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Cooking Up a Little Meatloaf to Build a Torso

By Steve Pitzel (Intel) (54 posts) on October 26, 2009 at 7:26 am

Okay, it sounds a little odd - but the latest tutorial I've posted on the Artist/Animator resource site (www.intel.com/software/artist) will show you how this works. Check out Modeling a Torso One Meatloaf at a Time (http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/modeling-a-torso-one-meatloaf-at-a-time/). And you get a free model along with the free tutorial - talk about a bargain!

The method I show in this tutorial is only one of many ways of modeling musculature. Rather than model an entire character out of a single subdivided cube, this technique involves connecting many muscle-shaped loaves within a torso template or outline to achieve the same goal.

Why try it this way? It can help overcome three painful muscle modeling problems:

1) It forces you to really think about anatomical landmarks of the body and how they interconnect (helpful both in modeling and animation).

2) The muscles will automatically have well-defined edges (these can be smoothed out and hidden as needed).

3) The muscles will have a natural flow in their most common direction of deformation or movement.

Do I admire the folks who can just sit there and model some fantastical character out of a single cube? Absolutely!!! But we've all seen those tutorials, and a lot of folks, like me, hit at least one point where we say, "how the heck did they get from there to here???"

Try building your character out of meatloaf just once - I think you'll actually find it's a fairly intuitive process.

And...as an added bonus... you can download the torso model to use as a torso primitive for your own work. All that I ask is that you upload your improvements to the model or show us what you've done with it so the entire community can share!

As always - please feel free to offer any additions or alternate methods by commenting on this Blog, commenting on the tutorial itself, or by submitting your tips, tricks and tutorials to the Animate This! Tutorial Challenge (http://software.intel.com/en-us/contests/animatethis/contests.php)! You'll win points toward our Black Belt program - and the 5 best tips, tricks and tutorials each month receive $100 in vouchers at www.gnomonology.com !

- Pitz

Categories: Art, Music, & Animation, Graphics & Media
Tags: 3D modeling, Animation, artistanimator, DCC, free model, free torso model, game modeling, model downloads, modeling for animation, modeling techniques, Pitzel, polygonal model, tutorial

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Comments (2)

October 27, 2009 10:30 AM PDT Son Kim

Steve, nice tutorial. I also find it abit tough to create characters from a cube, so whenever i'm stuck with that method i switch to the method you outline here, it is alot less overwhelming.

October 28, 2009 5:19 PM PDT Steve Pitzel (Intel) Total Points: 7,636 Community Manager

Thanks, Son Kim! Yeah, the "single cube" method always throws me into that "how the heck did they get from that model to this one?" mode. It seems much more intuitive to me to just stick a muscle where you need one :) ! Hey BTW - looking forward to interviewing you in a couple weeks! - Pitz

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