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Cali - Mesh tools in action

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:56 am
by Simon
This is my first large scale trial of the new mesh tools as a solution for adding extra detail to models, seamlessly joining curvy objects and editing.

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I modelled the boots by drawing a mesh over a curvy mapped lathe, then using widgit move to edit it, along with sub-d to smooth out the result.
Here is a comparison of the mesh as a curvy object compared to a mesh object. This proves the mesh tools potential as an optimising tool - the 3,000 tri mesh looks better than the original 30,000 tri curvy mapped model.

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Now there are some shapes that were impossible in Curvy 1.0. The shoulder pads on this model were made by converting a bowl shaped lathe into a mesh, then using a single widgit move and a single widgit rotate to warp the bowl into the right shape for the shoulder guard.
Remember you can change the shape of the widgit tools by clicking on the small black and white curve in the tools properties panel (above the scale slider)

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I used merging techniques for the head/neck, arm/body and breast/torso. For each of these I made a rough shape out of separate lathe objects - added them as children to a mesh object then drew the mesh over the top. The arm and head in this image would have been imposible to make seamless in Curvy 1.0 - now it is fairly easy.
NB: for the arm I didn't want to redraw the whole mesh so after drawing the tricky shoulder area I attached a clipped version of the original arm lathe (converted to mesh) and stiched up the join.

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The boots were posed using convert to mesh and widgit rotate. I first selected a point on the end of the boot (to set the widgit control centre) then rotated the boot at the knee to bend into pose. I had to widgit move the result a bit to regain the correct volume for the leg - but all in all it was not too tricky.

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For your interest here is my original painting I was aiming at. NB: The painting took slightly more time than the curvy model.

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