Character Tutorial
Part 1 – Character Modeling using
Nurbs Primitives and Sub-Divisions Surfaces Or How to Make a Chicken From
Scratch
by Kris Kapp
Cont'd from previous
page...
Step 3: The Beak
I ended up making the beak out of a sphere
that I divided in half. Yeah, I know I’m getting a lot of mileage out of
the sphere thing, but it’s an easy way to start. I promise I’ll do
something different when we get to the body.
"Before and after shots of the spheres."
Sometimes when you want a complex shape, it’s
easy to start out with curves formed in the rough shape that you want. The
curves will give you a starting point in 3D. Also, if you’re sick of
starting out with spheres, you can use the other modeling tools to form
the needed shapes. Make an outline of curves to give you a nice form for
the beak. You don’t have to do this but I find that it sometimes helps
with complex shapes.
"Beak curves in three dimensions"
Now that we have a rough outline in 3d for
the beak, take a sphere and rotate it so the ends are out to the side and
the spans are lined up horizontally. Divide it up and hide the lower
portion. By pushing and pulling CVs form the sphere so it fits within the
curve framework that you created. I found that the CVs at the end of the
sphere were pinching, I ended up straitening them out so that I no longer
had a sphere. I did this so when I mirrored and attached the two halves
together I would get a clean blend between the two sides. Use lattices to
further reshape the beak and delete history on the beak when you are done.
"CVs that form the end of beak"
"The old lattice trick"
Duplicate the beak and scale the new one
slightly so that it fits with in the old one. Make sure that the edge that
you are going to mirror across lies along the axis. Do this by selecting
the inside hull and move it using the snap-to-grid option so that is
aligned with the axis. Using the EP Curve Tool, snap a curve to the end
point (using snap-to-point or snap-to-curve)of each of the two beak
sections. Bow out the curve by selecting the inside VCs and scale/move
them out and down to make a nice shaped curve. Be sure to not move the
curve endpoints from where they were snapped to the ends of the beak.
Select the curve then select the outside isoparms of the beak pieces. Use
the Birail 1 tool and make a surface that goes between the two beak
pieces. Attach the birail surface to the original beak piece and then
attach the second beak piece to this one.
"Select the inside hull and snap it to the axis"
"Birail surface with curve at front of beak"
Repeat these steps for the lower beak.
Remember to delete history on the beak pieces when you are done. Also
create a layer for them and assign them to the layer. Name the pieces then
hide the layer. At this point, duplicate all the geometry of the head,
comb, and beak in the negative X and use the instance option. This will
give you an idea of how the whole thing will look. We’ll start on the
body next.
"Finished upper and lower beak pieces"
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