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26. A Human Skull - Modeling the Skull 2 |
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 MODELER, MODELING THE SKULL, (continued) I enter polygon mode by pressing CTRL-h. In one of the wireframe viewports I select all polygons with the right mouse button and a cyan circle. I press 'q' to bring up the 'Change Surface' Requester and give the polygons the name 'Skull'. I pick white as the surface color, click 'OK', pressing the 's' key to save the object I press 'CTRL-F3' to bring up the Surface Editor, click on the name 'Skull', and checkmark 'Smoothing'. I close the Surface Editor. Next comes the decision of what to do next. If I do the back of the skull, it may get in my way and make things more confusing when I'm in WireFrame views. I decide to extend the forehead just as I had been doing, and I create the ninth row, again moving each point by selecting them one-by-one in the 'Right' viewport, moving them with 't' in the 'Back' viewport. I select the points in a counter-clockwise or clockwise direction, pressing 'p', ensuring all have correctly oriented faces, flipping with 'f' any that don't. I choose 'Smooth Shade' view type, and press the TAB key to enter subsurfacing mode. The new row I just made is a dark gray color, whereas the old skull which I just gave a surface name to is white.  If I press TAB to turn off the subsurface mode, that bottom row has sharp edges, while the top skull looks smooth.  The reason this has occurred is LightWave can't read my mind. Just because I created a new row of polygons, it doesn't know that I want them to be white, nor does it know I want smoothing to be turned on. So, if I want it to have the same settings as the rest of the 'Skull' surface, I need to highlight all the polygons in the head, including the newest polygons, press 'q' to bring up the 'Change Surface' requester, and choose 'Skull' from the drop-down menu. Clicking 'OK', now my skull looks correct again.  The next row starts growing more difficult.  First, if you look in the 'Right' viewport, and count from the selected point at the bridge of the nose, you'll notice there is one more point in this row than in the row above it. Point number 1 is heading to the left, and the old point number 2 is heading more into the eye socket, so a new point must be created or there would be a flat area between the bridge of the nose and the eyesocket. This new point will form a little triangle at the bridge of the nose, but the shape of it is perfect for that shape so it should hide itself well. However, each corresponding point is starting to become confusing as to which point belongs to the row above it because of the steep angle that the inside of the eye socket recedes at. I deselect all points, selecting the three which comprise the triangle, pressing 'p' to create the new 3-sided polygon.  The rest of that row will all be the same process as we've done all along, although it will be harder to understand which polygon is which because of the steep angles. Just remember that steep angles never last forever. And, if you ever do it wrong? Just delete those polygons and try it again. Since it sometimes is better to see the dot than it is for the polygons to be in the perfect angles, at the moment, you probably won't push those points back into the eyesocket as far as they should go but that can be done later. I realize that I have still been saving the skull under that same name since the beginning. Since it is very easy to make a mistake, I decide to do a 'File->Save Object As...' and call it 'SkullTutorial2.lwo'. MODELER, HIDING POLYGONS Remember that you can always hide polygons if they get in your way. IMPORTANT - Before hiding polygons, always turn off 'SubSurfacing' mode by pressing the TAB key. If you don't you might end up SubSurfacing just part of your object, which is always confusing. You should never turn on or off subsurface mode if you have hidden polygons. Since the top part of the skull has no purpose to us at the moment, I can hide everything except the last row of polygons. I select all polygons except the last row, pressing the '-' key on the calculator keypad.  This is an excellent time to push the angle on those polygons even further, using the 'Right' viewport to judge the angle. If after pressing the '-' key any polygons remain that you don't wish to be visible, just highlight those polygons and press the '-' key again. To make all hidden polygons reappear, press the '\' key. Always press the '\' key before pressing the TAB key if you wish to see it in 'SubSurfaced' mode. The next row becomes even more confusing. Again, I have to add one more point in the number 2 position as I did last time. Note that I placed it right in the crack where the nosepiece meets the face. The points in the red circle become so confusing that I can't tell how many points to place. I'll put the ones I know for sure, and I'll place missing ones later, while in perspective mode.  I begin by selecting the point on the bridge of the nose, pressing 'i' to get the Point Info requester, putting zero as the X coordinate, I position the rest in this row. When things get this confusing, I will position the other coordinate a few points at a time, I will turn those into polygons before continuing. that will give me a stable platform from which I can stand. In this case, I do the first four points, placing the second point in the 'Right' viewport so it lies on the crack of the nosepiece.  This time I don't even touch the X dimension of the points, but instead connect the points as polygons in the Perspective viewport.  The first triangle needs to be flipped. The first four polygons from the nosepiece are fine. There are two missing points, as indicated by the two yellow points in the row above the new row. I'll add those after I've moved the other polygons into their proper places. The red lines indicate the angle that the new row of polygons must make, relative to the last row. They may need to start to be angled inward a bit, but certainly not as far as they currently are at. I turn off all polygons, enter polygon mode by pressing CTRL-h, enter the 'Drag' mode by pressing 'CTRL-t' and start to drag the points of those polygons into shape.  I begin with this selected point. I move successive points, letting them curve inward a little, watching the 'Back' view to judge just how far they should curve inward.  I press the '+' key on the numeric keypad to enter 'Points' mode and click with the LEFT mousebutton where I wish to place the first point in the 'Perspective' viewport.  I click the cyan cross in the 'Right' viewport, still with the left mouse button, and drag it to the left to position the point, I do the same with the 'Back' viewport until it seems right in all windows, pressing ENTER to place the point.  I select all four points and press 'p'.  I add the one other point in the same manner, create those last two polygons, and that row is done. I deselect all polygons, enter polygon mode by pressing CTRL-g, select all polygons, press 'q' and choose the 'Skull' surface name. I press TAB to see SubSurfacing and it's starting to look a bit like a skull.  When the rows are that difficult, it is best to do a 'File->Save Object...' between every row as it is easy to make errors when things are tight and constricted. I select 'Wireframe Shade' as the view type in the 'Perspective' Viewport. You can now see that white can be a poor surface color choice to make during construction. The glare can be so bad, you can't see the polygon lines or points.  It's best not to set the color to the same gray as new polgons, either. Choose some pleasant color that is close to gray for the surface as you work by entering the 'Surface Editor' (CTRL-F3), choosing 'Skull' Surface Name, and choosing a different surface color.  This time I add TWO more points to create two triangle and a new 4-sided polygon. The tiny triangle will be for the little piece at the end of the nose. I only do the first 6 points, turning them into polygons as they're the easy ones. I probably won't like what's happening at the nosepiece. Some experimentation will most likely have to be done there after I'm done to see what the best method of nosepiece polygons will be.  I should now start making the hole for the eyepiece bridge, as all polygons beneath this hole will have to be pushed into the face, while those above will remain at that level. Using the 'Right' and 'Back' viewports as an indicator, I find the polygon and select it.  I press 'Delete' to remove the polygon. Since I will be making a major modification, I press the 's' key to save it, doing a 'File->Save Object As...' and 'SkullTutorial3.lwo'. I turn off SubSurface mode by pressing TAB and enter polygon mode by pressing CTRL-h. I will be dividing each of the four 4-sided polygons around the hole into three triangles, each. This will give me 8 points around the hole rather than just four as the bridge is a very intricate bone and will need detail work. I highlight the rectangle above the hole.  I cut that polygon to the clipboard by pressing the 'x' key and the polygon disappears. I click on the top part of the Layer 2 control to switch to layer 2. I press the 'v' key to paste that polygon into Layer 2.  Making sure that that polygon is selected, I choose the  button from the 'Construct' tab in the 'Subdivide' section.I select the 'Wireframe' view type in the Perspective' viewport so I can see the points, and I create another point in the center of the bottom line by clicking there with the black crosshair of the cursor and a fifth point will appear (creating a 5-sided polygons, although two of those sides are now lined up with each other).  I press the SPACEBAR to exit from the 'Add Points' tool, and press CTRL-g to enter 'Points' mode. I select the upper left point, press SHIFT, then the point I just added.  I select the  button from the 'Subdivide' section of the 'Construct' tab, the rectangle splits along that line and a triangle appears. IMPORTANT - When you use the split tool, because it is adding a new point to a line, you must be in wireframe view type to be able to see the newly created point. I deselect all points, selecting the center bottom point and the upper right point, again clicking on 'Split' tool (or press CTRL-L). The former 4-sided polygon is now three triangles.  I switch to the 'Polygon' mode by pressing CTRL-h, make sure no polygons are selected, and press 'x' to cut it to the clipboard. the rectangle disappears from Layer 2. I click the top part of the Layer 1 button and the skull reappears.  I press 'v' and the polygon reappears back into it's original position.  Realize that it is there, but IT IS NOT WELDED TO THE OTHER POLYGONS ANY LONGER. You need to weld the four outside points, doing them one-by-one, until the polygon is welded back where it originally had been. Cutting it to the clipboard unwelded the polygon's points. And, even if you paste an object into a layer, and some points of that object that you paste are exactly in the same coordinates as a point that is already there (as was the case here), THEY WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY WELD TOGETHER FOR YOU. So, I select the upper-left point of the rectangle we just pasted (which actually selects TWO points at once). Press CTRL-w to weld them into one point. It should say...  I select the point at the upper-right corner and press CTRL-w, selecting the point at the bottom left and press CTRL-w, and finally the point at the bottom right and press CTRL-w. I can now enter 'Drag' mode by pressing CTRL-t and move that polygon's center point over a little and you'll finally see why we did it. In my own case I get a surprise. Because I had pasted it while the Perspective view was in Wireframe view type, I hadn't noticed that I hadn't deleted the old rectangle, apparently. I can tell it is a full-sized rectangle and not a triangle that's attached to the center point and two bottom points because the yellow outline is a rectangle.  I press the DELETE key to get rid of that rectangle and end up with what I wanted, three triangles instead of the one rectangle, and one new point on the edge of the eyesocket bridge hole. I do the same thing with the other three rectangles around the hole, being sure that when I do the right rectangle, I add a point to the right rectangle's left edge...  In the same way, when I do the left rectangle, I must add a point to the right edge of the left rectangle and split from that point to the upper left point and lower left point. And, when doing the bottom rectangle, I have to add a point to the top edge, splitting to the two bottom-most points. After I'm done, I make sure all polygons are not selected and press the TAB key to enter SubSurface mode. The star shape should look like this.  If it puckers badly anywhere, it means you missed a weld. You can also automatically weld all points which reside in the exact same location (they all groan "NOW He Tells Us") by making sure that no polygons are selected and press  (or press the 'm' key) Just keep all defaults and click 'OK'. In this case, if I had done no hand-welding of each set of points it should have said...  4 times 4 is 16. And, this page has far too many images already, so on to the next tutorial. Click for a Rotating 3D Version of the skull done using the Blaxxun3D Applet |
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