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35. Cartoons - Leroy the Hawk - Part 4 |
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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 rotate the tip, and second row of points a little and adjust the surface curves so it doesn't look cloned. (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 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. 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. 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. 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 |