For this weekly exercise, we were tasked with making a jug/vase model and as I wanted to challenge myself a tad extra, I decided that I would practice with sculpting tools and Mayas built-in paint features. The first model shown here is based on one of my characters called Freki. Generally, I felt as though this worked out well for my first 3D model and whilst there are many things I would change, I am quite satisfied with how much I have learned with this task alone. Some of the aspects I like about this model include the shape of his muzzle and nose, as well as some details such as the tongue and teeth. These had taken me a while to sculpt and make them accurate to my reference. Despite this, I found it rather enjoyable, almost therapeutic to model for the whole day. If I were to redo this model, I would most likely put more thought into the shape of the hair. Whilst this is true to reference, I feel that there probably a lot of triangles and unnecessary polys in this model, so if I were able to redo this again, this would be my priority.
Below is another character that I decided to model. This one is my partner’s character, Glow. Unlike the last model, I feel that this one was a lot more difficult to get accurate to the original design of the character. This is due to the difference in face shape and colours. Regardless of this, I do feel that it came out well considering I did this task a day before the homework was due, thus I was constrained with time. If I had more time to have done this, I probably would’ve concentrated a lot more on getting the face shape, hairstyle, and ears more perfected as some of these areas need some touch-ups to be categories as finalised. It may seem like a bad thing that this happened, however, it has taught me that modeling can take a lot more time than expected, therefore planning ahead has to be a priority with 3D artwork.
Topology Basics and research findings
Below are some resources in which I have observed in order to help me gain further knowledge on why it’s important to use topology in 3D modeling. This was something that was explained to us in class this week, and as someone who is very new to 3D modeling, I got really confused with its functionality. In order to help me understand this more, I rewatched our lesson and slides that were presented by our tutor, Alec. Below is a diagram in which he provided to show the visual differences with topologies:
Although Alec explained this well and in-depth, I felt like I personally needed to do more research into the workings of Topology. I began looking at Youtube tutorials to learn how other professionals explain the definition and usage of this. The one below is a three-part tutorial, titled, ‘Why a clean topology in your 3D model is important’ by Youtuber and 3D model artist, Mike Hermes. Throughout the video, he explains the reasons why edges are important to consider when making models and how to ensure that it makes the model look good visually. One of the memorable things I have learned during this video is the existence of N-Gons. These are by definition, ‘… a face or polygon that is made up of five or more sides or edges connected by five or more vertices. Anything over a quad (4 sides) is considered an ngon.’ . From what I’ve learned by far, watching both Alec’s tutorial and Youtube lessons, it is advised to avoid creating N-gons as these can cause unpredictable events such as rendering issues and problems with animation, and to get rid of them they can be turned into tris/quads – these are much easier for the software to render and calculate.
To summarise:
N-gons → should be avoided to prevent issues with model, not advised
Quads → best suited for modeling
Tris → Not exactly advised to have, but sometimes unavoidable.
Video references:
↑ not as helpful as the program used is Blender, however, provides good Topology
diagrams and explanations.
Screenshots of articles I have looked into:
First article URL: https://graphics.pixar.com/opensubdiv/docs/mod_notes.html
This webpage goes into distinct detail about the basics of Topology and the essential information and tools required to make a model that has good use of this. Moreover, one of the key things I have learned (as I already have a good grasp on this stuff) is the definition of a high valence vertex. Quoted from the site, this is defined as ‘…a vertex connected to more than 4 adjacent edges.’ This can cause issues such as ‘large performance hits’ and overall, it won’t render smoothly. This is something that I was not aware of before, thus, I will do my best to avoid creating these with my future model work.
Second article URL:
Although I have already learned about Topology and know most of the stuff mentioned in this webpage, it benefitted greatly with its visual demonstration of what bad topology looks like without a wireframe. It also dives into how to fix these types of issues and why they are occurring in a model. As I am quite a visual learner, this has helped me to understand and remember what a surface should look like in order for it to render properly.