Any suggestions on starting a caricature?

[Lunar Unit]

I'm attempting to turn this gal into a caricature. Should I start by using the box method or by using splines? What would be the quickest yet most accurate way? Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!

[jasonwestmas]

Most people either use only subpatches or use splines first then convert that to subpatches later. If you care about a less 'balloon' like face and desire a lot of detail then I would use subpatches using the extender, smooth shift, bridge, connect and edge bevel tools. Those are my weapons of choice for organic modeling. Not to mention the loop select and select connection tools, very nice!

[Lunar Unit]

So, would you start by taking the picture of the caricature, putting it in the back view and modeling around it with splines, kinda like sketching the face. Or would you take a subpatched box and sort of mold the face like clay instead of sketching? I'm sort of leaning to the molding the face. Do you follow what I'm getting at? Hopefully I'm making sense.

[jasonwestmas]

Actually I would not start with a primitive unless I was using triangle polys for a game character. For detailed meshes I usually start with drawing points or a polygon ring and just start using the extender, stretch, bevel and size tool. I model the mouth, nose and eye area using a circular pattern. These areas are modeled separately then I fill in the gaps and connect them.

[THREEL]

Hey Jason,

AL here. I thought that this was your question, but I see now that it was Lunar Unit's. OOPS!:D If I were doing this project, Lunar Unit, here's what I think I'd do. If this person is real and popular, I'd try to find some front and side views of this gal, bring them in as background images in LW, and do each individual area like Jason said. If your version of LW has Extender Plus, I'd try using that instead of just regular Extender, because it will help keep your polys all facing in the right direction. After I built theses areas, I'd just connect the different face parts to complete the face. You can try the old-fashioned way of picking four points and making quads, or you might try the Bridge command, a command I recently stumbled across, to bring these entities together. When it works, I like bridge alot. Once, you get the "normal" head all together, then you should be able to use any translating tool (move, stretch, smooth shift, smooth scale, etc...) to caricaturize (Is that a word?) it.

Hope this helps!:thumbsup: THREEL (AL)

[Lunar Unit]

This is new info you guys are giving me. Thanks! I've never heard of such a method. Showa how experienced I am. I'll give it a try and post progress later! Thanks again.

[THREEL]

Hey Lunar Unit,

THREEL (AL) here. Do you have any books about LW handy? I have Inside Lightwave 7, and it has a whole chapter devoted to Organic Modeling. Depending on what version of LW you have, you should try to find a book to match. I've got LW v8.3, but the book I have is for v7, but many, if not most of the techniques still apply. You can google, or other, much of this info on the internet, but if you're in a rush to get a job done, and for some unknown reason your internet service is disrupted, it is a real plus to have that hard copy by your side. I made my first decent looking head, using the techniques I found in the book.:thumbsup: Check out these renders and let me know what you think. Don't worry about the skin though. He doesn't have a horrible case of acne. Actually, the skin surface is real Pyrite that I scanned just for this purpose.

C U L8R!:)

AL

[jasonwestmas]

Yes, I too learned the head modeling technique from Dan Alban ;)

[colkai]

There are not many out there who didn't do Stuart Aitkens tutorial in Dans book, (mind you, I'm one of 'em - still delaying the old human modelling :p).

For cartoon characters of course, one must look at Johnny Gordens books as they deal with non-human scales when rigging / animating.

[Lunar Unit]

Actually, I owne and use Dan Ablan's Inside Lightwave 8, however I found only the box method where you mold a box into the shape you want. I have made a couple of characters doing this including the little cell phone guy you see as my avatar. I have also made a doggy. But this caricature seemed more difficult to me so I thought I'd get some ideas. I am actually doing the Character Modeling Course online with Larry Shultz and it seems to be working well. I've started my head and I'll post it later today.

Thanks Ya'll!

Lune (aka Luner Unit)

By-the-way Al, I dig the strange out of this world head you created. Very bizarre.

[THREEL]

Actually, I owne and use Dan Ablan's Inside Lightwave 8, however I found only the box method where you mold a box into the shape you want. I have made a couple of characters doing this including the little cell phone guy you see as my avatar. I have also made a doggy. But this caricature seemed more difficult to me so I thought I'd get some ideas. I am actually doing the Character Modeling Course online with Larry Shultz and it seems to be working well. I've started my head and I'll post it later today.

Thanks Ya'll!

Lune (aka Luner Unit)

By-the-way Al, I dig the strange out of this world head you created. Very bizarre.
Actually,

This guy is a rock head character that I'm doing for a half-an-hour animation I'm creating. His name is Wil Pyrite. I'll share some more renders as I can get them done. Doing stuff that pays the bills comes first. Know what I mean? LOL! Talk to ya!

[SplineGod]

Doing a caricature is no different then doing something non caricatured.
A caricature can be an exaggeration of distinct facial features or an exaggeration of personality traits.
I think just making a 3D version of your client will look caricatured even if you follow her proportions as much as you can. The thing to remember is that a caricature is not simply a distortion of facial features. Get something that looks proportional and start from there. :)

[Lunar Unit]

Thanks Larry! I took your advice and modified my head to look more like the real head than the caricature. Tommorrow I shall post it when it is more finalized!

[SplineGod]

Cool, looking forward to seeing it :)

[Lunar Unit]

Here's my latest progress with the Gal! Enjoy! Oh... critiques are much appreciated!

[SplineGod]

Its coming along nicely. The mesh has pretty decent flow going and the shapes looking pretty close. You might load the image into modeler (if you havent already) and measure the proportions to make sure theyre matching up.
So far so good! :)

[THREEL]

Here's my latest progress with the Gal! Enjoy! Oh... critiques are much appreciated!

Hey there LU,

Pretty cool looking head you got there. Did you start with a box, and then, use a spline-based modeling technique from there. What do you do when it comes time to making openable (Is this a word) eye-lids? Is there any way you can share your model in pre-subpatched form? I'm really interested in seeing what it looks like in its raw form.

Thanks a bunch!:thumbsup:
AL

[Lunar Unit]

Howdy Al!

I've learned this method from Larry Schultz's (aka splinegod) Character Modeling Course. You start with a box and add geometry to it, then use spline based techniques. What's cool about the course is that he really makes you aware of the flow of your polygons. It's different than Dan Ablan's method in Inside Lightwave 8 and I find Larry's to be much more accurate and precise. Checkout splinegod.com

You get the eyes open by selecting the polys at about where the bottom lid would be and then cutting and pasting them, tweek the points a bit and remerge the polys. Voila! they're open. It's all in the course. Great techniques. I don't want to give away too much though.:D

I've included the gal without subpatch on.

[SplineGod]

Actually when she says box he means that it starts with a single square polygon. Its a very easy method because you can focus on just what you need rather then worrying about the whole head. You also dont get a ton of extra details where you dont need it.

[Lunar Unit]

By the way, Larry, I am a she. :hey: Thanks for clarifying my attempt to explain the method. I think there is a reason I'm the student and you're the teacher.

[SplineGod]

ROFL! Sorry! Ya learn something new everyday. Thanks... :)

[THREEL]

Hi Guys, & Gals... lol,

Did you see the head model that I made, Larry? I used the, let's call it, Extender Method to make it. I'm open to all critiques on it. LU thought that it was cool in a strange way, or was that strange in a cool way? LOL!!! I probably have way to many polys in it. In the near future, I want to try the spline method, but I have to wait until I get some other projects done first. I will post something when I do it.

Talk to ya! THREEL (AL)

[geothefaust]

Lunar Unit,

Good looking model so far. As Larry said, the flow of the polys is really well done. Great job!

I too, am using Larry's course. They are amazing, and chalked full of information. He has great methods for modeling.

Have you tried modeling with splines yet? It's a good way to get a base model started quickly, and then you can start putting on detail. It's the quickest way to knock out a model.

Also, as other people have mentioned, using the extender method is a great way too. Though modeling this way, can get a little messy sometimes, so it's good to have some kind of plan beforehand on how you think you might want the polygons to flow.

Do you have any other models you could show? Just curious to see some more of your work. :)

[Lunar Unit]

These are some other characters I've made, but keep in mind they are before Larry's course. I used the doggy in a commercial where I composited him into a scene next to his owner's leg.

The little cell phone guy is an ISP's mascot that I made 3D for them.

Perhaps if ya'll are interested, I can post progress on my gal periodically. Probably should post it in WIP though. We'll see how Larry's magic works with this character.

[SplineGod]

Good idea! :)