All language subtitles for 07_02_character_modeling_part_1

- [Zach] In this video, let's
start the modeling process

of a "Cubic Worlds" human character

by creating the major shapes.

So basically I wanna recreate
this base human character.

So if you don't wanna model
a human character at all,

you can also use these
base humans down here

and just change them to
be the character you want.

How this works, you will
learn in the next videos.

However here, I wanna show you

how to approach modeling a character

so that the proportions are good,

and just so you know how to
model a character from scratch.

So let's get rid of this character,

and first of all, let's drag
and drop in a cube bottom.

Let's create two new collections.

One I call scene_helpers, and
the other one I call human.

This one goes into scene_helpers,

and this one I call scale_reference.

So first of all, of
course you need to know

what kind of character you wanna create.

In my case, it's a simple male character,

and since I'm living here in Germany,

I just quickly Googled
for the average height

of men here in Germany,
which is roughly one meter

and 80 centimeters.

So let's press N, and here
we find the dimensions,

which show us the exact
size of this object here.

So let's change this to one meter

and 80 centimeters.

And of course the average height

of men varies from country to country,

so you can also go with
a different height.

Then, for the x-axis,
which is, in our case,

the width of the character,

I would go with something
like 25 centimeters

or 30 centimeters, something like this.

And for the y-axis, we use, I think, 0.15.

That means 15 centimeters,

which gives us a good understanding

on how high and how thick
the character should be.

Then there's something

which is called the 8-head
figure drawing method,

or something like this.

There's also a 7.5-head drawing method,

which basically helps you
to get the proportions

of a character right by
staking 8 or 7.5 times the head

of a character on top of each other.

So that means we can
simply go to Edit mode,

press Control + R, hover above this cube,

and then scroll the mouse wheel until,

in the bottom-left
corner, we see seven cuts.

When we have seven cuts,
we have one, two, three,

four, five, six, seven, eight pieces.

And to better use this as a reference,

let's go to Object mode,
go to the Object tab here,

and under Viewport Display,

let's change the Display As to Wire

so we can only see the wireframe of this.

And now let's press N, and
disable this selection over here

so we can't accidentally
select this object.

Then let's start with the
very basic shapes here.

Let's start with a cube bottom,

Alt + G to recenter this, and
let's move the asset browser

down here so we have a bit more space.

Then let's scale this down a bit

so we can see the reference.

And first of all, let's move this up.

So roughly one of these
pieces should be the head.

Of course we can also go a bit above this.

This reference object should
only give us a rough idea

for getting the proportions right,

and in the end we will, of course,

scale this around to see
if everything fits nicely.

So then, from these eight pieces,

here in the center we will
roughly have the center

of the character, which is the bottom line

of the upper body.

And here the legs start.

And to get some more reference lines,

let's enable the selection here.

Let's select this, go to Edit mode.

Add one loop cut down here,

which will be roughly the height

for where we add the feet.

And let's add three loop cuts over here

so we have roughly the
height of the shoulders

and where we wanna add the neck.

So that means I duplicate this,

scale this down, and
place it somewhere here,

which should be the neck.

And let's take another
one, put it into the center

of the entire body, scale
this to the width here,

and now scale it up to the position

of the neck, roughly.

So and this should be the hips
and the entire upper body.

And now here's a cool trick.

Simply go to Edit mode,
add three loop cuts here

so we have four pieces.

Then, with the Edge Selection,

let's select these three loop cuts here.

Press V.

Then they will be separated.

And now, if you select
everything and press F,

all the open holes will be filled.

That means if I move them
apart from each other,

you can see that there's a face inside.

And this is the case, also,
for all the other elements.

Then simply press P, click
on Separate By Loose Parts,

and now we have these four elements.

And of course we can right-click,

Set Origin, Origin to Geometry.

I don't care about the thickness

of all these objects right now.

For now, I just wanna quickly
build the basic shapes

from the front, and then
we can adjust everything.

Then we need the legs.

For that, let's grab one
of these objects up here.

Let's rotate this, actually.

And here's a quick tip to
work with mirrored objects.

Make sure, with Shift + C,

that the 3D cursor's in the center.

Hit Shift + A, add an empty object.

Could be any object but an

empty object won't be rendered,

so it's not in the way.

Move this to the scene_helpers.

Call this mirror, and then,
on top of this object,

let's add the Mirror Modifier,

and here, add the mirror
object as mirror object.

The cool thing now is that we can move

this around freely, and
according to the position

of the mirror object, this
object will be mirrored.

And here we do a similar thing.

Let's create one object, scale it down

to roughly this, a little
bit wider, I think.

Then go to Edit mode,
add one loop cut here,

press V, select everything,
F to fill in the holes.

Press P, By Loose Parts,
and then for these two,

let's set the origin to geometry.

Then, in order to get the arms right,

select the scale_reference.

Shift + D.

Let's isolate this for a second.

Press Slash on the Numpad,

and let's quickly remove
the loop cuts here,

which we added.

With the Edge Selection, select the loop

and press Control + X to
quickly dissolve these.

And we have one down here.

So we have, again, the eight parts.

Then right-click, Set Origin to Geometry

so it's in the center here.

Now let's hit Slash one more time.

Rotate this and move this
up to the shoulders here.

Maybe let's scale it down a little bit,

and then move it up to this position,

and this will give us, now,

roughly the lengths of the arms.

So here we have the center of the arm,

and here, if we add two loop cuts,

we will have a reference for the hands.

So the hands roughly starts here.

Then we have the main hand part

and the fingers over here.

So let's grab one part of the leg,

Shift + D, move this over.

And by the way, don't worry if the colors

on the mirrored side look a bit weird.

Later on, when we apply everything,

it will look correct.

So here again, let's scale this up,

make this a bit thinner, scale
this so we have the lengths,

'til this loop here.

Then go to Edit mode, add roughly one cut

at the center and one cut somewhere here,

and again press V, right-click,

select everything, F, P, By Loose Parts.

And then let's recenter the
origin: set Origin to Geometry.

So we have one part for the shoulder

and two parts for the arm.

So you can basically imagine that

these two parts here are
the entire upper arm.

So let's scale these down a bit,

and maybe let's move everything
a bit closer to the body,

and I think these two we
can scale up a little bit.

So then let's add the
feet down here, Shift + D.

Add one cube over here
and make it roughly stand

on the green line here.

Shift + D, add another cube,
make it a little bit longer.

Then rotate it roughly
something like this.

And in Edit mode, let's grab
one of these edges here.

Press double-G to slide this down.

And I think we can make it a bit thinner.

Then let's add the hands.

Again, I grab one of these elements,

make this a bit flatter.

Scale it so that it
roughly fits inside here,

until this loop cut here.

Scale this down a bit, then another piece.

Scale it a bit smaller.

You can bend this a bit down.

And in Edit mode, let's
slide this down a bit,

maybe this one up a bit,
this one a bit to the side,

and I think both also more to the inside

so it has more the shape of the fingers.

Should be pretty simple,

so I don't model individual fingers here.

Then Shift + D.

From the top, make it a bit
smaller and not so wide.

And this should become the thumb.

Scale it down a bit and
place it somewhere here.

And let's make the front
part a bit thinner.

And I think, in general, the hand

we can also shape a bit
more in this direction.

Let's enable X-ray and slide this one up,

and move this up here, as well,

and maybe make this a bit thinner.

Something like this.

So now we have all the major
objects for the character.

The only thing that is missing
are some smaller details,

like here, at the face, and
I wanna add a belt over here.

But before we add these, you can see

that the proportions are not correct.

The character's way too thin, and also,

the arms look a bit thin compared

to the other elements of the character.

So let's adjust this a bit.

So let's disable the two
scale_references here

so we can better get an understanding

on how everything feels.

And let's get started to
adjust the proportions

from the side.

So this one here should become
the hips slash the butt.

Then let's move this one here,

and I tried to recreate the
shape of a real character

we have the butt stands out a bit more,

and then it is more shaped
like an S-curve here,

at the back.

So let's scale this up
again, something like this.

Then I would move the neck a
bit more towards the back here.

Maybe let's move the head
a tiny bit to the back,

then the entire arm area I would

also move a bit further to the back here.

Then let's scale this one down here a bit

by pressing S, Shift +
Z to exclude the z-axis.

Scale it down a bit and move
this one more to the back,

and the feet, as well.

And then let's scale
everything a tiny bit longer

so it's intersecting.

Especially up here, it's important

that all the parts are intersecting a bit,

because later on, when
the character is bending,

then we don't have these
wide-open parts here.

So from the side, I think it looks good.

Now, from the front, let's
scale these a bit to the inside,

and maybe in Edit mode, with X-ray enabled

and X-symmetry, let's move them a bit

more to the inside so we
have this slight Y-shape.

You always have to re-enable X-symmetry

for all the objects when you
switch to different objects.

And this Y-shape looks good when

you are creating a male character.

And let's scale this one down a bit.

And still, something feels
a bit off for the arms,

but you can always try
to see if it fits nicely.

You can select a bunch of objects,

then select one of them as last object

and switch to the Active
Element at pivot point,

and then we can rotate around this.

Looks, in general, not too bad.

Somehow I feel that the
lower arm is a bit too wide.

Let's scale this down a bit.

Maybe make the hands a
bit bigger, a tiny bit.

Then let's make the
lower arm a bit thicker.

Press S, Shift and X,
to exclude the x-axis

and make this a bit wider.

And from the top, scale
this one down a bit,

and this one, as well.

Maybe let's move this
one a bit to the front.

Same for the hands.

Then make the shoulders a bit wider.

And in Edit mode move them down a bit

so we have this curved shape here.

And maybe let's scale
the head a bit bigger

and move it a bit down

so that the neck is not so long.

Yeah, I think this looks better.

Maybe all this stuff can be a bit thicker.

And always take care that
objects which are intersecting

with each other are always
a bit different in size.

So I think, in general, this
looks like a good basic shape,

and I think that's also it for this video.

And in the next video
we will add the color

and the details.

And as always, don't forget to save.