artist toolkit 3d - week 14

 3D Modelling Process - Body & Hair

This week, I continued to work on my 3D Model! This week, I focused on creating a body blockout for my model, as well as beginning to work on her hair!

Making the Body

I began working on the body by Importing a new subtool of another sphere. This acted as my base for the torso, Which i began to shape using the Move tool once again. I made sure the constantly spin my model and make sure the side view also looked accurate. Originally when creating this model, I planned to use my orthographic and follow it exactly - However as I began to create my model I had a few different ideas and wanted to change certain things, so I mainly used it as a guideline more than something to follow exactly.

The process of creating this model can also be found in speed video form! The speed model is linked on YouTube:

After completing the torso to a point where i was happy with the shape, I began to work on the thighs and legs. I imported a cylinder, and began to resize it using the Move, Scale and Rotate tools. When i had a base shape i was happy with, I once again went in with the move tool To reshape and building upon the cylinder. I smoothed my shape out until I had something I was happy with, and used the Mirror and Weld tool to repeat this thigh onto the other side of the torso.

After i was happy with the tops of the torso, I began with the legs. I wanted my model to have very thin and cartoon-like legs, which worked well with the style i was currently blocking out in. I followed a similar process as before when making the thighs and when i was happy I used the Mirror and Weld tool to rotate it onto the other side.

Creating the arms and hands followed a very similar process as before for the legs. I imported new subtools of cylinders for both the top half and lower half of the arms, as well as for the hands (more on that in a second). The process is actually quite simple and pretty easy once you start to get the hang of everything. I used this same process until I was happy with the arms and then began to work on the hands. For now, I just imported another subtool of a cube for the hands, which I reshaped to fit more accurately and also smoothed out. When I begin to detail my model, I will Make these hands much more detailed.

Here is the fullbody block out! I am quite happy with how this turned out so far, and I like how similar it looks to my concept sketches and art style! My next steps are to start to detail the features and creatings things such as her clothes and hair.

Making the Hair

My characters hair while quite simple, also had a very complicated feature! Her hair is a made of 2 pigtails made of Foxglove flowers, So today I began working on modelling these! This process with be documented in screenshots on this blog, as well as a youtube speed-up modelling process video which can be found here:

I firstly started as most of my other process so far, by importing a new subtool. I imported a cube and reshaped it to a thin and long shape, which i then moved around and played with using the Move tool. I moulded this shape around the face to resemble the hair on my concept design and smoothed it along as i progressed until I was happy. Thankfully, the art style i choose for this model is very simple and the style the hair is drawn in means i can model it in simple thin and symmetrical chunks. When I am happy with the base hair, I will begin to up the poly count and detail and smooth it further.

I also created a fringe/bangs, and the back hair pieces following am using the same technique as previously shown. I created a very simplistic block out, Which i will begin to shape and detail further as I add more details.

Next, I wanted to block out her pigtails since i felt they were the main focus of her hair and I wanted to get a full block out before I started detailing anything else. I started by creating a toob to act as the stem/base of her pigtails. I made this using a tool called the Curve Multitool. this tool allowed me to draw the shape i wanted this wires to appear, and it worked really well. I then used the Mirror and Weld tool to mirror it across to the other side of my model.

To create the flowers, I got up reference and opened a new file. I imported a cylinder like pill shaped model which would act as my base, and began to start shaping  it using the symmetry tools and the Move and Clay Buildup tool to get the effect I desired.

I then added another subtool for the leafs at the top of the  flower.  I imported a cylinder and reshaped it using the Move and smooth tools until I was happy with the shape and size. I them duplicated this and placed it around to create multiple leaves at the top of the flower. When I was happy with my final flower, I merged everything into one layer and exported it as a tool so that I could paste it into my other model.

I was then able to import these flowers onto my main model! I adjusted them according and placed them onto her hair, using the Mirror and Weld tool to duplicate this to the other side! Below is an image of my odel so far, which I'm really liking! Next week, I will focus on creating her clothing and hands, as well as finalising and subdividing the mesh to create more details and smoothness overall on the model.