A little Black Faery: an introductory tutorial to N-Sided Quidam
 | Thelongest part of this creation shall be spent in the Modeling(Sculpture) workshop. Here we shall transform the default Nanawa headinto Eburnea, a true Black faery's head. This is done by means of «soft brushes », the diameter and hardness of which being adjusted atwill in the window left. Then, with a simple drag of the mouse, youdisplace the polygons that are making the model. To led correctly thisoperation, you must enlarge the visible part of the future Eburnea withthe Magnifier tool, the icon of which is situated alongside the bottomof the window, just in the middle. You just have to drag this icon withthe pointer to change the magnification ratio. You have also to observethe model according to different orientations, using either theOrientation tool (left of the Magnifier icon) or the Change viewpalette, right of the document window. This is especially true tosucceed with Eburnea's elf ears. By default, the changes are appliedbilaterally, except if you click on the small grey-yellow head at thetop of the document's window. If you do so, then the head icon becomesgrey-blue, and the modifications apply to one side only : this is onlydesirable to add a final touch of assymetry to a face, and evidentlyalso to pose the model. Here you see how to widen the nose to reach arealistic tropical nose pattern. |
 | Itis difficult to explain in detail how to transform Nanawa into Eburneaif we start from a single orientation only. You must consider the faceas a tridimensional volume and very often turn it to reach satisfactoryresults. The main differences in frontal view are the wider biparietalwidth of Eburnea (here depicted finished with a darker skin colour) andher squarer head. Notice also that her nose is shorter, resulting in alonger subnasal height : often tropical people who have wide noses alsohave shorter ones, therefore tall subnasal heigths. |
 | Ifthe face differences between Nanawa and Eburnea are evident, theprofile view ones are the key to success and building an interestingand original character ! Eburnea has a shorter and more roundedforehead (as a whole, the shape of her braincase vault is different),her face is somewhat prognathic because she has thicker lips, recedingchin with a quite different appearance. This is quite easily done withQuidam's soft brushes, so in few minutes you reach marvelous resultsthat it's nearly impossible to get with other 3D human characterapplications except very costy ones. Simply by tilting the earrearwards and upwards and also laterally, you get these well known elfears ! |
 | Thedifferences are evident in this 3/4 view. Notice that the malar bones(cheek bones) have been made more pointing outwards, which gives a moreenergetic appearance to this little magic woman, and emphazises therealism of the result. |
 | Letus turn now to the Materials workshop. Here you shall select the colourand texture of your model. The window on the left and the defaultNanawa model are showing the default condition : a light, somewhatpinkish skin, minimum eyebrows, minimum grain and speckles, light lips.Hair also are kept to minimum, therefore this Nanawa model appearsentirely bald. Let you also notice that the specular ratio of skin isminimum and is of white colour. |
 | Nowlook at Eburnea and see how different is the result simply by draggingsome cursors. If you redraw with the mouse the « Scratch » graph atopof the main window, you can emphazise the shining aspect of the Blackskin and also give it a bluish reflexion colour : simply click on thehalf-circle underneath the graph, a colour selector appears on whichyou can make your choices. The only point that is not convincing in thefinal result is the poor resolution of the skin textures ; this pointshall be corrected in future versions of Quidam, but it's only to beseen is big closeups such as this face view. |
 | SaveEburnea in her default position as a Qui file if you want to reuse thischaracter later, then go back to the Pose workshop. Here you can turnthe various body segments which appear in blue when you fly over withthe pointer. With a drag-and-drop you can place the segments in a goodpose, but for that it's necessary to check that everything is OKaccording to all orientations, as said before. We are giving to Eburneaa sitting position on a natural support, easily suitable for aphotographic background. |
 | Youhave to place the lights. Quidam allows four lights. This view showshow it's necessary to observe according to the different orientationsthe exact place of each of these four ones, because it's nearlyimpossible to turn the position of the light sources from one singlepoint of view only. I have managed to get a not too much contrastedlight so that it could be easily adapted to various backgrounds.Another important point : in the Modeling workshop, you can subdividethe default basic model (n° 1) by 4 (n° 2), this giving superior curvesin the place of angular shapes. Even with less than 17,000 polygons(once subdivided by 4), this Quidam model gives results which areequivalent to characters having from 75,000 to 110,000 polys ! However,even if you can use the Drop tool to soften some edges, it does'nt givemarvelous results. Finally, you have to render bump such as grain byclicking on the Bump button, which is the fourth at bottom right of thedocument's window. |
© 2001-2009 | 3DM3.com - All Rights Reserved. Using materials of the site only with our written permission
3DM3 on Twitter
3DM3 on Facebook
Subscribe RSS
3DM3 on Twitter 3DM3 on Facebook Subscribe RSS