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August 2001
Chicken Head Setup
by Kris Kapp
(Your first dance
with the chicken? Get caught up with the first chicken scratch
here)
When I started to setup the controls
for the chicken’s head, I quickly realized that I couldn’t get the
expressions I wanted the way I have the head modeled. So, I decided take the
one continuous nurb surface and break it up into several nurb patches.
The main difference with patches instead of a single surface is that I
have more control over where the detail is concentrated.
Differences between
single nurbs surface and nurbs patches.
Since I had already converted the nurbs surface into patches, I thought
I would go ahead and convert the patches into polys. This way I have a
poly mesh that I can use as a wrap deformer. Also, with the rising
popularity of Subdivision Surfaces, I now have a base mesh to use if I
want. One of the main differences between nurbs and polys is how the
UVs are handled for each surface. Nurbs come with UV information
“built-in” because nurbs, by definition, have a rectangular shape. With polys you create the UV information by mapping them to a rectangular
area called texture space. You can see this space when you open the
texture view window. Each vertex of the poly has a corresponding UV
coordinate. Taking a little extra time to make a nice set of UVs will
pay dividends down the road. When you paint weights or use fur on polys,
you use the UV info to make maps.
Close up of patch
eye detail.
The different
patches of the head.
I don’t want to spend a too much time talking about patch modeling.
Basically, I just projected a curve in the shape of the eyelid onto the nurb head surface. I duplicated and scaled the curve a couple times and
then lofted it to form the eyelid shape. From there, I just detached
parts of the head and then fitted the new pieces together using the
stitch tool. I seem to have more luck with it then using Global Stitch.
I am just going to create one side of the head. When converting the
patches to polys I use the following settings: Under tessellation
settings I pick general and quads. Next I make sure to set the Per Span
# of Iso Params and the number of U and V to 1.
Settings for urbs
to polys
>>>Continued
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