Modelling my Characters
Its easy to just model a shape that looks like a person and claim you can build characters. Having a character with the wrong line flow will be a major problem when coming to the rigging and animating stages of the process. You need the lines to flow in such a way that allow the geometry to bend and deform without popping or having any unwanted moving vertices.
I built one body and have it stored in a personal library so I can use it for every character I model. This not only saves me time, but it makes sure I always have the exact same line flow for every character I build. Ill know how each character will deform and what the limits of the character are. Every Joint needs multiple lines for deforming properly. I go with a minimum 3 and that doubles or triples once I smooth it. This allows the joint to bend while maintaining volume.
The torso requires specific line flow because of how muscle moves. Your shoulders are effected by both your chest and back muscle, so when you move you characters shoulder, his chest and upper back should deform slightly as well. When you push both you shoulders back, Your shoulder blades both meet at your spine as your chest stretches out. You'll want this to happen with your character while making sure your character can twist it's spine.
Whether you want a realistic or cartoony character, you'll need to think about exactly how a human moves when modelling it. Everything comes into play with this. Knowing and understanding anatomy is the difference between an awkward, amateur looking character, and a aesthetic, professional looking character.
As I said in my previous Blog - Finding a Look/Style for my Videos, my character's faces are done using 2D Textures, so when I was building the head for them I didn't follow any specific line flow. The head will squash and stretch but that is the extent of the deforming they will do. For every character before this project, I built fully 3D faces that deform with the facial features. Having the right line flow for the face allows you to create nicer, crazier face poses when animating.
Below is the body I have modeled that I keep in my personal library that I mold into every character I make. You can see the proportions are of a standard human body with the line flow working with the muscles of a human body.
Its easy to just model a shape that looks like a person and claim you can build characters. Having a character with the wrong line flow will be a major problem when coming to the rigging and animating stages of the process. You need the lines to flow in such a way that allow the geometry to bend and deform without popping or having any unwanted moving vertices.
I built one body and have it stored in a personal library so I can use it for every character I model. This not only saves me time, but it makes sure I always have the exact same line flow for every character I build. Ill know how each character will deform and what the limits of the character are. Every Joint needs multiple lines for deforming properly. I go with a minimum 3 and that doubles or triples once I smooth it. This allows the joint to bend while maintaining volume.
The torso requires specific line flow because of how muscle moves. Your shoulders are effected by both your chest and back muscle, so when you move you characters shoulder, his chest and upper back should deform slightly as well. When you push both you shoulders back, Your shoulder blades both meet at your spine as your chest stretches out. You'll want this to happen with your character while making sure your character can twist it's spine.
Whether you want a realistic or cartoony character, you'll need to think about exactly how a human moves when modelling it. Everything comes into play with this. Knowing and understanding anatomy is the difference between an awkward, amateur looking character, and a aesthetic, professional looking character.
As I said in my previous Blog - Finding a Look/Style for my Videos, my character's faces are done using 2D Textures, so when I was building the head for them I didn't follow any specific line flow. The head will squash and stretch but that is the extent of the deforming they will do. For every character before this project, I built fully 3D faces that deform with the facial features. Having the right line flow for the face allows you to create nicer, crazier face poses when animating.
Below is the body I have modeled that I keep in my personal library that I mold into every character I make. You can see the proportions are of a standard human body with the line flow working with the muscles of a human body.
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| Front View |
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| Rear View |
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If you are interested in seeing my work on other projects or want to look at my travels so far, feel free to check out my links below.
Portfolio - adamdewar.ca
Instagram - instagram.com/dewarexplores
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/
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