How's your method to model characters

[CooleKarotte]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to modeling characters. I studied some anatomy-sheets and tons of photos and tutorials.
But I've a problem with one thing to begin my work on chars. In the most tutorials humans were modeled free without reference pictures and/or blueprints.
Might be easy to pros, but I'm just a little noob on those things. I tried to find some nice reference photos of humans I could use for my work. I wanted to set them up in 3DS Max like a car blueprint, but it's hard to find any. So I'm wondering how all the guys in the tutorials started their work in the scene and I saw a lot of your great work on chars in this forum.

My question to you now is just: How do you model figueres? Do you just use some reference photos, do you draw a blueprint of your char yourself or do you find them in the internet?

Thanks for any information,

CK

[Dr. D]

I don't know how create real characters without photo-ref. You have to look tutorial Creating Digital Human character (Digital tutors) or create character (Gnomon). It is a very effective lessons. But it is on Maya. You can look technics of modeling.

[CooleKarotte]

Thanks for the tip. The program doesn't matter, the "how to do" is most important for me. I've seen a lot of guys creating the basic shape and details complete free without reference setup and some with. But there are not many reference photos for modeling available and to draw them myself is impossible for me.

[Dr. D]

" a lot of guys creating the basic shape and details complete free without reference "
That's true. But if you want to create real character, you should use reference. I create characters models using 3dsk images.

[iamtravis316]

I will get photos of front and side put them in 3ds max and on the head ill use the method of where you make a plane convert it to editable poly, then shift drag the edges and on the body Ill just make it with cylinders then weld the 2 together and go from there with fixing it up and stuff idk just look for tutorials online i no there out there but I hope this helped a little

[ZODIAK]

One Simple advise watch a lot of 3D DvD 3ds max ,Maya,cinema 4D Tutorial do not they are differ Love them as you love your self !! the similarities will makes you A master art !!

[CooleKarotte]

I started to model the given tutorial on this site (creating a woman), but the head-, hand- and legtutorial is missing. But for getting the idea of human modeling it's sufficient.

[creativelight]

search on google
free modelling pdfs
u'll get it

[yorae]

mines kinda like travis,
i'll load the reference image (front/side) top and back if available, in max
start from the foot with a cube edit poly and extrude the rough shape, then symetry the other side.
i do the head with a sphere shift round the vertices then symetry then attach it to the body followed by meshsmooth

[Rahul Desai]

Here check out some videos -
character modeling video - Google Video

http://www.vuze.com/user/Profile.htm...1&sp=0&sp=SALL

[tooncinator]

I use photo reference to start with. lots of nice model sheet type poses from fineart.sk . WHen I have the references, I go into photoshop and crop them into square images, center the poses on the canvas and on top of each other etc, then place them on square planes in 3dsmax. (I'm sure you know the process if you've worked from blueprints). It also depends on what type of figure youre wanting to model. If you want super real then photos are a great bet. If you want cartoony then you can freehand it (in 3dsmax) and get a decent look.
Even if you want a fantasy scene, starting with a model sheet/photo pose is a great way to start. Atleast to get the proportions and shapes and placement correct.