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35. Cartoons - Leroy the Hawk - Part 4
 
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MODELER, CREATING LEROY'S ARM FEATHERS

Feathers on top of the arm and on his side are done as I did the ones on the side of his face.




I enter 'Select Polygons' mode with CTRL-h, select everything but the arm and press '-' to hide those polygons. I select the polygons on the bottom side of the arm and hide them.

I highlight the four polygons around the feather, 'k' kill the polygons, delete the center point, sequentially select points - clockwise, 'Extender', 't' to move the new points, 'y' to rotate and SHIFT-h to size the points, 'Extender', 't' to move, 'y' to rotate, SHIFT-h to size the points, 'Extender', 't' to move them, 'y' to rotate, SHIFT-h to size the points, 'Extender', 't' to move them, CTRL-w to 'Weld' the end points together.

Select and 'f' Flip the polygons if necessary, '\' to unhide the body, TAB for SubSurface Mode, CTRL-t to 'Drag' the vertice points in the Perspective window while rotating it with ALT and the mouse, then you give it the proper sweep towards the back as if the wind is blowing it by selecting the end polygons, rotating it backward, expanding the selection back to the second row of points by pressing SHIFT-], rotating it...

Select the new polygons, 'q' to bring up the 'Change Surface' requester, add those polygons to the 'Head' Surface to make them light blue.

Sound familiar? You getting the hang of it now? Do you now see that most of the time it's just using the same techniques over and over again?




The next feather, I'll cheat. I'll select the entire feather that I just made by selecting just the end polygons, then pressing SHIFT-] to expand the selection three times.

I'll copy it to the clipboard with 'c', move to a free Layer, 'v' to paste it, 'Wireframe' view type so I can see both layers at once, click top part of new feather layer to make it the 'Front' layer, click bottom part of body layer so I can see black indication.

I press 't' to move the feather into position, CTRL-t to move vertices so they are close to their corresponding tie points.



I then cut it to the clipboard with 'x', move to the body layer and 'v' paste it, then select the close points and CTRL-w to 'Weld' them (8 sets of points).

I rotate the tip, and second row of points a little and adjust the surface curves so it doesn't look cloned.



And, I do the same thing, shrinking it a bit as it is closer to the wrist, to the third feather.



In the same manner that I made the first wing feather, I pull out a feather thumb. I curl it up to make it feel like the wind is holding it up.



And, I think I should give him two feather fingers. His hand looks like a mitten.



I select two polygons on the top of the hand and two on the bottom and press DELETE to remove them. I select the points at the tip of the fingers and press CTRL-u to 'Unweld' those points. I select all polygons of one set of fingers and do a 't' to move them so the unwelded points come apart. I do the same with the other set of feather fingers, sizing the polygons as needed and welding the points at the ends of each finger.

(Remember that just because YOU wanted those two particular points unwelded and NOT the other points, LightWave can't know which points you wanted unwelded and for what reasons! It is YOUR responsibility to keep track of what you're doing at all times.



I select the 5 points along the inside edge of the first finger and do 'Extender', 't' to move it outward, SHIFT-h to size it smaller, 'y' to rotate the points to the arm's side of the hand so they are closer to the center between the two fingers.



I delete the junk polygon that was created 'inside' the hand.

I do the same thing with the other finger, then connect the points together by selecting them clockwise and pressing 'p'. I press TAB and finely adjust angles.



I back off a bit to look at the whole arm...



When I'm satisfied, I cut off his other arm, do a SHIFT-v to mirror it, an 'n' to set it and de-select all polygons to make mirror go away.

And, I back away to see the whole effect.




MODELER, CREATING LEROY'S SIDE FEATHERS

In the same manner, using only one polygon, I create the top side feather.



... And, as I did before, I clone it twice, welding two side feathers in the two polygons just below that one.



And, finally, all of the features that I had put into the sketch have been completed.

This is where I do the finishing touches to make him feel more streamlined, and to make the feathers feel like they are flowing in tandem with each other.

With 'Symmetry' turned on, I enter the 'Perspective' viewport, using ALT and the mouse to swivel it to all angles. I use CTRL-t 'Drag' to reposition the feather angles in tiny increments until it all feels right.



This is where your internal sense of physics comes into play.

And, with all 3D Sculpture pieces, you could work on it forever, adding details, adding textures, adding bump maps, adding muscle maps, adding skelegons... And, you know how to do all of those now.

Lets see how faithful the original sketch was relative to the finished product.




Click for a Rotating 'Leroy the Hawk' done using the Blaxxun3D Applet

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