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How do you make a person?
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
How do you make a person? // Work in Progress
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 4, 2007, 7:27am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Hey everyone:D, I'm in my graphic design class right now, and we have a new project where we are supposed to recreate ourself in TrueSpace:confused:. We are not allowed to use the Facial Animator and we cannot use pictural textures:(. We have about a month to get it done, and I'm not entirely sure where to start:confused:.
Here in the classroom, we are running TrueSpace 5.2, but our teacher is trying to get TrueSpace 7.51:rolleyes:.
Any help is appreciated:D
Thanks in advance:D,
TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by TomG // Oct 4, 2007, 7:39am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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Making a person is a complicated task, and there is no simple forum answer that will give you all you need.
Best bet is to do a search for character modeling tutorials on the web, and investigate how to make characters using what they call "box modeling"
3D Buzz had a tutorial on making an elf that would help, its video tutorial and free (done for gS so interface is similar to tS6 / tS5).
There are lots of other tutorials out there, for instance External Gallery winner James Brand won in part with his character making tutorial for gameSpace (posted on the gS forums, and on the web in general, see External Gallery winner page http://www.caligari.com/Gallery/externalgallery/winner_200707.asp )
The upshot is though that making a good character is going to take a lot of hard work - you'll need to do a lot of searches, a lot of reading, and a lot of practice :)
Best bet for the forums is to ask when you hit more specifc issues, eg "My fingers don't look good" "I can't get the knees to bend well they crease when I bend them" "How can I add more detail around the eyes" etc. Then the forums can step in with more specific advice on those specific issues :)
HTH!
Tom |
Post by jayr // Oct 4, 2007, 7:48am
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jayr
Total Posts: 1074
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Hi truespaced, i'd recomend nowherebrain's tutorials at: http://www.scatteredpixel.com/
but they're for 7.5, they could still be useful though.
Check 3DTotal too, they have a couple of tutorials, one for joan of arc and on for a Sword Master (they cost about £8 each) in the 'free' section under tutorials.
The sword master one is a low poly game type model but can easily lead you in the right direction model wise, it's really for lightwave but works well in truespace.
As for textures, do you have to use just the shaders in truespace, No photoshop? |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 4, 2007, 7:55am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Thank you TomG! Box modeling is a great idea, and I'll look into that tutuorial and try to read up on some things! :D
Thank you too JayR, the TrueSpace tutorial will be helpful for me (because I own it at home), but nobody else in our class owns TS 7.5, so I'd be the only one to benefit lol :p!
We are able to use the Caligari textures, but we are unable to use photographs as textures, and we have no Photoshop
Thanks
TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by jamesmc // Oct 4, 2007, 8:08am
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jamesmc
Total Posts: 2566
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I was always told the first step in doing art is to get inspired. Most have probably seen this, but I think it is inspirational from the Masters of Art that morph from one face to another.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs |
Post by Délé // Oct 4, 2007, 8:22am
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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I think the first step would be to get a couple of good photos of yourself from a front and a side shot. Then you can use the photos to model against. I haven't used 5.2 but the usual method is to map your reference photos onto planes. Then align the planes with the front and side views respectively. That will give you your reference photos to model against. Start with a cube and slowly add the geometry needed to pull the shape out. It's usually good to try to keep quads for even smoothing. It's also best to try to keep good even line flow that follows the topology well. It's not easy to do and takes a lot of practice as Tom said. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Oct 4, 2007, 8:33am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Also you're not going to be able to achieve very good results if you're limited to the built in textures. Are you allowed to use paint programs like GIMP?
www.gimp.org
or paint.net?
http://www.getpaint.net/
-Jack. |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 4, 2007, 11:17am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Thank you very much for the video Jamesmc, but I have to create myself, so I can't use just any face shape to create mine.
Dele, thank you very much, some of what you've said I've already started on. I have a front and side shot picture of me, and I've placed them on planes and lined them up to create the basic shape of my head (which I think I'll have to start over on because I used a sphere and it isn't working so well....:rolleyes:). Ok, I've heard a lot about box modelling, and I know what it is, but what types of tools do I use? Do I quad divide and use the sweep or bevel tool? Or I personally can use the soft paint tool at home, but my classmates would probably like some help too lol:p, and most of them just work off of 5.2 at school (I think one of them has 7.1, but never uses it, and another has 6.5, but never uses it). I've started on my hair, which is rather difficult because it's kinda long and very thick, but I think I'm going to end up doing that part last :p
My teacher has modified the project slightly so that we no longer have to create an entire body for ourselves, he thinks that the head is hard enough :D(and I agree). He says we're going to do from the shoulders up now.
Thank you Jack E, I think I am allowed to use paint programs, as long as I don't just take a photograph and use it as a texture. Like I can't take a picture of me then place it on my head; I have to either create the texture using the extremely limited programs we have, or just use the textures that TrueSpace supplies. We also have Shader Magic and Simbiont, which I'm learning how to use.
The only problem with using a paint application like that is that the only program we have at school is Microsoft Paint from Windows 2000, and we are not allowed to download ANYTHING onto those computers or we get like out of school suspension, so I could ask my teacher, but I doubt I'll be able to download any other programs onto it:(. Another problem is that whenever I save a scene from home onto a Flash Drive, the objects transfer, but the textures do not. Could anyone help me with that? If not that's fine because I usually don't do anything in that class anyway, lol, so texturing would give me something to do:p.
Okay, and I'm having a major problem now... I was making my hair (probably shouldn't have started doing that in the first place) on my home computer, and I saved it. After I saved it I went back over into the Workspace tab to edit the hair, and it said "Rendering Failed for this Window", which is a message I get often, usually all I have to do is restart TrueSpace and it's fine, but now I can't restart TrueSpace because it keeps trying to load that scene:(. It doesn't work when I try to load another scene either... Can anyone help with this?
Oh, and btw, that crappy glacier (this month's cover and Honerable Mention) was a project for that class lol:p, and there were a lot of people in that class who had a better looking render than I did, so I was very surprised... Ha, that project gave me all kinds of problems..... Everyone's joking in that class, "Oh, the only reason you got on is because you're popular, they know your name," lol, and I tell them, "Ask Roman, because I have no clue.":p
Anyway
Thanks in advance!
And thank you everyone who has replied already!
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by 3dfrog // Oct 4, 2007, 11:17am
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3dfrog
Total Posts: 1225
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Hey truespaced. Good to see ya. Does this have to be a realistic self portrait? It may be easier to make a characture (sp?) to get you started if you arent used to realistic modeling yet. Believe me cartoon ears are a lot easier than realistic ones ;)
Start low poly and build from there, adding edges and shape along the way. Nowhere brains tutorial is a good thing to watch no matter what style you use. |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 4, 2007, 11:20am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Thanks 3D Frog, I'll look into Nowherebrain's tutorial soon (but I have homework that I'm procrastinating lol:p)! And he specifically said, "No cartoons." :( So it has to be a realistic portrait...
We're thinking about taking all of our heads at the end and putting some "creative bodies" on them and make them animate all on one screen and see how that goes... :D
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by 3dfrog // Oct 4, 2007, 11:21am
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3dfrog
Total Posts: 1225
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Ah you posted while I was typing. I get the rendering failed for this window when my computer goes to sleep. I just switch to model tab then back to workspace tab and it renders again. No need to restart. |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 4, 2007, 11:25am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Ha, you sent your message like right after I sent mine lol.
I don't know if that would work or not, but that's not the problem now unfortunately the problem is every time I open TrueSpace now it pulls up "TrueSpace has stopped working" and it closes out.
Thanks for the response,
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by Jack Edwards // Oct 4, 2007, 11:51am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Truespaced, you should send the scene that locks up TS to Paul (support@caligari.com) so he can send it to the devs for testing.
To load TS with default configuration, hold down CTRL when you click on the TS icon to start it. That'll give you a dialog box with start up options.
Here's a topology reference that has been passed around the CG community for some time:
8789
Here's a head that I made a while back but never got around to finishing:
http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showpost.php?p=20026&postcount=6
Another link:
http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1165
You could also try searching head topology on the internet and see what you get. :) |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 4, 2007, 3:36pm
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Thank you so much JackE :D I'll make sure everyone in class sees that wireframe of the head tomorrow, it should help us out a lot!
The scene all of the sudden randomly started working... So idk what's up with it, but it works now... Thank you for the suggestion though, I'll do that next time I have a problem :D.
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 6, 2007, 2:45am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Okay, TrueSpace isn't opening now, and I don't know why it opened that one time, but now it isn't at all. I e-mailed Caligari Support, so hopefully they can come up with something....
Ehh, I just tried to send it, but the scene file is too large...
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by Jack Edwards // Oct 6, 2007, 3:27am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Something that may be happening to you, is that you may be running out of memory. Especially if you put hair in the scene.
I'd recommend modeling the parts you need seperately and saving them as objects in your library instead of scenes. That way if the scene gets screwed up, you don't lose all your work. ;)
Edit: and save the hair 'till after you've got the rest done. ;)
-Jack. |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 6, 2007, 12:37pm
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Ya, I'll try to do that next time... Now the problem is opening TrueSpace... It won't open, no matter what scene I try to open it with.
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by jayr // Oct 6, 2007, 12:56pm
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jayr
Total Posts: 1074
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have you tried reseting it, i think it's holding ctrl or something when you click it, that might work, or just reinstalling it. |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 6, 2007, 1:12pm
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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When you CTRL click it, it just brings up some options on visual things, like wireframe, default view, etc.
I may have to reinstall it, but I'm trying to avoid that just because it's a pain to do. But I get different error messages, and sometimes I'm closer to fixing it than others. After it opens, it always says "Rendering Failed for this Window", but sometimes when I click on "Default", it pulls up on the Workspace side. Then I go to the Model tab to go to File->Load or New or something to get out of there, but it says the computer ran out of memory then... Next time it lets me do that I'm going to delete all of the objects before going to the Model tab. This seems like just one of those things you have to do over and over again until something just clicks.
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 6, 2007, 1:21pm
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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YES I GOT IT!!!!!!!!!
I finally got trueSpace to open and I deleted all of the objects and am NOT making hair first again!!! :)
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by Jack Edwards // Oct 6, 2007, 1:42pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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You mean this box? :D
8815 |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 6, 2007, 2:09pm
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Lol, yes, I mean that box, but when I clicked on it it didn't do anything different. I got it to work now, that's all that really counts for me, and I deleted the scene that was having problems, so I hopefully won't make the same mistake again..
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by Nez // Oct 7, 2007, 11:12pm
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Nez
Total Posts: 1102
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I would also suggest you read through the whole of the following thread which I don't think you've been here long enough to spot.
http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showthread.php?t=1129
I can't remember whether you get any shots of the mesh but it should give you some inspiration if nothing else... but also some probable tips on some of the trickier aspects and plenty of discussion on textures and lighting, from my recollection. |
Post by trueSpaced // Oct 8, 2007, 7:12am
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trueSpaced
Total Posts: 544
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Thank you Nez, but I have already seen that thread lol :D
I saw it under the "Best of the Forums", and we're already using that thread to help us in class :D
-TrueSpaced:banana: |
Post by chrisj // Oct 8, 2007, 8:48am
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chrisj
Total Posts: 239
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I'm honoured to be a source of inspiration to young artists, especially as I've had no artistic training myself. It was a huge learning curve for me as is evidenced by the continuous changes to the mesh, but I did learn a lot about facial structure. Others, in this thread, have mentioned the various tutorials I used myself. I may still return to work some more on the mesh, as I can see areas for improvement. Feel free to contact me, if I can be of assistance in any way. I look forward to seeing the results.
Cheers
Chris |
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