June 2006 Archives

Tareq Mirza demonstrates his Maya modelling techniques in Organic Modeling I: Human Anatomy Male, an excellent new DVD from Freedom of Teach. Using workflows applicable to any 3D polygon package, Mr. Mirza transforms a box into a clean, well-built virtual representation of Andrew Cawrse's ecorche figure.

You probably will pick up some additional anatomy information here, but this DVD works best not as an anatomy lesson, but as a demonstration of how to think about organic modelling in a polygon environment - it's all about box modelling, controlling edge loops, quad polygon flow, and smoothing. Mirza assumes the viewer has already had some anatomy instruction. For example: When creating the calf muscles, Mirza models the soleus not as a continuous form under the gastrocnemius muscles - as it really is - but as two independent bulges to the left and right of the gastrocnemius muscles - as it appears to be. I'm not suggesting Mirza should do anything different, but a viewer who didn't know anatomy might form a wrong impression of the unseen inner structure of the lower leg. Such anatomy lessons are necessarily beyond the scope of this DVD.

At under $60 Organic Modeling I: Human Anatomy Male is a great value. Freedom of Teach could probably break the chapters on the head and various limbs into their own DVD's and sell each for the price of this entire collection of information. I highly recommend this DVD.

Additional Information:

Subdivision Modeling Resources

Digital Sculpting Forum

After testing my Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 through Boujou 3 and getting a lens solve of around 50mm, I decided to test an actual 50mm lens.

I mounted a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens on my Nikon D200 and moved it forward step by step toward a white board on which I had marked a few tracking crosshairs in erasable ink.

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Boujou 3 appeared to perform well, reporting a point cloud revealing a push-in across a flat, vertical wall-like surface.

Maya 7 reported a camera focal length of a bit under the 50mm lens I had in fact used. Normally I'd be pleased at such a seemingly accurate answer, but I'm not quite sure how to interpret this data.

The problem is my Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 also solved out at around 50mm.

Further testing with other lenses is warranted.

I shot a few frames with my Nikon D200 using my new Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-D lens and ran the images through Boujou 3 to see how it and Maya would see the lens.

I told Boujou that the lens focal length was 85mm, and that the film back was 23.6mm x 15.8mm which is, as far as I could research, the active area of the Nikon D200 APS-C chip.

The free move yielded a nice, well-defined point cloud -- you can easily see the curved chair back and flat wall beyond -- so I expected a lens solve close to 85mm.

Instead of an result close to 85mm, what I got from Boujou was a virtual lens with a focal length just under 50mm.

Maybe long lenses don't produce enough parallax for a closer solve.

Maybe more extensive testing on a longer sequence is required.

Since I intend to combine my Nikon D200 photography with rendered backgrounds from Maya and Maxwell, I'd like to get a good handle on how to best match lenses.

I plan to devote a lot of energy to making art pieces that combine figure photography from my new Nikon D200 with virtual backgrounds produced in the new Maxwell Renderer.

Here's a sneak peek at where this is all going.

The surface treatments of the virtual objects will be as real as I can make them. I think the Maxwell Renderer, with its complex surface shader capabilities and subtle light transport algorithms, will be the best path to photorealistic CG in need to really make these projects work.

Part of the charm of the work I'm doing is the attention I plan to devote to modelling mundane details. It's almost a joke within a joke - misalignened trim, missing screws, loose nails, halfway-hidden electrical cords - seemingly cheap and haphazard construction meticulously modelled that way on purpose in CG.

I want the viewer to believe I constructed the sets not in CG, but after a trip to a hardware supply store. These images are going to be dramatic, kitschy, theatrical and fun.

Stay tuned. More to come as it develops.

UPDATE 6/9/2007

Now that Maxwell v1.5 has been released I have returned to this project in earnest.

I used ArtRage 2.2 to simulate the paint. I want it to look like a set piece from a burlesque show or a carnival.