Character Setup Big Picture

1. Get GEO, UVs and TEXTURES as FINAL as humanly possible
* edge and vertex structure most important
2. Delete history on geometry - clean out old construction nodes
3. Duplicate any meshes that need blendshapes.
Move Duplicate out of way, usually above.
Put Duplicate on new layer, named "blends"
4. Build basic skeleton - ignore advanced rigging (Ik, IK/FK switches)
Build spine, legs, arms, fingers, neck, head and name/connect/mirror
5. Skin model to basic skeleton. Skin>smooth bind.
6. Paint weights ON ONE SIDE until deformations are good.
Animate while skinning. Mirror skin weights when finished - make sure model is at bind pose before doing so (Skin>go to bind pose).

Character is now setup with basic skinning to skeleton

7. Draw facial detail joints. Eyelids and Jaw.
8. Parent facial detail joints to head joint. Note that detail joints
have no skin data at this point.
9. Select skinned head mesh, shift select facial detail joints
10. Skin>Edit Smooth Skin>Add Influence []
Click on "Lock Weights" and set to 0 (zero). Click add.
11. Select skinned head mesh.
12. Skin>Edit Smooth Skin>Paint Skin weights tool []
13. Find locked(hold) influences in the influence list.
14. Select jaw from list - click "Toggle Hold Weights on Selected"
15. Paint weights with Add mode selected. Add weight to jaw region.
I usually start at value of 1 and paint chin and jaw line, then
shift to value of 0.33, and taper weight out across neck and cheeks.
Use B key and LMB to slide brush size.
16. Animate the jaw while skinning it - set keys at 0, 15, 30, etc
17. Repeat process for eyelid joints.
Animate eyelids going from open to close.
Paint skin weights.
18. Go back to duplicated mesh. Make 4 additional duplicates. Line them up.
19. Take 3 of the dups. Sculpt one for gum sneer, one for lips wide, one for lips pursed.
20. Assign these 3 shapes as blendshapes to skinned head.
Select 3 target shapes, select base skinned mesh...
Create Deformers> Blendshape []
Make sure under Advanced Tab "Front of Chain" is selected

Skin Shader Tutorials

http://www.free3dtutorials.com/human-skin.php

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/category.php?page=2

82 world-destroying Zbrush Tuts

http://cg.tutsplus.com/articles/web-roundups/tutorial-roundup-82-earth-shattering-zbrush-tutorials/

Painting with Polygons

http://www.outside-hollywood.com/siggraph/

Dominance War Winner

Check out the link to the Dominance War winner on gameartisans.org...

Link

Then, check out some of his hard surface modeling videos on youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epqUf2SI3kw

More great character models

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=917571&page=1&pp=15
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=926029&utm_medium=plugblock&utm_source=cgtalk
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=443322
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=761402
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=320773
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=830221

Breeze of the Pat - Architectural Post

Here's a great link to a behind the scenes breakdown of the CG artwork "Breeze of the Past"

While this piece is not directly character-related, the research done by the artist provides the piece with very solid, believeable grounding. The room itself almost becomes a character.

Link

More Complex Characters

Evil Witch
Inter-dimensional predator
Final Battle
Valkyrie
After "The Milkmaid"

Complex Characters

Below are several links to excellent examples of complex character models. While not all of the models are 100% photorealistsic, the details and subtle complexities create a more believable character model.

Don Quixote
Kaziu

Top Ten Tips of Texturing

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4678

Character Modeling Principles

• Model around the origin
• Use polygons or subdivision surfaces primarily.
  
• Break down complex shapes into simple ones
• Add detail where needed with good reason. Less shape change, less detail. More shape change, more detail.
  
• Try to keep all faces 4 sided.
  
• Try not to drastically stretch faces.
• Understand how smoothing works.
• Model complex, organic, symmetrical shapes asymmetrically and merge later.
• Use topography to support muscle structure and planned deformations.
  

CA515 syllabus

Welcome to CA515. Please click the link below to download the course syllabus.

Syllabus Link