc/joanmenu.asp

If you are interested in modeling a 2 legged character suitable for a game, the Material ID tutorial by Scarecrow is excellent, if you own 3D Studio and never used this texture mapping feature here it is: Material ID

Softimage XSI demo  

It is very unlikely that a NVCC student will own outright this program. Only because Maya does enjoy a greater popularity with kids, due to cleaver marketing strategies. The bottom line is that Maya and XSI offer very much the same features. Maya and XSI are competitors in the 3D arena. The fact is that Animation Master has better and easier tool to use.

Since the '80, Softimage 3D, has been responsible for the creation of CG character animation for films such as Jurassic Park, The Mask, Godzilla, and the Matrix. Many Production Studios may own both XSI and Maya

For the time being the only tutorial that I was able to produce for XSI were that of modeling and texturing a human head, but these basic techniques can be extended to modeling the rest of the figure. Softimage XSI provides you with some ready made customizable human figures. They are a viable alternative to that of building your own, only if they are modified extensively to look like original figures.

Creating detailed figurative models can be a time taking activity, but like all ambitious projects it can be very rewarding.  

The illustration here above show a photo of my face mapped to one of the ready made models available in XSI

Aside from the few tutorials I can offer to you here, there a are a substantial number of them available from the Internet, but what you will not find in great abundance are tutorial dealing specifically with the modeling of the human figure.

7)  Modeling a head with XSI  

8)  Texturing a head with XSI by Giulio Porta

     Texturing a head  by Manny Papamanos

Rigging and animating a human jaw. Copy and paste the link here below into your browser. http://www.vfxcast.com/media/250/SoftimageXSI_Jaw_Rigging/

Unwrapping a model with Ultimate 3D Unwrap

In the classroom version on this course will barely touch on the concept of unwrapping and UV mapping. Here are some tutorial that can help you in understanding unwrapping better. These tutorials are tailored for the program Ultimate 3D Unwrap.

Unwrapping and mapping an eye

Unwrap a figure

Unwrap a head

Wings 3D   This program is free, but like all the others, has a relatively steep learning curve, and if you do not know how to use it, I cannot give you credit just for "learning" it. Unfortunately it maybe very unlike that you might have heard of this program. If you do not have a 3D modeler  this program offers you advanced tools and the possibility of exporting models to other programs.

Even though I offer marginal support for this software, I have to admit that it has great potential, the models created in Wings 3D can be exported to other programs.

In 1997 Bay Raitt (the creator of the Gollum in the movie The Lord of the Rings) was hired by IZware to redesign Mirai interface. Ray also created a number of characters with Mirai.

Mirai is a high end 3D software designed  originally for the creation of game design for Playstation, as well as to perform all the modeling and animation routines, just like XSI, Maya, Lightwave, 3D Studio and trueSpace. But its capabilities are in the polygonal modeling area, and subdivision surfaces.

So what is Wings 3D? It is a free software, downloadable from http://www.wings3d.com/. The software is the brainchild of a programmer named Bjorn. It is modeled after Nendo and its larger counterpart Mirai.

Modeling a head with Wings 3D

Modeling an ear

There are a large number of free tutorials, available from the Web, dealing with the modeling of the human figure, but often times they are fragmented and incomplete. The author often makes the assumption that you already know the basics, this can results in frustrating situations for beginners. On the other hand this is not a good reason for disregarding this material completely.

Web tutorials dealing with the modeling of the human figure.