G is for Geek
I was a little disappointed with my initial efforts to model Lucas in 3D.
However, it was just a start and if all else failed, I could just start over. Even though the current model looked weird to me, it did match the “blue print” drawing. So I chose to continue with it. After a few more hours cleaning up the model and adding some more of Lucas into the mix, here is what I ended up with: It still looked weird, but now I could see it was mostly due to the lack of Lucas’ glasses and the green plastic looking material that I had selected. I took some time to fix these things. I created a rough pair of glasses (with no color or material). I then changed the material that Lucas was displayed in to something a little more like I what I was used to seeing him. I then proceeded on. Arms and legs were then added to the model and finally, the model began to take shape and resemble Lucas. Here he is at this stage: I was expecting the hands and feet to be tricky and they were. I opted to build them separately and then graft them on to the main Lucas model when I got them finished. The hands required at least 2 restarts but eventually came out looking like this: The feet turned out to be even more difficult than the hands. The model itself wasn’t especially tough to do, but grafting Lucas’ oversized feet to those tiny little ankles required lots of time to match up the points on the leg and foot models. I also left the giant toenails off as I though the it would be easier to just add them in later. That proved to be an incorrect assumption. I REALLY messed up the toenails the first time and had to throw everything away because I could not figure out what I had done wrong. I eventually determined that I had modelled the toenails inside out and just needed to flip the inside to the outside (that would be the geometry “normals” for those of you that work with Blender). This was a simple fix, but it took me 3 tries at doing the stupid toenails before I figured it out. At this point the model for Lucas was just about finished. Here is Lucas wearing his mesh. Lucas was fairly pleased with the progress at this point.
6 thoughts on “Pesky Gremlins Comic 719 – G is for Geek”
Binky
Your Lucas model looks fantastic! And the rendering of him looks exactly like your drawn version, so you have achieved what you set out to do. The hands also turned out great.
H Stacy
Thanks Peter! I very much appreciate your kind words. But I have to confess that Lucas isn’t entirely done with CGI. I redrew the eyes in the last two frames. I haven’t quite figured out how to make Blender do something like that.
David Hurley
Lucas is looking great!
H Stacy
Thanks David! 🙂
Jerry Keslensky
The Blender software may be free, but the hours of dedication to learn to use it are significant. You are to be commended.
H Stacy
Thanks JP! The initial learning curve is a little steep but I still think anyone can use Blender.