Choosing the right modelling method

After a very long hiatus I have returned to write about what I know best; everything 3D modelling related. During my time away from blogging I have been soaking up the 3D modelling scene to try and gain a bit more knowledge about building low polygon characters. My usual method of character modelling is effective enough but I wanted to see if there are any alternative methods on the internet. I managed to find a couple of informative tutorials but before I go into any detail I'll quickly explain how I've been modelling my characters in Cinema 4D.

• I'll drop a cube object into the scene and increase the number of segments.
• After I've made the cube editable I'll delete half of it and place it into a symmetry object (this really makes the modelling process a lot easier).
• I will also pop the cube and the symmetry object under a HyperNurbs. From there I will make a series of extrusions and cuts to to get the desired look.

I've always found character modelling to be frustrating, particularly when the symmetry object causes unexpected deformations. Thankfully after much experimentation I am able to spot any errors that the symmetry object might cause. Overall though, character modelling can be a rewarding experience. Now, on to the aforementioned websites.

The first website looks at modelling a character by starting with the leg and building up the body from there. This is a great way to model as you can be more precise with your extrusions and for the basic body shape you won't need to make as many knife cuts. You can find the website by following the link below;

http://www.markuslanser.com/tutorials/c4d_low_poly_body.html

It's great to have as many methods of character at hand as possible. This website shows you how to model using a drawing which you can use as a guide. A great level of detail can be achieved using this method.

The second website that I checked out looks at adding detail to the face. I wanted to add facial detail to my character however I needed a few tips to gain a bit more confidence. The following link will take you to a very thorough face modelling tutorial;

http://www2.ocn.ne.jp/~mimura/tutorials/index_e.html

Check out these two tuts and I promise you won't be disappointed. By combining various tutorials and techniques you will find that the modelling process becomes much easier. That's all for now.

Overcoming the symmetry tool in C4D

A few days ago I followed a tutorial that showed me how to create a humanoid head in C4D which didn't go too well at the time. This was partly down to how some of the tutorial was written and also because of the difficulty of using the symmetry tool. The symmetry tool can be of great help when modelling a character as it quite literally does half the job for you but there is a lot that can go wrong when using this tool. One of my previous efforts started to show signs of a bump which ran down the middle of the model. No matter what I did I couldn't rectify this problem however not all was lost as I managed to disguise the defects. I then found the tutorial mentioned above in the hope that I could learn how to avoid the common mistakes often associated when using the symmetry tool. I found the tutorial frustrating at first but on the whole it did teach me some valuable information that I would have not known otherwise.

For my first try at using the symmetry tool I used a primitive cube object which I placed in a HyperNurbs object. I then placed the cube object under symmetry and then placed both of them under HyperNurbs. Now it was this mistake that made the modelling process difficult. Instead I should have cut the primitive object in half and then placed it in a symmetry object. This made so much sense and I don't know why I didn't think of this in the first place. There is still the risk of a split down the middle of the model if a selected polygon is pulled outwards.

I have just begun a new model and I am pleased to say that this one is going smoothly thanks to the symmetry tool.

Below is my effort from the tutorial. The model on the left demonstrates what happens when I connected all of the objects together. For some reason the pixels seem blocky compared with the model on the left.

For anyone who is interested in checking out the symmetry tutorial just click on the link below;

http://dogparry.deviantart.com/art/Head-modeling-C4d-part-1-77337338