Cre@teOnline - The Web Designer's Bible CH04 Page 22
Building Organic Forms
Organic forms have always been a tricky subject for 3D modelers, especial-
ly if the form is something well known to the viewer, like a human. A face,
for example, is so complex and has so many curves, hollows, and sub-
tleties, that it's difficult to know where to start. It also requires that the user
have a great deal of control over small areas, yet the use of a large number
of vertices in the model makes editing difficult and confusing.
One of the most tedious but precise methods of building a complex form
is to use relatively low-level tools such as edge extrusion and vertex pulling
to construct it. This method was used to create some impressive 3D heads
often seen in Animation Master advertising and demo reels, and for the
model of Hyleyn from the Sinkha CD-ROM (see Figure 4.19).
3 D G
R A P H I C S
& A
N I M A T I O N
168
F
IGURE
4.19
The 3D model of Hyleyn
(right) from the Sinkha
CD-ROM was created by
painstaking point-by-point
creation and manipula-
tion of individual vertices,
coupled with extensive
retouching. Image by
Marco Patrito/Virtual
Views
1995 Virtual
Views.
No matter what the technique, doing human figures requires excellent
sculptural sensibilities, as well as good reference material showing the sub-
ject from several angles. This is a good example of where employing scans
of the reference material as a background image would be invaluable. Refer
to Appendix G, "Planning and Organization," for more details.
04 2433_CH04 8/23/02 8:34 AM Page 168
