modeling – Oded Maoz Erell's CG Log

Houdini – Separate continuous mesh parts to groups

Posted on May 29, 2021May 29, 2021 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Houdini 18.5

Separate a mesh to groups by continous parts (elements):

Use the Connectivity SOP node to assign each mesh primitive an integer attribute based on the continuous mesh element in belongs to.
This attribute can be named “element” or “part” for example.
Use the GameDev Group by Attribute* node to assign each mesh primitive to a different group according to its “part” attribute (if you named it “part” that is..).
Set a group name prefix, like “part_” or “element_”. the node will generate numbered groups per each mesh part like so: “element_0”, “element_1”, “element_1″….
Use this group separation as a filter to create whatever part-selective effect you need.

* The GameDev Group by Attribute node ships with the Game Development Toolset

3ds max – Model a terrain from an Autocad topographical plan file

Posted on December 12, 2019December 12, 2019 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
3ds max 2019

To model a terrain form an DWG (Autocad) file containing a topographical plan:

Import the DWG file to into the 3ds max scene, and move the plan to the center of the 3ds max scene if necessary.
Select the VIZBlock object and extract its linked geometry:
Right click the Linked Geometry object and select:
Convert To: Editable Spline
Enter Spline editing mode, select all the splines that are not part of the topography, and delete, or detach them so only the terrain ‘height lines’ will remain.
With the topographical plan editable spline selected,
Choose Create > Compound Objects > Terrain
A Terrain object is now created:

To retopologize the terrain mesh to more usable quad polygon mesh:

Create a new Plane primitive above the terrain mesh, slightly smaller at the sides, that has the wanted polygon resolution:
From the Top view (important), with the new plane selected, choose:
Create > Compound Objects > Conform:
Set the creation method to ‘Move“, click Pick Wrap-To Object and than click the terrain mesh.
It will now take some time for the new conformed mesh to be calculated..
When the new object is ready, right click the viewport to exit the object picking mode.
The Conform object is no ready, and contains both the terrain mesh and the new conformed quad polygon mesh:
Right click it and choose:Convert To: Editable Poly
In Element editing mode, select the terrain mesh part and delete it to remain only with the new quad polygon mesh:
Fix non conformed mesh parts by either moving or deleting them:
The new retopologized terrain is ready:

The example demonstrated here is a DWG file by Jose Vega, free to download from Bibliocad.com

Blender – Modeling character clothes using cloth simulation

Posted on December 8, 2019December 11, 2019 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.8

This character project is the first one in which I’m using physical cloth simulation in Blender to model the character’s clothes at proxy quality (they will be detailed further manually). learning this approach to clothes modeling demanded a lot experiments, trials and errors to get it right, in this short article, I’ll try to provide some insights, tips, and settings that can speed up the process.

Watch the full modeling process here

General notes and tips:

When modeling the basic shape of the cloth try to “cut” a realistic cloth pattern for your desired cloth model. if you’ll search images on the web for “trousers cutting pattern” or “coat cutting pattern” you’ll find many examples.
* See images below
Create proper UVs for the cloth mesh when its still flat (before the simulation)
In Blender cloth simulation, isolated edges in the mesh (edges without polygons) are treated as sawing springs, and are an important part of the cloth setup.
Use a low poly proxy model for your characters body mesh, it will speed up the cloth simulation.

Early experiments:

In this experiment I used a simple tubular pants-like mesh that I quickly modeled around the character’s legs and pelvis (not a realistic cloth cutting pattern), with the top (weist) vertices defined as a vertex group with shrinking cloth property.
The result looks like training suit pants. it wasn’t at all what I wanted for this character, but I actually like it and probably will use such pants on other characters or on this one as a secondary look.

cloth_study

In this experiment I started trying to model an actual man’s trousers cutting pattern, and as you see, it still needs tweaking.

Blender_Cloth

This experiment is beginning to produce reasonable results, the undershirt initial shape is still cut too low at the back.
* Note that there is an animated belt collision object to bring the undershirt to it’s shape at the weist

Blender_Cloth_B2

Final Settings:

The final undershirt initial model:

The final pants initial model:
* Note that the belt mesh is a vertex group defined a fixed in the cloth simulation, and that it’s split to parts corresponding to the edges of the pants shape that need to be sawed to it. (see the process here)

The full final cloth setup for the character. the setup includes a low poly collision object of the whole character and shoes, undershirt mesh, pans mesh and animated (contracting) belt collision for the undershirt:

Annotation 2019-12-08 120941

The final cloth simulation:

cloth

Cloth Settings:

Cloth simulation settings for the undershirt:

Cloth simulation settings for the pants:

Related posts:
Blender 2.8 Character Project

Blender 2.8 character project

Posted on December 7, 2019December 7, 2019 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.8

I Recently started a personal character modeling project using Blender 2.8.
The project has the following goals:

Get back to development of creative 3D content (character development, animation, rigging etc.).
* the last 10 years or so I have been generally doing (and teaching) photorealistic rendering for technical visualization projects.
Get used to Blender 2.8
Practice A sculpting > re-topology workflow.
* When I learned organic modeling 20 ago, there was no such workflow, you would create final topology from the get go.

I will be video capturing the whole project’s progress and sharing it on my vimeo channel.

You’re welcome to read about the project creation steps and watch the actual work process captured here:

Blender 2.8 character project – Part 3 – Modeling proxy clothes and props

Posted on December 7, 2019December 8, 2019 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.8

This is the third part of a personal project I began working on,
Development of a realistic character in Blender 2.8 for games and animation.

<– Go to the project home
<– Go to the first part of the project
<– Go to the second part of the project

The third part of the project was a ~7 hour modeling session in which the focus was mainly on proxy-quality (rough) modeling of clothing and props.
In this stage of the project, I decided that the creative theme for character will be a tough detective. a sort of an Asian ‘Dirty harry’ character, and this concept was the drive behind the styling of the characters clothes and and props.

Result after part 3:
> Total accumulated work time: ~17.5 hours

Some tips and settings for modeling the clothes

Blender 2.8 character project – Part 1 – Sculpting – Freestyle rough draft

Posted on December 6, 2019December 7, 2019 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.8

This is the first part of a personal project I began working on,
Development of a realistic character in Blender 2.8 for games and animation.

<– Go to the project home

The first step of the project is a completely free-style / free-form ~5.5 hour sculpting session in which I’m not really trying to do anything accurate but just get used to 3D sculpting in Blender 2.8.
I’m imagining an elder Asian action character, at this point not sure what he’ll end up being. possible themes are:
ninja, samurai, cyber themed ninja or tough detective.