Maya 8 Character Modeling

505 Pages·2007·35.298 MB·English

by  Gary Oliverio

Maya® 8 Character
Modeling
Gary Oliverio
Wordware Publishing, Inc.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Oliverio,Gary.
Maya8CharacterModeling/byGaryOliverio;
p. cm.
Includesindex.
ISBN-13:978-1-59822-020-9
ISBN-10:1-59822-020-9(pbk.,companioncd)
1. Computeranimation. 2. Maya(Computerfile). 3. Three-dimensional
displaysystems. I. Title.
TR897.7.O442006
006.6'96--dc22 2006029338
©2007,WordwarePublishing,Inc.
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Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorbyanymeans
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ISBN-13:978-1-59822-020-9
ISBN-10:1-59822-020-9
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0610
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Thisbookisdedicatedtomywife,Robin,andourfivechildren.
SpecialthankstoMikeHovlandforthescriptinghelpaswell.
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Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter1 What Am I Getting Myself Into? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
WhoIsThisBookFor?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
LookingForward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
TheArtofProgramming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
ToDraworNottoDraw,ThatIstheQuestion… . . . . . . . . 4
ResearchandReference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter2 Words of Wisdom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
TheSecretFormula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Save,Save,Save,Save,Save! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
KeepItClean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
WorkingwithQuads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
EdgeLoops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
ModelingReferenceGuides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
BeforeWeGetStarted… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
ImportantNoteaboutThisBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter3 A Modeling Primer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Subdivisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
ThatQuadThingAgain… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
ExtrudingPitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Can’tGetaHardEdge! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Normals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
UVLayout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
TheSculptGeometryTool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
ObjectandWorldCoordinates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
GoTools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Wrap-Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Chapter4 Beginning the Modeling Process. . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
BlockingouttheBody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
ImportantNote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Wrap-Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
v
Contents
Chapter5 Building the Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
ApplyingWhatWe’veLearned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
HeadsUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
ShapingtheNose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
TheMouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
TheEyeSocket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Chapter6 Creating the Ear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
GettingtoKnowtheEar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Let’sStartBuilding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Chapter7 What Beautiful Eyes You Have . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
TheDetails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Chapter8 Open Wide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
GettingYourChops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
TheTeeth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
TheGums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
TheTongue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
PlacingtheTeethandTongue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Chapter9 Fleshing Out the Body. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
CraftingtheFigure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
TheArm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
TheBack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
TheButt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
TheHipsandAbdomen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
TheLegs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
TheBreasts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
TheClaviclesandNeck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
TheTouch-Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Chapter10 Hands and Feet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
TheHand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
HandDetails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
TheFoot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
FootDetails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
vi
Contents
Chapter11 Fine-Tuning the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
ThatPerspectiveThing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Combine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
FinishingTouches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Chapter12 UVs and Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
ABitaboutAdvancedShaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
OurApproachtoUVs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
PreparingtheModel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
AssigningUVCoordinatestotheHead . . . . . . . . . . . 339
TexturingtheHead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
FinishingTouches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Chapter13 Character Rigging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
UnderstandingJoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
PlacingtheTorsoandHeadJoints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
PlacingtheLegandFootJoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
PlacingtheArmandHandJoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
CreatingControlsforthePelvisandTorso. . . . . . . . . . 421
CreatingHeadControls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
CreatingArmandHandControls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
CreatingLegandFootControls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Chapter14 The Weighting Is the Hardest Part . . . . . . . . . . 455
TheProcessofWeightingOurCharacter . . . . . . . . . . 455
NormalizedWeighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
SkinningBasics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
PaintingtheWeights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
ABitaboutBlendShapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Final Thoughts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
vii
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Introduction
Insittingdowntowritethisbook,Ireallywantedtoclearlydefine
anapproachthatwasaccessibleenoughforabeginnertograsp.I
haveseenmanytutorialsthataresopuzzlingthatineffectthey
deteranyonefrom3Dmodeling.Theproblemmostpeoplehaveis
distinguishingthegoodfromthenotsogood,whichcanbedifficult
forthenovicewhoisjustgettinghisfeetwet.
Ididn’twantthistobeatediousstringoftutorialsthatyoucan’t
digressfromoreasilyputyourowntouchon.Ateachstepalongthe
way,Ihopetokeepitniceandsimple.Ithinkthiswayyoucanuse
thisbookmerelyasaguidetogetyoustartedonyourownmodel
insteadofjustcopyingwhatyouseeinthepagestofollow.If,how-
ever,youwanttodojustthat,byallmeansgorightahead!Ihave
includedonthecompanionCDallthefilesnecessarytocreatethe
characterandaMayafiletoaccompanyeachchapter.
InmyyearsofteachingIhavefoundthatitisgenerallydifficult
fornew3Dartiststoworkoutthebugs.Ifyouarewillingtoseeit
through,Icanguaranteeyouwillgetit!Itellstudentstogetin
thereandbreakthings.Messupasmuchasyouneedtoinorderto
learnfromyourmistakes.Doitoverandoveragainuntilyouunder-
standwhatyoudidwrong.Theprocessofscrappingamodeland
startingoverfromscratchwillstrengthenyourskills.
Thisapproachwillnotgounrewarded.WhatIhearoftenfrom
studentsisthe“Idon’tgetit”mantra.ItellthemthattheEureka
momentwillcome.Itusuallydoes—likeabrickupsidethehead!
Onedaytheywakeupandtheyjustgetit!WhatIamtryingtosay
isdon’tgetdiscouragedifitdoesn’tcomeeasy.Ifyouaredeter-
minedtolearn,thenlearnyouwill.
IthinkthebestadviceIcouldgivesomeonewhowantsacareer
asanartististobepassionate.Noamountofinstructionfromthe
bestteacherintheworldwillhelpyouifyouarenotpassionate.
Hey,iftheKarateKidwasn’tpassionateabouthistraining,thena
roomfullofMr.Miyagiswouldn’tmakeabitofdifference.Nopas-
sion=nosequel!Seriouslythough,passionwillseeyouthrough
yourdarkesthours.Itwillmakeupforyourlackofskillsuntilyou
havegivenyourselfenoughtimetohonethem.
ix