Place Holder Character Creation (Blocking Out)

Placeholder characters do exactly what their name insinuates. They are a simple block creation that allows others, Such as the animation team, to work on a block version of the model, which can then be updated in the future. This makes is possible for other teams to work on the project at the same time that it is being created. 

Before starting to Block Out your character, make sure the following is observed, as this is how good practice is typically follows

•       The Correct Scale is set up

•       The image plane is split into front and side views of the model sheet

•       Set the views in front and side to X-Ray

•       Make sure the images are loaded into Hyper Shade

•       Your Image planes must be froze and on a separate layer, locked!

Now this is all completed. Create cubes and scale them to create the different parts of the body. This will give you the basic idea of the scale that the model will be. These cubes can be adjusted later and will be refined to the model shape. They are simply there to understand the scale and size.

               

Once you are happy with the scale of the model, go to the front or side view (using X-Ray) and create a cylinder, placing edge loops throughout them. Place this cylinder in front of the image plane around one of the limbs on the model sheet. Using the loops, move them round to create the basic shape of the leg/arm. Make sure to keep these rings flat. Try not to move and of the Vertex’s away from the loop as it creates an odd shape. Make sure to only have the minimum amount of edge loops in the cylinder. Too many will complicate the initial primitive, you must find a balance which creates the basic shape.

Make sure to save constantly. It is pretty certain that you will make mistakes and Maya enjoys crashing occasionally!

You should aim to keep a central line which runs all the way down each limb of the model. Not only does it make the model look nice but it shows the edge flow and makes it a lot smoother and professional.

 

 

Above is the way to model properly. As you can see, the primitive contains the form and shape of the leg but is not overly complicated and the vertex loops are nicely placed. Below is a bad example of character modelling

 

 

The character block out on the left is very un-proportioned. The scale is completely off with the characters legs taking up the majority of the model and the arm being very short. In the second picture (Right) the leg is being created from a square which makes the cylinder shaped leg look a lot more robotic and also he is pulling out Vertex’s which will deform the leg even more. Do not follow this when creating your character.

The torso of the model works in the same way, by moving the loops to create a smooth body shape. Next is to stitch all of these pieces all together. To do this we position the limbs and torso in line with that on the image plane Notice at key points the vertex’s from both the limb and body ‘collide’. These make very good stitching points.

Combine the two pieces together and then merge the vertexes of the main key points of the two models together.

This should look nice and smooth much like on the picture to the left. By attaching random vertices together the result would be a deformed connection and the aim is to create a smooth flow through the model.

 

If the Geometry is too complicated to combine together just try to combine the key points, as you can go back and clean up the messy and pointless geometry.

You will notice that there is now a whole in-between the legs, so therefore we need to bridge it by creating a gusset. To do this, extrude a poly from one side of the gap to the other. Inserting around 3 edge loops on this will give good gusset geometry to attach a leg to. Once this is all securely in place merge all appropriate verts together. Make sure not to over complicate the geometry at this stage. A basic body is what we want first.

 

Now to attach the arms, we do a similar process. Delete some faces in the torso so that the arm can be attached. Combine the two pieces of mesh together and merge the points at the armpit and shoulder together. This is when u can begin to add more detail to the character. Try and aim to make geometry where it will give definition and not just to increase the poly count.

Here is what a clean model should look like. Geometry is smooth and flows well. There are no abnormalities and scale has been recognised and matched with the model sheet. All articulation of the joints are correctly positioned and geometry added for use when rigging. This is good practice for a first try.

 

This is an example of a bad body model. The geometry is random and there is no flow. The model is far too complicated and it has deformed parts of it such as the chest area and the scale is wrong. The hands stretch far longer than the bicep region and the leg/feet are much too long. This has been modelled from a bad reference sheet. Avoid these mistakes!