Figure 14
Figure 15
|
Figure 14 |
Figure 15 |
STEP 15: Connect the copied waist splines with three two-point splines -- one at the front, one at the back, and one at the left-hand side. (Figure 15)
STEP 16: Make another copy of the two waist splines, this time
placing the copy at the bottom of the skirt. Use the Drag tool to make
these splines conform to the ink line defining the the bottom of the skirt
in the model sheet. Make it look as rounded as possible in the Top View.
(Figure 16)
Figure 16 |
Figure 17 |
STEP 17: Connect the bottom of the skirt to the bottom of the belt with three two-point splines. (Figure 17)
STEP 18: Add two points to each of these splines; use the Drag tool to make each spline fit the curves of its respective ink line on the model sheet. (Figure 18)
Figure 18
Note: Remember that Knots pays close attention to the spacing between the points in each spline. If each spline has wildly different point spacing, you will get a "skewed" look to the mesh as Knots twists and turns polygons to fit the splines' demands. Try to keep the points of each spline on the same "level" as their counterparts in the other two splines.For example, if a point in one spline is spaced one-third from the top end of the spline, make sure its counterparts in the other two splines are also spaced one-third from the top end of their splines. For Step 18, consider the point spacing shown in Figure 18.
STEP 19: The spline defining the front of the chest doesn't look
as nice as it might. Deselect everything; select this spline. Use the Drag
tool to move the point second from the top down and forwards in the Right
View until it matches Figure
19.
Figure 19 |
Figure 20 |
STEP 20: ...but this leaves the upper "rib spline" distorted. Let's fix that. Deselect everything; select the upper "rib spline." In the Right View, use the Drag tool to move the point second from the left down and forwards until it matches Figure 20.
STEP 21: Is this tunic big enough for the model..? Make the body of the elf-girl a background layer and see.
STEP 22: Check to make sure that the upper "rib spline" does
not intersect with the breast. If it does, use the Drag tool to fix it.
(Figure 21)
Figure 21 |
Figure 22 |
STEP 23: If necessary, select the waist splines and use the Stretch tool to make sure they lie outside of the elf-girl's body. (Figure 22)
STEP 24: Check to make sure that the points of the skirt do not lie inside the mesh of the elf-girl's body. Use the Drag tool to fix them if they do. (Figure 23)
Figure 23
We can use Motion Designer in Layout to make the tunic move like real cloth. The more points in the tunic mesh, the more accurate the cloth simulation. Yet we don't want too many polygons in this model. The more points Motion Designer has to "think" about, the longer its calculations will take. The fewer the SubPatch surfaces, the smoother and more rounded the model will look (resulting in more attractive celshading).
People will expect to see folds in the skirt (and perhaps the sleeves, if one wanted to get fancy). So...let's figure out how many polygons we need in the skirt.
Figure 24
You need enough polygons to make a "wave motion" possible. For this to happen, we need enough polygons to not only form a "C"-shaped curve, but to also bend into curves shaped like "Z" and "S." These shapes can be seen in most "hair-blowing-in-the-wind" animations, such as the ones in the opening animations of the Escaflowne and Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight television series. A wave also looks good in other secondary animations, such as "cloth-blowing-in-the-wind" animation cycles.
Note: You can find more information about the "wave principle" and secondary animation in Preston Blair's wonderful Cartoon Animation book.
The minimum number of SubPatches you need for "wave" shapes is three, so you only need three "rows" of polygons to form the skirt. (Figure 24) By using the minimum number, you keep the mesh looking as soft and smooth as possible vertically.
Yet how many polygons should circle the circumference of this skirt? How many polygons do we need at the hem?
The more "columns" of polygons you have across the skirt ("horizontally"), the greater the chance of getting a fold with Motion Designer. Yet the more polygons you have, the greater the risk of a loss of smoothness to the mesh (which would cause a loss of smoothness to the celshading).
We'll play it safe this time, merely doubling the columns of polygons in the skirt. To do this, we'll divide each skirt spline boundary into two with a spline. To make sure that the patches of the skirt still "line up" with the patches of the belt, we'll take advantage of triangle patches, as seen in the next step.
STEP 25: Create two splines joined at the outermost point of
the lowest waist spline, as shown in Figure
25. As you will see in the patching stage, using the triangle
splines lets you get away with more polygons in the skirt, without that
complexity trickling up into the waist section and above (where it is not
needed).
Figure 25 |
Figure 26 |
STEP 26: Add two points to each spline, at the same level as those of their counterparts. Use the Drag tool to help each spline blend in with the contours of its neighbors, until it looks like Figure 26.
STEP 27: Clean-up time. Deselect everything. Select all center splines in the Back View, type Ctrl-v and use Set Value to make sure they lie at 0m on the X axis. Deselect everything. Type m to Merge Points, then type Shift-i to Unify Polygons. These last two steps will make sure that no pesky "hidden splines" will mess with you during the patching stage.
Note: "Hidden splines" (and other instances of "hidden" geometry) occur when you hit the Paste key two or more times by accident -- pasting two or more copies of the same geometry into the same space by mistake. It happens more often than you might think -- usually when one is caught in a rush to get things done. Remember -- the way out of hidden geometry (when the "Undo" operation is not available) is to Merge Points (m) and then Unify Polygons (Shift-i). This works for hidden splines, hidden SubPatches, and hidden polygons.
STEP 28: Save this object as torso19.lwo.
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