3D human characters development according to several historical stages:
"The History of the Ideal Male Body"
Commissioned work for Nickolay Lamm.
All image displayed by permission of "Lammily LLC". © 2016 All rights reserved.
Commissioned work for Nickolay Lamm.
All image displayed by permission of "Lammily LLC". © 2016 All rights reserved.
February 2016 - Marco Romero
www.marcoromero.net
3D Production Pipeline of Photorealistic Human Characters.
By: Marco Romero
By: Marco Romero
The process of character development is primarily focused on three softwares: Autodesk 3Ds Max, Smith Micro Poser Pro and Adobe Photoshop.
The development begins depending on the kind of character want to work, I have developed several 3D base mesh (man, woman, child) with 3DS Max software whose topology (distribution, shape and amount of polygons that make geometry) allows me to altering the body surfaces in a personalized way.
This 3d model base is imported into Poser Pro software to be modified parametrically, so it requires to optimize different body parts and "inject" the system "morph dials" customized for different deformations as well as to work with the magnets techniques to achieve the necessary deformation. For this I use different tools mainly the "Autogroup Editor" or "QuickConform" among others.
It is important to clarify that I don't work with "stock characters" because in my experience are often unsuitable for such extreme deformations that need to be developed; this is why my 3D base models has the design and amount of polygons that allow me to make a great job; so I found this way of optimizing to making my own characters for Poser Pro. I've tried using other software as the "Pixologic Zbrush" but definitely I have much better control over the mesh geometry using 3Ds Max.
On several occasions it is necessary to reverse the export process (from Poser Pro to 3Ds Max) in order to achieve the measure that I am looking for, add more resolution to the zone to be deformed or modified, as well as other variants to be corrected; to be exported back to Pose Pro.
An important part of character development is the Body Rigging, depending upon the final software with which the posture will be; I like working with the biped system (3ds Max) but honestly the bones system integrated on Poser Pro is much more powerful, despite being more complex, the results are excellent.
The texturing is fully developed with texture maps developed with Photoshop to be mapped onto the character in 3Ds Max. In most cases I use photographs to make photo-montages for different skin types. Usually I work with large format textures 2K up to 4K pixels depending on the area of the body to render. The material setup is personalized, and the SSS properties (Subsurface scattering) and other kind of materials will depend on the final render engine to be used, mainly I work with two: Mental Ray (3Ds Max) and Render Studio (Poser).
Marco Romero
Related links:
A Series of 3D Models Show Us the History of the Ideal Male Body
https://3dprint.com/123522/3d-models-ideal-male-body/
'Male Body Ideals Through Time' is 3D Printed Study of Men's Physique
http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.php?20735-Male-Body-Ideals-Through-Time-is-3D-Printed-Study-of-Men-s-Physique
How Close Is Your 3D Character to the Average Man?
https://blog.smithmicro.com/how-close-is-your-3d-character-to-the-average-man