Life drawing and 3D figure modeling with MAYA

Abstract

This workshop, first given at SIGGRAPH 2001 [Garvey 2002] is now offered in two-parts. Part I introduces the process of transferring life drawings into 3D models using MAYA followed by a life drawing session. In Part II, workshop attendees working in the CAL import digitized life drawings into MAYA for setup as image planes to guide the modeling process. The goal of the workshop is to explore and develop skills of observational figure drawing and integrate them with the process of 3D modeling.

Canon and Process in the 3D Modeling of Human Anatomy

“…Thisapproachenablesthedeformationofacharacter'sbodyinananatomicallyandphysicallyrealistic way (Jacobsetal.,2016).However,findingasuitablehumanskeletonmodelormodelingonewith acorrectanatomyandanthropometryisverylaboriousaseventheslightestinaccuracymayrender thefinalresultinadequateforthepurpose. Garvey(2002)usedamethodtomodelthehumanbodythatstartedbycreatingseveralcircles, positionedandscaledaccordingtotheanatomicalreferenceprojectedinfrontandsideviews.At theend,thesecirclesareusedtocreatethesurfaceofthemodelusingNURBS.Thismethoddoes notpresentananatomictopologyanditisverydifficulttoimplementonspecificareassuchasthe headandtheshoulders,orthehandsandfeet.Withthepolygonsubdivisiontechnique, Ratner(2003) createsthehumanmodelfromacube,bydoingmultiplegeometrysubdivisionsandextrusions.This approachiscomplexbecauseitrequiresnumerousoperationsandusesseveralmodelingtools.In addition,thetopologyhaslittleanatomicalprecision,andthemodelisnotsuitablefordigitalsculpting becauseitdoesnotavoidtrianglesandhasanon-uniformmesh.Themethodisalsocomplexto implementbytheartistbecausethereisnoeasywaytomemorizeitsconstructionsequence. Spencer (2010)proposesamethodtocreatealowpolybasehumanmodelfordigitalsculpting.Thismethod canbedevelopedusing3Dsoftware,suchasMaya,Blender,amongothers.Itconsistsofblocking inthemeshbycreatingthebasicformsandproportionsofthehumanfigure,however,theresulting geometryhasnoanatomicalaccuracyandthemesh'stopologyneedstobecompletelyreconstructed withinthedigitalsculptingprocess.…”

“…However, finding a suitable human skeleton model or modeling one with a correct anatomy and anthropometry is very laborious as even the slightest inaccuracy may render the final result inadequate for the purpose. Garvey (2002) used a method to model the human body that started by creating several circles, positioned and scaled according to the anatomical reference projected in front and side views. At the end, these circles are used to create the surface of the model using NURBS.…”