Creating the Character Model

To create the character model, a box object was created and converted to an editable poly. The vertices were then manipulated into position firstly to form the lower section of the tribal character starting with the feet and gradually working upwards. The quick slice and slice pane tools were used to add geometry to the mesh. To create the muscle definition on the character the extrude tools were used. I started modelling around a biped so that it was save time later on. I eventually deleted this biped as it made the character look too much in proportion, which often is not how Disney / cartoon characters appear. Once the mid-section of the character reached a symmetry modifier was applied to the object to mirror the body object in order to save time. A mesh smooth modifier was also applied at this point to smooth over the mesh and make it look more realistic. The characters upper body and arms were then formed in the same way by manipulating vertices into position. The mesh smooth modifier was then replaced with a turbo smooth modifier as it gave a better results and iterations turned up to two. Finally the head was created and spheres added to give the character eyes.

An unwrap UVW modifier was applied so the character could be textured. The mesh was divided into groups that could be easily unwrapped. A UVW template was then rendered. In the image file a skin colour and texture were applied and tribal type tattoos added. Back in 3ds Max the material was applied to the object and the specular and gloss levels adjusted. Finally a bump map was added to the material. A separate eye texture was applied to the eyes. The hair and fur modifier was used to give the character some hair. The hair was styled using the brush and cut tools of the hair and fur modifier and the properties adjusted to make the hair look like a short afro like cut.

A biped object was created and made to fit inside the character mesh. As the character only ever needed to clasp an object, it was decided that one biped finger would be applied to all the fingers on the mesh. Once the biped was in the correct position a physique modifier was applied to the character mesh. The physique modifier was something I had never used before. In all previous models I had used the skin modifier instead. Using a tutorial on the Internet the weighting of the tendons on the physique modifier was adjusted to sort out any pinching issues on the mesh. There was a problem with pinching on the upper leg area of the model when a trial walk sequence was applied. Time was not wasted on sorting this as the area of the mesh would later be covered by clothes and the issue would not be seen. Once all of these errors were corrected the bones was set to not render and shown as boxes rather than the bones. This is something that was discovered by mistake by a useful tool as it makes it easier to select the bones when animating.

To finish off the model the character was given some clothes. These were created by creating a plane and converting it to an editable poly. The mesh was then formed around the character mesh and then given a cloth modifier. The character mesh was set as an object that could be collided with so that it would move the cloth object when the character moved. The vertices around the point of contact with the character mesh were defined as nodes so the cloth would not fall off of the character. Finally a spear object was created and textured for the character to hold in the story.