What You'll Learn

About Character Modeling in 3DS Max:

Character modeling in 3DS Max is one of the comprehensive courses about creating high end detailed Human character. The course contains lectures spanning more than 20 hours and it is not limited dealing with the modeling facet of the application. We will take you through the production pipeline, where you will know how to arrange the viewport before character designing and explain various methods and 3D objects that are readily available in 3DS Max for your purpose. After modeling the character, we work on the costume and properties of the character and finally we will get into UVW map unwrapping tricks and techniques for texturing the character and its props. We hope you will gain substantial knowledge from this course and start working on your 3D models successfully.

• Section 1: Character Modeling in 3DS Max
  In this first section, we start the course with a detailed discussion about the Character modeling and the types of approaches we can use for designing a detailed character in Max. You will know about the reference images and how you should attach the images to the planes on various viewports to set up the stage to start the modeling process. We introduce you to the objects you can use and start to build the basic structure of the face through extruding the edges.
  The next step is to create the eye through extrude tool and create the eyeball with a sphere geometry. We know modeling a nose is a complex job, though we are using reference images for our help, it is still an intricate and complex procedure to complete the nose modeling. Here we will take you through a couple of methods through which you can easily understand and start working on the nose part of your model.
  From here onwards, we will start working on one by one part initially. At this stage, our motto is to design the model but not getting deep into the detail which we will look into in the other sections of this tutorial. We teach you how to construct the forehead, cheeks, design a complete eye using extrude tool. Further, we will look into designing neck part, detailing the eye, creating a smile and adding cuts, giving more details to the nose and nostrils, finally culminating the facial modeling with designing and editing the lips model.
  In the second phase of this section, we take you through designing one of the complex parts of the human body, that is ear. You will learn how to create the shape of the ear by adjusting the edges and polygonal faces. Later we set up the viewports to start designing the body of the character. After applying the reference images to the plans in the side viewports, we jump into perspective to start working on the torso part of the model. By the end of the section, we will complete the basic shape of the torso, extrude hands and brings waist into shape after moderate editing.
• Section 2: Show Lace
  In this section, we will start working on the properties of the character. At this stage, we will start with the character shoes. Here, we will bring the theory into a practical approach. We introduce you the NURBS modeling model which we were discussing earlier. NURBS allows the user to work with ease while dealing with characters and objects of smoother and curvy surfaces. You will also learn how to create the model using NURBS modeling methods and finally convert them into Polygons which will help you to easily animate and texture in the next stages. During this five-part lecture, you will know various methods of NURBS and Polygonal modeling and conversion from one modeling methods into the other. An array of features related to the conversion is also explained in detailed for your convenience.
• Section 3: Index Finger and Hand
  At this point of the course, we will deal with the hand part which we extruded while working on Torso model. Here, you will learn how to extrude and create a hand model and start designing the fingers to your character. We start by modeling the index finger of the character by using the reference images which we already set in the necessary viewport. Once we give basic details of the index finger, we start to work on both sides of the palm; we will reach to a finer detail where the palm look realistic and at this point, we will start working on the total hand structure of the character. You will observe that it is relatively easy for you to design a larger body part than getting into intricate designing of comparatively smaller parts as palms and fingers. After the hand modeling is finished, we tweak with the final vertex and polygonal adjustment on fingers, palm, and hand and finish the section with a complete 3D hand development.
• Section 4: Jacket and Inner Cloth
  From modeling the body parts, we once again jump into giving properties to the character. Here, we will work on modeling the T’ and Jacket of the character. Usually, for an animating model, cloth and apparel are designed using the Cloth feature which will help to interact with the character geometry while movement. However, at this point our aim is to design a full-length character, so we fix to work on the properties of Polygons and NURBS modeling methods.
  In this seven lecture section, we start by giving basic shape to the Jacket and continue to work on NURBS modeling and Polygon modeling alike. We employ a myriad of tricks that are used in the practical working environment to speed up the process. You will see how to extrude tool will help you to work quickly to gain the intended shapes. Later we start working on the inner cloth using the polygon modeling techniques and tweak on the vertex and edges to improve the finest quality of the 3D object.
• Section 5: Create Nod and Neck
  One of the important parts of modeling is assembling various parts of the geometry into one single object and tweaks the edge flow and maintains proportionate gaps in the entire model. In this section, we start working on this job by creating neck part to the model.
  Creating a neck design for the character may not the complex part of the entire design, but it is a highly essential because of the intricacy it handles in combining all the edges of the head part with all the edges of the torso. A precision detail should be maintained during this process, otherwise, it may lead to future problems while the character is textured and animated. At this point, you will know about the tricks to manage the edge count in the head part with the Torso geometry and how to combine both the objects and tweak the polygons to create proportionate spacing between edge loops.
• Section 6: Tweaking Character
  As we finished working on the neck part and already adjusted the spaces between the edge loops and polygons, it is time for the final clearance of the character model. You will learn how to find out the places where vertexes, edges, and polygons are divided or double within the model. In some places, you will find where polygon edges are detached from the characters. These options are carried away using easiest and advanced methods that can be gained through experience and putting multiple features to use.
  The later part of the section deal with the property designing once again. We will work on creating and editing the belt. We work on the box object type, which is carried out through the default box object. You will learn about the nodes in 3DS Max and at the end of the section, you will see how to unwrap the ear part using UVW mapping.
• Section 7: Unwrap Face
  UVW mapping is one of the tedious jobs texturing artists have to do. Sometimes, the job has to be worked on by Modelers to add quick results. At this point, you will see how UV mapping can be extracted from the vertexes of the model using multiple models as Cylindrical, Planar, Spherical and more maps. You will learn how to unwrap a character face in various parts and untangle the UVs in the UV editor window to create a finest UVW map for texturing and shading purposes.
• Section 8: Head full unfold and Full hand unwrap
  Once you are finished extracting the UV maps from the character face, you will see how to unfold the complex vertex points using simple commands as unfolding. Next, we will unwrap the whole body and properties of the model using the same tools and techniques which we discussed in the previous section. By the end of this section, you will master various techniques through which you can easily extract and combine UVW maps from models. Before closing the course lectures, we discuss in brief about some other important techniques as rendering UVs, setting up Camera for enhanced workflow, three point lighting, texturing, discussion about various texture maps as color, bump.
  We will work on texturing the face, rendering the UVs from the torso and complete the course by eyebrows, hand, and properties. Lastly, you will learn how to use shaders to achieve a realistic look to the eyeballs.

Prerequisites to learn this course

• You should have a minimum 2.4 GHz core 2 or i5/i7 processors on your personal computer to enjoy seamless working
• 4GB RAM or higher is recommended and a high capacity hard disk that can accommodate space for a numerous number of files you will save while working on a project
• ATI FirePro or Quadro FX series graphic cards work well with 3DS Max
• A good video card is an essential requirement. You can get any hardware accelerated OpenGL or Direct3D video cards
• On a personal level, a prior knowledge of 3D space will help you understand the 3D Technology quickly
• Your passion for learning and zeal for creativity with help you master the application easily.