This picture is pretty nice, right? A young Japanese schoolgirl. It's not too erotic, but a hardcore pedo might find it appealing. I don't mind much. More on this in the next paragraph. Okay, this is a cool picture because it uses a bit of shading and is part of Javantea's Fate Scene 3, Page 3. Woot. That means that Scene 3 Page 3 is 2/3 done. I'll likely finish it around Jan 1, 2002. The shading is today's lesson. The breast shadowing I remembered from a nice little picture that I downloaded years ago. The sharp edge (black outline) of the shadow really helps it a lot. Then I thought that it'd be nice to have shadowing elsewhere. I thought a bit about the dress and went to work on it. People who know me better have seen my "Got Love" mural depicting two young girls in skirts and Jav saying the title and "Try it, you'll like it." The mural was supposed to also include a car, but I broke down before I could draw a successful car at that angle. So I'm an expert in skirts. Skirts are designed as follows: a piece of rectangular fabric is folded 20-100 times. At the top, the fabric is sewn into a circle. At the bottom, it is folded under and sewn. A zipper is usually added to the back. The top is usually snug to belly button area. How do I know this? Errm, I watch a lot of anime... Sailor Moon specifically. ^-^ "Jim, my nerd-detector is going crazy, we must have a live one!" Next, the ribbon's shading isn't actually shading, it's highlighting, but anyway, it's just 100% white on 10% Black. I tried to think of the right, left, top, bottom, front, and back. Which of these would be a correct position for a highlight? Well, I decided that it'd be front, top, and center. That's where there'd be a bulge in the ribbon, so that where I decided it would highlight. It just seemed right to me. You decide.
I drew this while watching Tim Roth's "War Zone". I didn't feel like drawing but I remained faithful to my faithful viewers. You might notice a few things which I want to point out. The angles, the curves, and the line textures make this drawing more than the actual shape. You might notice that the figure's head is unnaturally large. It's also deformed slightly. But that doesn't matter, I just made the lines work together rather than against each other and it happened. I wouldn't say that it is a good thing, but it's enough. The lesson is: do the lines correctly. If you get the lines incorrectly, you can't have a good picture. If you get the lines right and the object wrong, you're still in business. You're just drawing a deformed person instead of what you wanted to make. It's a question of whether something is more important than the sum of it's parts. Well, certainly it is in many cases. However, you don't just go making a turkey sandwich with marshmellows... Enough, I'll give you a good computer generated image tomorrow. Back to home, Seattle will greet me warmly, I know.
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Update: I was thinking about it and I didn't tell you how many polygons and vertices that this model has. It has 72 verts and 80 triangles. Not bad, huh? I think that I set myself apart from other 3d comics by being a low-poly 3d comic. Tell me if you see another 3d comic out there and I'll tell you how much better I am than them. ^-^
From yesterday's venture into the face, we move down to the torso and arms. First off, I'd like to point out that the human body has no sharp edges. However, low-polygon 3d modelers have to deal with the fact that we can only use edges and shading to emulate curvature. high-polygon 3d modelers can use bezier splines and lots of triangles to make curvy stuff. For example, Lara Croft of Tomb Raider is a curvy person. But in Tomb Raider 1, her breasts looked like Madonna's breasts. In the second one, they added a few more triangles to make it curvier. In the third she got another breast job and they even worked on getting the bounciest right. For crying out loud, it's not rocket science, is it? For low polygon modelling, the shape is more important. In fact, the viewer can distort themselves to see what the person's curvature really looks like. Guys need a barrel shape for the chest. However, that's no reason to make it a box. They have ribs and then the fleshy part between the pelvis and the ribs. When he sits, they almost touch. That's why rumor is that Marilyn Manson had surgery to get rid of his lowest ribs. But that doesn't interest us much. This torso thing is very important for animation. If you don't belive me, check yourself. The shoulder ought to slope down a bit, but they should not slope too much. I'd say 10 degrees from the horizontal is okay. I personally have no structure to my shoulder, but some people do. It's apparent in a few poses, so beware. The arms are pretty complex. It's hard to get them right, but you'll know when they are. To know that they are good, check from every angle. If it looks right from the front and side, that just means that you're forced to look at the person from the front and side because the 3d view will look terrible. I think these arms are about 80%. Important parts are: top of shoulder joint, armpit, outside of elbow, inside of elbow, forearm, wrist, and hand. The width of the arm should not vary a bunch. But within that small limitation, stretch it a lot. The bicep must be curved, the forearm must be straight and become thinner as it goes to the wrist. I must say: do not use a box or a cylinder. I had to do it vertex by vertex and it's a mess, but it looks right in 3d at all angles.
