Avatar Creation for Social VR, Part 3: Character Modeling
Note: This series is an ongoing work in progress, and the video tutorials in particular will be updated and published publicly after I have finished recording the entire series. For now, the visibility for the videos has been set to shareable link only – if you have feedback on their clarity, pacing, or even whether or not the jokes land, I would welcome it in the comments here or on Youtube.
- Part 1: Introduction
- Part 2: The Blender Interface and Project Setup
- Part 3: Character Modeling – You Are Here
Welcome back! It’s now time to sit down and get your hands dirty, we’re going to spend a lot of time pushing verts and pulling faces. In this section we will run through character modeling, where we start from a cube, and finish with a character mesh.
The previous entry in this series focused entirely on the technical details of how to use Blender for polygon modeling, whereas now, we get into the workflow and thought processes involved in character modeling.Unlike the other parts of this series, poly modeling really makes the most sense when demonstrated, so I encourage you to watch the video first, even if you intend to work from this written walkthrough.
We’ve got our reference planes and the mirrored cube we set up last time ready to go. The process of modeling this avatar took about eight hours, so, again – be patient with yourself, take your time, and try to have fun.
Continue reading “Avatar Creation for Social VR, Part 3: Character Modeling”
Avatar Creation for Social VR, Part 2: The Blender Interface and Project Setup
Note: This series is an ongoing work in progress, and the video tutorials in particular will be updated and published publicly after I have finished recording the entire series. For now, the visibility for the videos has been set to shareable link only – if you have feedback on their clarity, pacing, or even whether or not the jokes land, I would welcome it in the comments here or on Youtube.
- Part 1: Introduction
- Part 2: The Blender Interface and Project Setup – You Are Here
- Part 3: Character Modeling
So! Welcome back! This is part two of the series, which introduces the Blender interface, setting up your project with reference image planes and your starting cube, and introduces the tools you’ll be using for mesh editing.
We’re going to create this avatar by manipulating edges, faces, and vertices individually, by cutting, tweaking, and extruding until we have a completed model – a process sometimes called poly modeling, or box modeling.
Later, I’ll be producing another series after this one that gets into the sculpting workflow, but if you’ve never modeled anything before, it’s probably best to start with an understanding of box modeling. It’s a process that you can do entirely with a mouse instead of a stylus, it will get you acquainted with the blender interface, and doing everything edge by edge, vertex by vertex, will help you gain an appreciation for your polygon economy, which is vital to have, when creating avatars with a decent performance rating.
Continue reading “Avatar Creation for Social VR, Part 2: The Blender Interface and Project Setup”