CompuServe Messages

Kevin, Regarding the way Bob's legs are connected to his body, I would suggest resculpting that part of his body. Assuming you haven't made any significant changes to Bob's lower torso that is. The default connection between Bob's upper leg and lower torso is horizontal in nature. This may be adequate for the rear portion of the leg but it just doesn't work for the front. The front part of the leg should connect to the pelvis in a diagonal fashion that runs approximately from the crotch to the outer pelvis (iliac crest). You'll have to experiment with the proper number and placement of control points. The placement of the pivot is also important in determining how much of a crease is created when Bob's leg is bent forward. The farther forward the pivot is placed, the smaller the crease. You can see this effect in the Sculpture module when Bob is one big segment(all of his limbs connected). While in Sculpture move the pivot to where you would place it in the Character module. Then group all of the control points in the leg and rotate them around the x-axis. The resulting crease will show up in both the wire frame mode and quick render mode. The rest of the realism necessary for convincing leg movement will probably have to be done in the morph window of the action module. The Nose. Since I am the one who asked you how to sculpt a nose or at least the one used in FACE.SEG, I don't know how much insight I can provide. The nose in FACE.SEG is pretty convincing considering how few control points were used. After I downloaded it I started experimenting. One of the changes I made was to add two multi-point splines, one on either side of the multi-point spline that runs down the middle of the nose. This helps to produce a better curve on the top of the nose and it allows for more possibilities for the point of the nose. It also helps define the upper lips. As for the nostril wings, I tried adding and deleting definition to produce a more realistic form, but I wasn't completely satisfied with the results. Other than that I spent the rest of my time on other parts of the face. For example I replaced the circular splines around the eyes with more rectangular patches to eliminate the curved artifacts that appeared when the face was rendered. I also opened the mouth and added more definition to the lips. But to be honest I haven't spent much time altering FACE.SEG. Since acquiring AM most of my time has gone towards creating non-human characters. My attempts at creating humans have been limited to constructing body parts: legs,arms,torsos, and yes even noses. My experiments suggest that if you want to create a truly realistic nose, you are going to have to use many more control points and splines. I would suggest trying to build a nose by itself and then attach it to a face instead of pulling it out of an existing face. Well that's my two cents. If anyone else reading this message has some suggestions, please speak up ! Realism = RAM, Chris D.