Start Mudbox and load the Human Body primitive from the Welcome screen or click Create → Mesh → Human Body.

From the Select/Move Tools tray, select the Objects tool and then select the model.

Click File → Export Selection and export the model as Mudbox_HumanBody.obj.

Next you will set the grids in Maya to accommodate for the English measurement system, to show a grid line at every foot for a 6-foot-tall person. One foot is 30.48 centimeters, so if you are using Maya's default working units of centimeters, you will now have a grid line every foot that is divided by 12 subdivisions to indicate inches.

Start Maya and go to the options for the Grid by clicking on the options box to the right of Display → Grid menu selection. This brings up the Maya Grid Options dialog box.

In the Size setting for the grid, type 16 in the Length and Width text box and type 30.48 in the Grid Lines Every text box. Finally, type 12 in the Subdivisions text box (Figure 6.3). Click Close to close the Grid Options dialog box.

Figure 6.3. Grid options

You will now load the Mudbox Human body.obj file into Maya and set it as a template.

In Maya, click File → Import and select the Mudbox_HumanBody.obj file that you exported from Mudbox.

Click the middle square in the Layer Editor so it displays the letter T. This will set the objects in this layer, in this case, the human body, to be a template. Setting an object as a template makes it possible for you to see the objects, but you cannot select them. We are doing this because we are using this model as a reference. You might also want to click on the name of the layer and name the layer as something more useful (Figure 6.4).

Note that the model is about 6 feet tall. It is also eight heads tall (Figure 6.5).

Next, you will create a polygon cube and extrude some faces. Because the body is symmetrical along the y-axis, you will delete a symmetric half of the mesh, model half of the mesh, and then mirror it to the other side to get your final result.

Click options box to the right of the Create → Polygon Primitives → Cube menu selection, and type 30.48 in the Width, Height, and Depth text boxes in the Polygon Cube options dialog box. Click the Create button for a 1-foot cube centered on the origin (Figure 6.6).

Use the green up arrow to drag your cube upward so that the top corners of the cube are aligned with the armpits of the model (Figure 6.7).

Press the spacebar and in the perspective viewport, right-click on the box and select Face from the marking menu (Figure 6.8). This enables you to select faces.

Rotate the model by pressing Alt and clicking and dragging the mouse in the perspective viewport so you see the top face of the cube. Then select the top face of the cube by clicking it with the left mouse button (Figure 6.9).

Make sure that the polygon menu set is active and that the drop-down menu in the top-left corner of the Maya toolbar reads Polygons. Press the spacebar, move your mouse cursor to the front viewport, and click the spacebar again. Click Edit Mesh → Extrude. Use the up arrow to extrude the cube upward, and the red square on the right to scale the extruded face in so it is approximately the width of a head (Figure 6.10).

Figure 6.6. Cube options

Figure 6.7. Move the cube up.

Figure 6.8. Select Face from the marking menu.

Figure 6.9. Select the top face of the cube.

Figure 6.10. Extruded and scaled face

Click Edit Mesh → Extrude to extrude another face to the top of the head (Figure 6.11).

Press the spacebar and in the perspective viewport, rotate the model by pressing Alt and clicking and dragging the mouse until you see the bottom face of the cube you started with. Then right-click on it with the left mouse button to select it.

Press the spacebar, move your mouse cursor to the front viewport, and click the spacebar again. Click Edit Mesh → Extrude. Use the blue arrow to extrude the face downward, and the green square on the right to scale the extruded face in so that it is the length of the gap between the legs (Figure 6.12).

Click Edit Mesh → Insert Edge Loop Tool, and then click anywhere in the middle area of the model to create a vertical edge loop.

In the Channel Box, click PolySplitRing1 and type in a weight of 0.5 (Figure 6.13). This makes the edge loop you created move to the middle of the model.

Press the spacebar and in the perspective viewport, right-click on the model and choose Face from the marking menu. Select the left face on the initial cube you created, and then hold down the Shift key and double-click in the face above the one you have selected. This selects an edge ring (Figure 6.14).

Press the Delete key to delete the selected faces.

Figure 6.11. Extruded head

Figure 6.12. Extruded hip

Figure 6.13. Splitting the polygon in the middle

Double-click on the remaining faces and press the Delete key again (Figure 6.15).

Press the Delete key to remove the selected edges. You now have half the model, which will be easier to work on, and when you are finished, you can mirror your work. Another reasonthat this is a good way to model is that it ensures that the model is topologically symmetrical, which as you saw in the previous chapter, is how you can still mirror-sculpt on a model that is not posed symmetrically.

Rotate your model, select the face for the leg, and click Edit Mesh → Extrudeto extrude out the leg. Click the circle handle attached to the extrude manipulator to switch fromlocal to world axes. Switch back to the front viewport, click the green arrow, and pull down the leg. Use the red arrow, the red square, and the rotate manipulators to move, scale, and rotate yourextruded face so that your newly created leg overlaps with the leg of the reference human (Figure 6.16).

Select the shoulder face and click Edit Mesh → Extrude to extrude out. Use the Move, Scale, Rotate controls to extrude out the shoulder (Figure 6.17).

Figure 6.14. Selected edge ring

Figure 6.15. Remaining faces

Figure 6.16. Extruded leg

Figure 6.17. Extruded shoulder

With the shoulder face still selected from the preceding step, click Edit Mesh → Extrude to extrude out the arm. Use the Move, Scale, and Rotate controls to extrude out the arm to about where the wrist would be on the reference figure (Figure 6.18).

Now you will use the Cut Faces tool to add more geometry to the model. The Cut Faces tool draws a line in the view window to define the cutting plane, which will draw edges on the selected face where the cutting plane intersects. You will start with the arm and use the Cut Faces tool to create an edge loop that will be the elbow.

In the front viewport, click and drag a rectangle on the arm to highlight the entire face of the arm. Click Edit Mesh → Cut Faces Tool. Notice that your cursor changes shape and you see the message Click-Drag to Cut. Click the location where the elbow would be and drag your mouse until you get an angle that best represents the pivoting of the elbow. Do the same to create two more cuts on the arm to divide the upper and lower arm (Figure 6.19).

Figure 6.18. Extruded arm

Figure 6.19. Edge loops on the arm

Press the Q key, select the entire face of the leg, and use the Cut Faces tool to do the same thing for the leg that you did in the previous step. In addition to the two cuts to separate out the upper leg and the lower leg, add a third cut to mark a line where the top of the foot would be (Figure 6.20).

Finally, add two edge loops on the head—one at eye level, and another at the top of the neck. Then add another edge loop on the torso to divide it in half (Figure 6.21). Remember to press the Q key to select the faces before using the Cut Faces tool. You can hold the Shift key down before you let go of the mouse button to restrict your cutting line to 45-degree increments. This comes in handy to draw perfectly horizontal cutting planes.

Figure 6.20. Edge loops added to the leg

Figure 6.21. Edge loops added to the torso and head

Go to the side viewport. Right-click on the model to bring up the markup menu, and then select Vertex to get into vertex selection mode. Select and move the vertices by using the drag rectangle mode to make sure that the inner vertices are also selected. Align all the vertices to a loose outline of the reference figure. If you have trouble determining which vertex belongs to the arm, you can either toggle between different viewports or work in the four-viewport mode, going back and forth between viewports. Note that you are just aligning the side outline at this time; you will do the rest later. Your end result should look like Figure 6.22. Note that the face and the foot are not outlined because you are going to extrude them.

Under the Edit Mesh menu, make sure that there is a checkmark next to Keep Faces Together. In the side viewport, right-click on the model to bring up the markup menu, and select Face to get into face selection manipulation mode. Select the two front-facing faces of the head and click Edit Mesh → Extrude to extrude out the faces to the front (Figure 6.23). Use the same method of vertex manipulation as you did in the preceding step to align the newly created vertices. Note that the extruded faces also create a couple of faces on the inside of the model, which you need to select and delete.

Figure 6.22. Align vertices to the reference character.

Figure 6.23. Extruded face

Figure 6.24. Align vertices to the reference character in the front viewport.

Use the same method of vertex manipulation as you did in step 27 to align the vertices in the front viewport (Figure 6.24). Make sure you don't select any of the vertices on the y-axis because that is the axis you are going to use to mirror the model.

At this point you will add an edge loop to the arms to create some geometry to model the hands. Click Edit Mesh → Insert Edge Loop Tool. Click on the shoulder line and drag your mouse so it evenly divides the shoulder line (Figure 6.25). The progress so far is available for you on the DVD as human_base_mesh - step 30.ma in the Chapter61- base_mesh folder.

With the new edge loop, you need to slightly modify the topology to add some more geometry to the head and to accommodate the flow of the arm. Click Edit Mesh → Split Polygon Tool and draw the edge connecting the upper-mid arm to the shoulder (Figure 6.26).

Figure 6.25. Edge loop added to the arm

Figure 6.26. Edge loop added to the edge of the arm by using the Split Polygon tool

Figure 6.27. Edge in the middle of the chest

Figure 6.28. Edge loop deleted

Figure 6.29. Connect edges by using the Split Polygon tool.

Select the edge indicated in Figure 6.27. Ctrl+click it and use the marking menu to select Edge Loop Utilities in the right corner. From the marking menu that comes up, select To Edge Loop and Delete (Figure 6.28).

Figure 6.30. Selecting the edge to delete

Click Edit Mesh → Split Polygon Tool to connect edges as displayed in Figure 6.29.

Select the edge in Figure 6.30 and press Delete on your keyboard to delete it.

Finally, you will use Edit Mesh → Extrude to add the hands. Note that you will not model the hands to match those of the reference model. You will make the hands with the palms facing forward, and then you can modify the pose to easily accommodate the twist in the forearm with the posing tools later. In the perspective view, select the two faces of the bottom of the arm, extrude them out to about where the thumb begins, and then extrude again until you get to the knuckles (Figure 6.31).

Select the two outer faces and extrude out twice so that your second extrusion is at about the base of the thumb of the reference model (Figure 6.32). Do the same on the other side, but just extrude out once.

Figure 6.31. Extruded base of the arm

Figure 6.32. Extruded hand and base of thumb

In the front viewport, adjust the vertices of the base of the hand the same way as in Figure 6.33.

Extrude the four inner fingers out to about where the knuckles of the reference model are. Use the yellow cubes to scale them in a bit and then use the green arrow to translate them back (Figure 6.34).

Extrude the thumb out once, scale and translate the extruded face, and extrude it a second time to match the shape of a thumb (Figure 6.35).

Click Edit Mesh and deselect Keep Faces Together. In the perspective viewport, select the faces that would make the four fingers and extrude them out, use the red and green cubes to scale them in a bit, and extrude them again a second time (Figure 6.36). At this juncture, you could extrude them out one more time to create the three joints of a finger, but you have enough geometry for the pose you need.

Select your model, and then right-click to select Object Mode from the marking menu. Click Mesh → Mirror Geometry to bring up the Mirror Options dialog box. You will want to mirror our model in the negative X direction, and you want to make sure that Merge with the Original and Merge Vertices are selected. Click the Mirror button in the Mirror Options dialog box to create a mirror of your model (Figure 6.37). The progress thus far is available for you on the DVD as human_base_mesh - step 41.ma in the Chapter61 - base_mesh folder.

Figure 6.33. Arrange the vertices of the base of the hand.

Figure 6.34. Extrude out the four inner fingers.

Figure 6.35. Extruding out the thumb

Figure 6.36. Extrude out the four fingers.

Right-click on the model and choose Vertex from the marking menu. Start moving the vertices to get a shape that is as close as possible to the reference model. Remember, the hands do not need to change in pose; you just need to make sure the proportions look correct (Figure 6.39). Note that as you modify the vertices, the modification is reflected to the other side because Reflection is turned on in the Move Tool options.

Press 1 and notice that as you get back to the unsmoothed version of the polygon, it looks very odd, but this base mesh will produce a base mesh similar to the reference model when you subdivide it in Mudbox. The progress thus far is available for you on the DVD as human_base_mesh - step 44.ma in the Chapter61 - base_mesh folder.

Figure 6.37. Mirrored model

Figure 6.38. Perspective viewport with a smoothed, transparent model

Figure 6.39. Adjusted model

Make sure you have the objExport.mll (or bundle on the Mac) plug-in loaded by clicking Window → Settings/Preferences → Plug-in Manager and checking to make sure the Loaded check box is selected for objExport.mll (or bundle on the Mac). Right-click on your model in the perspective view, choose Object Mode, and select your model. Select the options for File → Export Selection, choose OBJexport from the File Type drop-down list, and scroll to the end and make sure that all the File Type Specific Options are turned off (Figure 6.40). Click Export Selection and save your base mesh as human_base_mesh_male.obj.

Figure 6.40. Export Selection options

One last thing to do, because our intended sculpt is that of a female, is to make a female version of this base mesh. This is very easy and requires making only minor adjustments. First, you need to note that the general anatomical differences in the two sexes at the detail level of the body we have are as follows:

Women generally also have larger cheekbones, a softer jaw line, a less-pronounced chin, and a larger space between the eyebrow and upper eyelid, but don't worry about that at this juncture.

Adjust the pixels on your model to account for the five differences listed. Notice that even at this low level of detail, you can tell the difference between the two sexes from the simple silhouettes (Figure 6.41).

Export the female version of your base mesh and call it human_base_mesh_female.obj.

Load the human_base_mesh_female.obj file.

Find good places for seams to cut to separate the mesh.

Flatten the pieces into UV shells and pack them in 0 to 1 UV space.

Export out the .obj file with the new UVs.

Start UVLayout, click Load, and navigate to where you saved your human_base_mesh_female.obj file and open it, or load the one from the Chapter61 - base_mesh folder. Make sure that New is selected, which tells Headus to disregard any UVs that the model has because you will be creating new ones (Figure 6.42).

Figure 6.42. Headus open dialog box and settings

Headus will load this model into its Ed view or UV view. You can cycle between the three views (UV view, Ed view, and 3D view) by pressing the 1, 2, and 3 keys, respectively, on your keyboard. You will use the Ed view when you cut the seams and separate out the various shells.

Again you can use symmetry and do half the work. Press 2 to be in Ed view. Click the blue Find button next to the word Symmetry, click on an edge that is in the middle of the model, and press the spacebar. This colors half your model a darker shade of gray to indicate that symmetry is on (Figure 6.43).

Figure 6.43. Symmetry activated in UVLayout

The head is always a good place to start. Move your cursor to any edge on the neckline and press the C key. This will mark that edge for cutting and it will also select its edge loop in yellow. Press Enter to perform the cut and separate the head (Figure 6.44).

Cut a seam from the tip of the forehead to the base of the back of the neck. Cut another horizontal seam across the back of the head. If you cut seams that you didn't mean to, move your cursor onto the edge you intend to weld and press the W key. Press Shift+S to separate the cut seams (Figure 6.45). Place your pointer on the head and press the D key to drop it into UV view. Press 1 to see the dropped head in UV view.

Cut seams around the wrists, legs, and arms, as in Figure 6.46. While pressing the spacebar, you can click and drag the pieces to move them.

Cut a seam in the back of the arm and press Shift+S to open up the seam (Figure 6.47). Move the cursor onto any one of the two arms and press the D key to drop both arms into UV view. Press 1 to see both arms and the head in UV view, and then press 2 again to return to Ed view.

Cut a seam along the inside back edges of the leg, and press Shift+S to open up the seam. Move the cursor onto any one of the two legs and press the D key to drop both of the legs into UV view.

Figure 6.44. "Off with her head!"

Figure 6.45. Seams on the head

Figure 6.46. Cut seams and separate out feet, legs, and arms.

Figure 6.47. Seam along the arm

Cut a seam in the torso in the back (Figure 6.48). This might prove a little difficult because there are intersecting planes in the model. Take your time and rotate around the model to find the seams and then press the C key to cut them. You can also go to the Display menu and move the X-Ray slider to the left to make the model a little more transparent so you can see the intersection lines better. If you make accidental cuts, move your cursor to the edges you accidentally marked for cutting, and press the W key. Move your mouse cursor on top of the cut piece and press Enter to separate that piece out. Note that there are three areas that need to be separated. The first seam is from the neckline to the top of the shoulders, the second area is the sides, and the third is the bottom rear. When you are finished cutting and the pieces separate, move your cursor onto the cut pieces and press the D key to drop them into UV view.

Cut a seam around the soles of the feet and press Enter. Then cut a seam on the inside of the ankle and press Shift+S to open up the seam (Figure 6.49). Move your cursor onto the cut pieces and press the D key to drop them into UV view. At any point, if you want to frame whatever pieces are left in Ed view, press the Home key and it will show all the components that have not been dropped into Ed view.

Figure 6.48. Cutting seams to separate out the front and back torso

Figure 6.49. Cutting seams on the foot

The only two items left are the hands, and you need to cut seams in only one hand because the mirroring actions will repeat on the opposite side. Cut seams on the top and bottom of the hands (Figure 6.50), dividing each hand into three shells. Move your cursor onto each of the pieces and press the D key to drop them into UV view.

Figure 6.50. Seams on the hand

Figure 6.51. UV shells in the UV view

You are finished cutting the seams and have all the shells ready to be flattened. Because of symmetry, you need to flatten only one side of the model and copy the work over to the other.

Press 1 to go to UV view; notice that all your shells are arranged at the bottom of the view (Figure 6.51) and they look as though they are still in the shape they were when you dropped them into UV view.

You can work on the shells anywhere on the screen. Don't worry about the arrangement just yet; you will arrange them when you are finished flattening all the shells. Click on the shell for the head to select it, press the spacebar, and click and drag with your middle mouse button to move it to an empty space in UV view.

With your mouse cursor on the head, press the F key to flatten it a little. You can also press the spacebar and the F key to continuously flatten until you press the spacebar againto stop. Or, you can just press Shift+F to activate the Bloat Then Reflatten function and watch as the head first gets stretched out and then flattened to completely unfold. This process alone is why using software such as UVLayout will cut hours of drudgery out of UVing.

The Bloat Then Reflatten function does a decent job of flattening the head. Headus UVLayout uses a color code to identify ideal, stretched, and compressed faces. Yellow indicates an ideal face, red is stretched, and blue is compressed. The shades of the aforementioned colors indicate howstretched or compressed the faces are. Solid blue or red is undesired. Solid yellow and the lightest possible shades of red and blue are what you strive for. As you see on the flattened head UV, there is a hint of a darker red in the bottom half of the face. Because this is an important area that will be painted and sculpted, you want to make sure you get them to be green.

Press Ctrl and middle-mouse click and drag on the vertices of the face to move them in a direction causing the face color to turn yellower. Remember, you need to do this only on the lighter side of the face. Move the vertices slightly until you have a shade close to the lightest shade of yellow, and when you are finished, move your mouse cursor on top of the half of the face that you worked on and press the S key. Notice that the S key mirrors the contents of the lighter mirrored area to the darker one (Figure 6.52).

Press 3 to go the 3D view. Press the T key to place a checkered pattern on the face. Press the T key again to get a more granular display with a grid and numbers. Tumble your model around the head and observe the effects of wrapping a texture on your model with all the stretching and compressing visible. You can also see the underlying shades of green, red, and blue, especially if you have solid blue or red areas. Going back and forth pressing 1 and 3, repeat step 14 until you are satisfied with the results (Figure 6.53). The pattern might look a bit skewed. but that is due to the very little geometry you are working with. As this model subdivides, you can reload it into UVLayout and do further refining.

Repeat the process performed in step 15 on all the other pieces of the model until you have the model completely flattened out. Remember to press the S key to mirror your work to the other side. Most of the pieces will flatten out pretty easily. The chest might need some extra work, but because you have very little geometry, the task is fairly simple and quick. When you are finished, you will have all the shells flattened all over the UV screen and you can press 3 to see the pattern all over your model (Figure 6.54).

Figure 6.52. Flattened face

Figure 6.53. Texture-check the UVs

Figure 6.54. Fully UVed model with textures

The next step is to pack all the pieces together. You can click on the individual pieces and use spacebar+left-click and drag to rotate them. Pressing the S key while clicking on the pieces mirrors them and also has the added benefit of placing them next to your piece. You can either manually arrange the pieces in the first UV tile or let the software do it for you. To manually move the shells, click on the shells to select them and then hold down the spacebar and middle-click and drag on the shells; they will turn pink, and you will be able to position them anywhere on the screen. You can also resize the shells by using the spacebar+right-click and drag combination, but this is not something you need at this juncture. To have UVLayout arrange the shells foryou, click the Pack button, which will expand the packing options for you. Select Best, because you have only a few shells and the time taken will be nominal. You might want to revisit this with Fast or Mid in the future for models that have more polygons if UVLayout is taking too long to arrange your shells. Type 6 in the Bleed textbox to make room for 6 pixels between the UV shells and the borders of the 0 to 1 UV tile. Click Pack All and watch UVLayout arrange your pieces for you (Figure 6.55).

I find that I need to do a bit of arranging myself to get a little more space efficiency and proximity of shells to patterns (Figure 6.56).

I have included the files pre_drop.uvl and final.uvl on the DVD in the Chapter 62 - UV folder. You can load these into UVLayout to catch up to the progress or see my work.

Finally, you will save the model as human_base_mesh_female_UV.obj. I have included my version of this model as well, on the DVD in the Chapter 62 - UV folder.

Open the file 01_sculptstart.mud from the Chapter 64 - sculpt folder on the DVD (Figure 6.91).

Notice that it is the same model we posed earlier. The only difference is that the level 1 subdivided model we worked on in the preceding section has been exported as an .obj file into Maya and separated into five pieces: the head, body top, body bottom, left hand, andright hand. This has been done by selecting the faces representing the five parts and using the Mesh → Extract function of Maya. The reason for this is that separate pieces can now be individually subdivided to the needed level of detail instead of subdividing the whole model. For example, we will need more geometry to get the details of the face versus the other parts of the body, andinstead of having a very dense model to accommodate for that, we can now subdivide the different parts to the lowest detail level that will give us the polygon resolution we need. The other changeis that the head we started out with has been replaced with the basic_head meshthat is provided in Mudbox. The reason for this is that the head mesh provided in Mudbox has better topology than the one we had in our base mesh and it can very easily be translated, scaled, and rotated to fit the same area.

You will also notice that the material used is the Gesso material. I find the Gesso material instead of the default glossier brown to be my favorite while sculpting because it does a good job of contrasting light and shadows for the shapes. As I am getting closer to the finished model, I change over to the default material and change the color to white because that adds a little more glossiness and specular highlights to the model. I am sure you either have or will develop your own preferred material to sculpt in.

Subdivide the body_top, body_bottom, hand_lf, and hand_rt parts to level 1 but make sure that you have Smooth Positions deselected in the Subdivision Options dialog box Figure 6.92). This will maintain the form you sculpted in while you posed the model, and works well only if you are going from level 0 to level 1.

Figure 6.92. Deselect Smooth Positions only for subdivision level 1

Make sure you select the Smooth Positions check box for subsequent subdivisions. At higher subdivisions, if this option is not selected, you get a faceted subdivision, and unless you are going for that look, you will have to do a lot of work smoothing out the creased facets (Figure 6.93). With experience, you will learn how a model subdivides and how shapes shift, shrink, and get smoothed by the operation.

Figure 6.93. The difference between subdividing with Smooth Positions off and on

At subdivision level 1, use the Grab tool with a large Size to make major adjustments and a small Size to move vertices or proximity of vertices. Remember that the tool will move the polygons on the surface based on your falloff curve.

Figure 6.94. Locking all the meshes except body_lowermesh

Use the lock capability in the Object List to lock all the meshes of the model you don't want to accidentally manipulate by clicking in the padlock column next to the name of the object (Figure 6.94). You can also use the visibility option to turn visibility of objects on or off if they are getting in the way.

Use the Flatten tool to define planes. Even though you are at this very low level of subdivision, many of the major planes on the body can be defined here—for example, the underarm area, the face, and so forth. Think of these planes as scaffolding on top of which you will build up or down the desired shape on the next subdivision level.

Even at this low subdivision level, you can use the Wax tool to bulge out or push in details where the geometry allows.

Remember to use the Size and Strength keyboard shortcuts to continuously adjust the effect of the tool on the surface. Also remember to constantly keep tumbling around your model to examine your changes from different vantage points to see whether they are working. You might have spent a long time on a feature such as the bulk of the ribcage from one angle and then notice that it completely throws off the physical shape of the ribcage from other angles. Sculpture is created on a three-dimensional canvas and needs to work from any vantage point.

I personally like to sculpt on lower levels with the wireframe on, because topology matters at the lower levels. The last thing you want to do is scrunch up vertices to obtain a shape that would unevenly subdivide certain areas so they do not contain enough geometry, while others have plenty of geometry that is not needed. Much of your sculpting at this level is working on a base-level mesh, so the rules of having a good base mesh carry over, specifically, keeping an even distribution of quads.

Use the Smooth tool to constantly adjust the polygon distribution and smoothness of the surface. Make sure you work with lower strengths so you don't completely smooth out features on the surface. It's better to run over a surface multiple times than to completely erode and smooth out a shape you spent a lot of time developing. While you are tumbling around, also use different shading to see some features that you were not able to see in the default smooth shading.

Right-click in the 3D view and deselect Smooth Shade; this gives you the best depiction of the topology with a faceted version of the model. Right-click in the 3D view again and select Flat Lighting; this will give your model a silhouette look. You might want to tumble around your model with the wireframe on to see whether the silhouette is working, and then for the ultimate test, turn the wireframe off and look at your model. Zoom in and out while you are looking at your model in this silhouette mode (Figure 6.95). If your silhouette works at this level, it will work at every level, because this is the first shape your eyes will interpret. I have found squinting and looking at the model at this stage helps tremendously.

Press l and click-drag your mouse or stylus around to change the lighting on your model. This is also a good way to find areas of the shape of the model that need adjusting (Figure 6.96).

Use the Grab, Smooth, Flatten, and Wax tools to sculpt as much as you can until you start running into the limitations of this subdivision level. You will notice the limitations when you are trying to refine a shape, but you just don't have enough geometry.

Subdivide all the parts of your model to level 2 and continue to refine the shapes by using the preceding methods. Save your model at every subdivision level and at every point that you are satisfied with the result of your work. Remember to also use layers to easily get to a starting point in case things don't go well.

Isolate areas to work on them, or see their cross sections by using the Faces tool from the Select/Move Tools tray to select the faces you want to work on (Figure 6.97). They get highlighted in yellow. Then click Display → Hide Unselected to hide the rest of your model and work only on the desired section. To bring everything on your model back, click Display → Show All, or press the U key.

Figure 6.95. Silhouette of model at level 2

Figure 6.96. Different lighting on the same model

Figure 6.97. Cross section of a leg

Figure 6.98. Details can be sculpted at subdivision level 3.

When you run into the limitations of a subdivision level, subdivide the model and continue using the Grab, Wax, Smooth, Flatten, and Bulge tools to start refining the sculpture. Remember, you can always activate the Smooth tool by pressing the Shift key so you do not have to keep going back and forth between the Smooth tool and the others.

At level 3 you will be able to sculpt some more-defining shapes and details such as folds, indentations, and line definition (Figure 6.98). In my model, I have created the knees and ankles, added some line definition to the shins, and introduced some folds on the pants.

Start Mudbox and load the ear.mud file from the Chapter 6 folder of the DVD (Figure 6.109). This is a model of an ear that I sculpted on a plane when I was practicing sculpting ears. It has seven subdivisions. Click on the ear to select it.

Figure 6.109. Ear sculpt with seven subdivision levels

Click Maps → Extract Texture Maps → New Operation, and select the Vector Displacement Map check box. The dialog box expands for you to input the VDM extraction parameters. Note that the ear model is loaded at levels 0 and 7, respectively, in the Target Models and Source Models list boxes (Figure 6.110).

Figure 6.110. VDM extraction dialog box settings

Set the image size to 2048 × 2048 and click the folder button to the left of the Base File Name text box. Choose a name and location to save your file. Note that you can choose either the 32-bit .tif or .exr file formats.

Tangent is the default Vector Space option, and it is fine for what we need.

Click the extract button to create the VDM 2D, 32-bit color image file. When the extraction is finished, you will get a confirmation dialog box. Click OK to close it (Figure 6.111).

You are now finished with the ear model. Click File → New Scene and create a Basic Head mesh. Select the Flatten sculpting tool and set its Mirror property to X. Press the W key to turn on the wireframe. Flatten the ear protrusions on the model so they are flush with the head (Figure 6.112). You might be tempted to use Smooth, but that contracts the polygons, and you want the topology to stay put. This is a time where the wireframe is indispensible.

In the Image Browser, navigate to the VDM file you just created and select it as a Stencil. While holding down the S key, align the VDM ear to the head. Based on Edouard Lanteri's location parameters for the top-to-bottom distance of the ears, scale the ear to span the distance from the bottom of the nose to the top of the eyebrow (Figure 6.113). You can adjust the scale of the ear to match that distance on this model and then move the ear to its location (Figure 6.114).

Select the Sculpt tool with the default properties, making sure that the Mirror property is still set to X. Click on the model and drag. This will sculpt the ear with all of its cut-ins and shapes onto the head, and mirror the results to the other side (Figure 6.115).