Claudia Herbst-Tait
Professor
Pratt Institute
Department of Digital Arts


Modeling a Figure or Head Using Image Planes and Instancing


When modeling a figure or head, it is especially important to use reference drawings as a guideline.
Two or three orthographic drawings should do. Find reference images of what you are trying
to model, or, better yet create your own. Here are some examples (figure 1 and 2).


Fig. 1 Orthographic views of the lovely Venus of Willendorf, ca. 24,000–22,000 BCE.



Here she is in 3D (figure 1a).


Fig. 1a





Fig. 2 Orthographic views of a skeleton. In Photoshop, I added some reference lines
to see if the height of the eyes, nose, jaw, hips, and knees line up.




It can also be helpful to overlay the front and side views to see how they line up (figure 3).


Fig. 3 Using layers in Photoshop to make sure the proportions of the front and side views line up.




Next, create a single image for the front and side view as depicted in figure 4 and 5.
(We'll just continue with the head herebut the same applies when modeling an entire figure...)

Fig. 4 and 5




Now, in Maya, Hypershade window (figure 6), create an Image Plane utility.


Fig. 6




In the Hypershade, click on the Camera tab. You should see something like this (figure 7).


Fig. 7




MMB click and drag the image plane and the front camera shape into the work area of the Hypershade
(figure 8).Connect the image plane output to the front camera default input (there are several ways of doing
this -- the easiest is to MMB click and drag the image plane icon onto the frontShape camera icon and
select "Default").

A connection has been created between the two icons. Double-click on the imagePlane1 icon and browse
for the front view drawing you wish to use as a modeling reference. If you don't have any drawings yet, simply
download the above drawings and use those for now...). With an image selected, it should look like this
(figure 8 and 9).


Fig. 8





Fig. 9 Notice that the center of the head/nose and the grid do not line up. We want things to be centered
and will adjust this momentarily...




Create another image plane for the side view and connect the appropriate image to it. In the perspective
view, it should look like this (figure 10).


Fig. 10




Right now the image planes do not line up properly but intersect. To move, or adjust, the image planes,
select the side view image plane, and open the Attribute Editor. Scroll down to the "Placement Extras"
tab and, experiment with the three "Center" values (figure 11). Select the front image plane, and make
sure the center of the nose lines up with the center of world space (figure 12).





Fig. 11





Fig. 12




Create a cube, up the resolution to 4 (Width), 3 (Height), and 2 (Depth). Begin modeling...
by pushing and pulling points (figure 13 and 14).





Fig. 13





Fig. 14




Once you have the general shape, select the faces of half of the head and delete them (figure 15).


Fig. 15




Go to Edit, Duplicate Special, and use the following settings (figure 16).


Fig. 16




Now, with the instanced head, if you select a point on one side of the head, the corresponding
point on the other side will behave accordingly (figure 17).


Fig. 17




Note that you will later delete the instanced half of the head. What the instancing allows you to do
is to see the model as a whole. This can be very useful when tweaking a body's/head's proportions.