 | Drag and Drop a Surface Object from the Object
Builders Panel onto an empty scene. This will
open the Surface Object Building Tool.
A default background grid is provided by the Surface Tool, but we are going to replace
this with a side view of our dinosaur head. We will use this image to "trace"
our dinosaur head.
We will be creating our model based on a sketch provided by Daniel Ljunggren. Click here to
download the image.
Click on
the main toolbar to select the image of the dinosaur. |
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 | Click to
add a surface patch.
Each surface will be given a unique color so that you can discern one surface from
another. |
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 | We will be creating our model using a side view. The patch created is oriented for front
view modeling.
Alt-click on the surface and rotate it using the the Edit Control
so that it is oriented appropriately. Watch the Top view (bottom right view) to ensure it
is reoriented correctly.
Click anywhere on the grid to release the surface.
Note that we Alt-clicked to select the object rather than simply clicked to select the
object. Alt-clicking is used when you want to move, rotate or scale the entire object
rather than a single surface. We had to rotate in this way to re-orient the object so that
each subsequent surface added will be oriented correctly. |
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 | We are going to be modeling from a side view so we don't really need all four views
presented.
From the View menu select View Selection->Side View Modeling
to select a perspective view and a side view.
Virtually all of our modeling will be done using this side view. The perspective view will
be used as a means of judging the effect of changes made to the model. |
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 | We will be modeling our dinosaur using a surface subdivision technique. We will start
with a very coarse model and gradually add detail by subdividing surfaces.
Click
to make surfaces translucent. This aids in fitting surfaces to the image being traced.
Using the side view, move the surface so that it is roughly centered on the nose. Scale
the surface so that it covers the nose and the upper lip. |
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 | Clicking on a surface exposes its control points (handles) which can then be dragged to
deform the surface.
Using the side view, deform the surface so that its edges form an outline of the nose, and
aligns to the upper lip.
Note that we are working entirely in 2D at this point. We will not be giving our dinosaur
any depth until we have a complete outline. |
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 | Click to
add a second surface. |
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 | Move and Scale the surface so that it is large enough to cover the eye and is the same
height as the first surface added. |
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 | The new surface has to be linked to the first surface. To do this, drag the edge control
points to the equivalent points on the first surface.
It should be apparent where to drag the control points, but if it isn't you can display
the control points for all surfaces by clicking .
Note that this slows performance and should only be enabled when necessary. |
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 | After you have joined the two surfaces, deform the new surface so that it outlines the
top of the head above the eye. |
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 | Repeat this process of adding surfaces as shown. Leave the area at the front of the neck
until the next step.
If you do not like the color assigned to the surfaces, simply click to turn
surface coloring off, and a second time to generate new surface colors. |
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 | In our final modeling step, we will be merging all of our surfaces into a single
surface. Having a single surface means that we do not need to worry about creases where
surfaces meet.
In order to merge surfaces, the edge that the two surfaces share must have an equal number
of control points and be linked at each control point.
The easiest way to ensure that merging will be easy is to view the surfaces in your model
as though they were cells in a table. If the table contains an equal number of columns on
each row, it will be possible to merge into a single surface.
We add this final surface at the front of the neck to meet the equal surfaces per row
requirement. Fortunately, in this case the neck area can use these additional control
points to create wrinkles and depth. |
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 | If you want you can switch to solid view by clicking .
The coarse outline of our model is now complete. |
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 | It is now time to add depth to our model.
Select a surface to display its control points.
Using the side view, right click and drag an edge control point so that it moves two units
back. You can judge the amount a point has been moved by watching the Status Bar. |
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 | Continue this process for all edges except for the base of the neck. |
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 | We now have depth for our coarse model. |
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 | The trickiest part of creating a model using surface modeling is to get proper depth.
This is critical for a proper shape.
Move control points until you are happy with shape of the head. |
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 | The top of the head comes to a peak. Move the control points so that there is less of a
peak. We will be mirroring this side of the head to create a whole head and we have to
ensure that the top will be smooth when the two surfaces are joined.
You don't need to worry about the nose. It will be corrected later. |
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 | Once you have a shape that you are happy with, doing a test mirror can be quite helpful.
Click
to mirror the object. Click to turn off surface coloring.
It looks pretty good. The nose has excessive creasing, but that will be dealt with later.
If you found that the mirror did not meet exactly with the original, it is likely that
when you added depth you did not do it consistently along the edges. Clicking on a control
point shows its position on the status bar. Click to undo the
mirror and ensure that each edge control point has the same depth. |
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 | The back of the head look pretty good, though it may need some adjusting to get a smooth
final surface. We will leave that for a later step.
Click to
undo the mirror.
Close the Surface Tool. |
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 | When the object is copied to your scene, the edges between surfaces are smoothed. But if
there is an excessive peak or hollow where surfaces meet, it will be apparent.
Click here
to download the model completed in this part of this tutorial. |
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