Tài liệu 3D Game Programming All in One- P18 doc

Arbitrary Extrusion
Arbitrary Extrusion has much in common with Axial Extrusion, except that you extrude
your base primitive shapes in whatever directions are necessary. Like Incremental Polygon
Construction, this approach to modeling can be seen as similar to sculpting in clay.
Machinery lends itself well to modeling with this technique.
Topographical Shape Mapping
Topographical Shape Mapping is a method usually used to model terrain, like Axial
Extrusion often is, except that Topographical Shape Mapping is best suited for automat-
ed operations rather than manually modeling.
In the geographic sense, topographic data can be obtained from various government and
private sources. The data consists of, at a minimum, a coordinate and an altitude for each
mapped point on the real terrain's surface. There are various algorithms and many pro-
grams available that can read this data from a file and render a 3D view of the terrain in
question. The data files come in various formats depending on the agency that produces
them: DLG-O, DEM, SDTS, and DRG, to name just a few from that acronymic world.
Normally this approach is used in one of the many available Geographic Information
Systems (GIS), and there are tools that can convert this data into a format you can use for
modeling in games.
Hybrids
Well, the Hybrid category is the catchall category. Often it is prudent to combine tech-
niques in a single model—use the approach that works best for the component being cre-
ated. If you find yourself mixing techniques, most likely you will be doing a little bit of
Incremental Polygon Construction mixed with many shape primitives or using a few
primitives mixed with a great deal of Arbitrary Extrusion.
The best point to be made here is that you should use what works best for you in your cur-
rent circumstances.
The Base Hero Model
The technique we are going to use is basically the Shape Primitives approach. We will
hand-modify various shape primitives to get the results we want.
The kind of model we are going to make is primarily a segmented-mesh model. An alter-
native would be a continuous-mesh model. The difference is that in the segmented-mesh

model, there are different, distinct objects or meshes for different components in the
model, whereas in the continuous-mesh model, the entire model has one large, convolut-
ed surface. Our primary segments will be as follows:
The Base Hero Model 417
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■
head
■
torso
■
right leg
■
left leg
■
right arm
■
left arm
So that's six segments in all. (A continuous-mesh model would have one segment.) All the
leg and arm segments will each have two subsegments. Each segment or subsegment can
be thought of as an individual mesh, or submesh.
The Head
We'll use the Shape Primitives approach to build the head. The keys to successful use of
this technique are (1) choose the right primitive and (2) use a primitive with sufficient
vertices to do the job.
For the head part of the model, we're going to use a cylinder with 12 faces on the tube,
stacked 6 segments high. That translates to a 6-stack, 12-slice cylinder, in MilkShape terms.
1. Open MilkShape, create a new document, and set the Point Size to 3 and the Grid
to 1ϫ1 in the Preferences dialog box. Save the new file as
C:\3DGPAi1\resources\ch14\myhead.ms3d.

2. Create a 6-stack, 12-slice cylinder as depicted in Figure 14.1. Size the cylinder
such that the bounds of the cylinder extend from about Ϫ20 to +20 on all three
of the axes.
3. Choose Select in Vertex mode and then select the bottom layer of vertices.
4. Scale the selected bottom vertices to 95 percent of original, as depicted in
Figure 14.2.
5. Now select the top five rows of vertices,
ignoring the bottom two rows, and scale
them to 95 percent.
6. Next, scale the top four rows of vertices
to 95 percent.
7. Repeat the scaling operation for the top
three, then the top two, and finally the
top row by itself. You should now have a
cylinder with a bit of a bevel at the bot-
tom that tapers gently toward the top, as
shown in Figure 14.3.
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model418
Figure 14.1 The initial cylinder.
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8. Next, shift the top five layers of the
cylinder toward the back, so that the
rearmost vertices (designated A, high-
lighted in black, in Figure 14.4) line
up, at the back, with the layer of ver-
tices that is second from the bottom (B
in Figure 14.4). They don't have to be

aligned precisely, but try to get them
pretty close, as shown in Figure 14.4.
9. Next, working from the Side view (Top
Right viewport), select the bottom six
vertices visible in that view (at the
right side of the view) and move them
down and to the right a bit. Figure
14.5 shows which vertices you want
and how far to move them. These ver-
tices make up the jaw.
10. Select all the vertices in the model, and
scale to 75 percent in the Y-axis only.
Do this by typing the value 0.75 into
the Y scale box when you have the Scale
tool selected and then clicking Scale.
tip
The view in what MilkShape calls the Left view-
port is for us actually the Right view (or Right
Side view) located in the upper-right frame,
because Torque's coordinate system is oriented
differently. It's because of this that I normally
use MilkShape with the Show Viewport Cap-
tion option under the Window menu turned
off
,
in order to avoid confusing myself.
11. Now, using the same technique of
selecting and moving (without doing
any scaling) as used in steps 4 to 9
above, shape the model as near as you

can get to Figure 14.6. This is the
Right Side view (upper right frame).
You only need to work in this view,
The Base Hero Model 419
Figure 14.2 Selecting the bottom vertices.
Figure 14.3 Tapering the cylinder.
Figure 14.4 Shifting the layers.
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and no other, and only use the Select
and Move tools. Now you can see the
head shape taking form in profile, with
the nose jutting out.
12. Okay, this next part gets a bit tricky.
Using the Right Side view, select the 16
vertices in the lower-left corner (which
is the lower back of the head/upper
rear neck area), as shown in Figure
14.7.
13. Scale this group of vertices to 80 per-
cent by typing 0.8 in the X-axis scale
box, and then click Scale.
14. Now select just the nine vertices in the lower left,
as shown in Figure 14.8, and scale these to 80 per-
cent again.
What this does is make the jaw and cranium parts
of the head stand out in an exaggerated fashion.
By doing the scaling incrementally on the vertices
in the region like that, we get a fairly smooth
shape. Take a moment to swivel the model around

in the 3D view, and you can now see a definite car-
toonlike big-jawed, low-browed heroic figure tak-
ing shape. Okay, so not all heroes look like that.
But we're making a game, right? So make it fun!
Now, as cute and lovable as that beetle-browed
look is, it's a bit too Cro-Magnon and robotic
looking, so we need to tone down the forehead
and eyebrow area somewhat.
15. In the Right Side view, in the row of vertices that
is second from the top (see Figure 14.9), select the
vertex that is the second from the right (in the
temple area) by dragging the Selection tool
around it. This will have the effect of selecting
that vertex and any others that are obscured
behind it. There happens to be one more back
there, so you will end up with two vertices
selected, which you can see by examining the
model in other views.
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model420
Figure 14.5 Shaping the jaw.
Figure 14.6 Shaping the head.
Figure 14.7 Back of the
head/upper neck.
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16. Drag the ver-
tices back (to
the left) a few

ticks.
17. Switching
now to the
Front view
(upper left
frame), scale
those two ver-
tices by 120
percent in the
X-axis. This has the effect of widening the gap
between them. (See Figure 14.10.) These steps
have the effect of softening the sharp corners, just
enough to make the head more organic looking.
18. Still with the Front view, select all the vertices in
the top three rows, which is mostly the cranium
area, and then incrementally apply 90 percent X-
axis and Z-axis scaling to them—as you did ear-
lier: top three, then top two, and so on. Figure
14.11 shows the results we are looking for here.
19. If you haven't saved your work recently, do it now.
No particular
reason, other
than it's good
practice. We're
getting close to
finished with
the head.
20. Using Figure
14.12 as a
guide, select the

three ear ver-
tices in the
Right Side view.
21. Stretch the ear vertices apart by scaling them 170 percent in the X-axis, as shown
in Figure 14.13.
The Base Hero Model 421
Figure 14.8 The smaller back of
the head area.
Figure 14.9 The temple vertices.
Figure 14.10 Scaling the temple
vertices.
Figure 14.11 Scaling the cranium.
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22. Now back in the Right Side view, guided by Fig-
ure 14.14, select the three columns of vertices at
the rear of the head.
23. Drag them forward so that the rightmost column
of selected vertices is just behind the unselected
column (the fifth column), as shown in Figure
14.15.
24. Next drag the two columns at the back of the
head forward, so that you end up with a configu-
ration like the one depicted in Figure 14.16.
25. By now, you
should be get-
ting fairly adept
at using the
Select, Move,
and Scale tools

in MilkShape,
so I'll give you a
little assign-
ment: Make the
scalp region at
the top of the
head look like
the scalp shown
in Figure 14.17,
using just these
three tools and
operating only
on the top row
of vertices. You
will have to
work in both
the Front and
Side views while
monitoring
your progress in
the 3D view.
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model422
Figure 14.12 The ear vertices.
Figure 14.13 The scaled ear
vertices.
Figure 14.14 Selecting the three
columns of vertices.
Figure 14.15 Dragging the

vertices forward.
Figure 14.16 After dragging the
vertices.
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26. Next, use the same techniques to shape
the nose and eyes. Figure 14.18 shows
which vertices to use to shape the nose.
Scale the vertices by 50 percent in the
X-axis.
27. Shape the eye-socket vertices shown in
Figure 14.19 by scaling to 30 percent in
the X-axis.
28. Now, this entire work should exist as
one group. Rename that group as "head"
in the Groups tab in the toolbox.
29. Save your work as C:\3DGPAi1\
resources\ch14\myhead.ms3d. By
saving the head
in its own file,
you can keep it
safely out of the
way while you
work on the
other parts.
And there you have
it—as you can see
in Figure 14.20,
steely-eyed, big-
jawed, beetle-browed

genuine dyed-in-the-
wool hero material!
The Torso
Like the head, the
torso will be based on
the cylinder shape,
but this time we will
use two of them and
weld them together.
1. If you have the
head file still open, leave it open. If you don't have it open, then open it.
The Base Hero Model 423
Figure 14.17 Shaping the scalp.
Figure 14.18 The nose vertices before scaling.
Figure 14.19 The eye-socket vertices after scaling.
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2. Save the file as C:\3DGPAi1\resources\
ch14\mytorso.ms3d. We want to have the
head around to use as a sizing guide when
we start the torso model, and then we will
delete it.
3. Drag the head mesh up until it is three or
four grid lines above the model origin
(the 0,0,0 coordinate), as suggested in
Figure 14.21.
4. Use the Cylinder shape, and make one
that has 6 segments, or stacks, and 12
slices, or faces. Give the name "chest" to
the group it creates.

5. Rotate the cylinder by 90 degrees in both
the X- and Y-axes.
6. Move and scale the cylinder until it has the same
relationship to the head, as shown in Figure 14.22.
7. Turn the Auto Tool option off, if it is on.
8. In the Front view, select all the vertices from one
end of the cylinder, then hold down the Shift key,
and drag over the vertices at the other end of the
cylinder to select them as well. These vertices form
the cylinder caps for either end.
9. Scale the vertices to 50 percent in the Y- and Z-
axes.
10. Drag the vertices up until the top ones
are in line with the top of the cylinder.
Figure 14.23 shows what the result
should look like.
11. If you like to use the Auto Tool option,
turn it back on now.
12. In the Front view, select the right-hand
end cap, and rotate it by Ϫ20 degrees in
the Z-axis.
13. Now rotate the left-hand end cap by +20
degrees in the Z-axis.
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model424
Figure 14.20 The finished hero head.
Figure 14.22 The relationship of the chest
cylinder to the head.
Figure 14.21 Positioning the

head mesh.
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14. In the Groups
tab in the tool-
box, choose the
head group and
delete it. This
gets it out of
the way so it
won't clutter
our model. We
have the head
saved sepa-
rately, so no
worries here.
15. In the Top view, select the two vertices
in the middle at the bottom, in the area
of the sternum, as shown in 14.24, and
move them toward the inside of the
chest a bit. Use Figure 14.24 as a guide.
16. Now you'll do the same for the back as
for the front, but just slightly differ-
ently, for a different effect. In the Front
view, select all the vertices in the top
three rows, including the ones that are
in the end caps.
17. Hide these vertices, using Edit, Hide
Selection.
18. Now in the Top view, select the middle three ver-

tices at the top of the view, as shown in Figure
14.25. These are the middle back vertices.
19. Move the middle back vertices toward the inside
of the chest a bit, just as you did with the ster-
num, but perhaps not quite as much.
20. Create another new cylinder (to be named "ab"),
and give it the same 90 degree rotation in the X-
and Y-axes.
21. Move and scale the ab cylinder until it has the
same relationship with the chest, as shown in
Figure 14.26.
The Base Hero Model 425
Figure 14.23 The cylinder caps after scaling and moving.
Figure 14.24 The sternum vertices after
moving.
Figure 14.25 The middle back
vertices.
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Now we have our primitive abdomen
inserted. We're going to have to splice
that mesh onto the chest mesh in order
to complete the torso. It's actually not
terribly hard to do, and after you've
done it once, it will seem intuitively
easy. But there are quite a few fiddly lit-
tle steps involved to get there from here.
So please be patient.
22. Using the Groups tab, hide the ab mesh.
23. In the Right Side view, select the bot-

tom vertices, as shown in Figure 14.27,
and then hide them using Edit, Hide
Selections.
24. Back to the Groups tab, unhide the ab mesh.
Don't use the general Unhide All command,
because we want the chest vertices that we just
hid to stay hidden.
25. In the Right Side view again, select the vertices
shown in 14.28 and drag them up so they are
directly over the location where the hidden ver-
tices for the chest are. Study Figure 14.28, which
shows the vertices selected and dragged into posi-
tion. Compare it with Figure 14.27 to get a sense
of the right place to put the vertices. The intersec-
tion of lines shown by the white arrow in Figure
14.28 does not get a vertex at this time—we will
deal with that shortly.
26. In the Front view, locate the end cap vertices, as
shown in Figure 14.29, and drag them out to the
position indicated in that figure.
27. Next, do the same for the vertices to the left of the
previous set. Drag them to exactly the same place
as the previous set, as shown in Figure 14.30.
28. Repeat steps 26 and 27 for the other end of the ab
mesh.
29. Drag the next set of vertices over to the chest
positions, as shown in Figure 14.31.
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model426

Figure 14.26 The ab cylinder relative to the
chest.
Figure 14.27 Hiding the lower
chest vertices.
Figure 14.28 The ab vertices
dragged over on top of the chest
vertices.
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30. Repeat the
drag opera-
tion for the
other end.
You should
now have
something
that closely
resembles the
layout in
Figure 14.32.
31. Zoom in on
all the places
that you
dragged ver-
tices to, and
make sure
that they are
exactly over
the line inter-
sections of

the chest tri-
angles.
32. In the Right
Side view,
select and hide all vertices on a line from the
center of the cylinder forward (with forward
being toward the right of the view). Figure 14.33
shows the vertices we're interested in.
33. Back in the Front view, select the center vertex at
the top of the ab cylinder, as depicted in Figure
14.34. If you've done step 32 correctly, then as
you scan around the other views, you will see
that only one vertex has been selected.
34. Switch to the Right Side view and drag that lone
vertex up to the spot that I pointed out with the
white arrow way back when in Figure 14.28.
You should now have a configuration that looks like the one shown in Figure
14.35. Again, take the time to zoom in and ensure that all the dragged vertices are
exactly over the line intersections of the chest triangles.
The Base Hero Model 427
Figure 14.29 Dragging some
end cap vertices over on top of
chest vertices.
Figure 14.30 Dragging the end
cap neighbor vertices over on top
of the chest vertices.
Figure 14.31 Dragging the next
set of vertices into position.
Figure 14.32 The final Front
view layout.

Figure 14.33 Select and hide
these vertices.
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35. Unhide all the hidden vertices using the Edit,
Unhide All command.
36. Select all the vertices from both meshes located at
the places where you placed the dragged vertices.
It's probably best to do this with the Right Side
view, as I did in Figure 14.35. These are the ver-
tices of each mesh, chest and ab, that share the
same locations.
37. Choose Vertex, Snap To Grid. This should have
the effect of forcing the closely adjacent vertices
of each mesh to exactly align on the grid loca-
tions. However, if your vertices weren't aligned
closely enough earlier, then they might diverge, as
you can see happened to me in Figure 14.36.
That's because I didn't take my own advice to
zoom in and tweak each moved vertex position to
be exactly right.
It should be pretty obvious where the misaligned
vertices have to go. If you have any that wandered
off like I did, go back to the Right Side view and
the Front view and move the wayward vertices into
position. Then repeat the Snap To Grid operation.
38. Compare your results with the images in Figure
14.37, making sure you have the same thing as
shown there.
39. If they aren't already selected, reselect the vertices

shown back there in Figure 14.35.
40. And now the moment we've all been waiting for:
Choose Vertex, Weld Vertices.
All vertices that share identical common coordi-
nates will be "welded" together. This basically
means that superfluous copies of vertices will be
deleted, and the polygons that we're defining will
be reattached to the remaining single copy of
each vertex.
41. In the Groups tab in the toolbox, choose both
meshes, the chest and ab, so that they are both
selected and highlighted in the wire-frame views.
42. Click Regroup, and then rename the newly consolidated group as "torso".
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model428
Figure 14.34 The top center
cylinder vertex.
Figure 14.35 Selecting the
common chest and ab vertices.
Figure 14.36 After snapping to
grid…oops!
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You can now
consider the
torso to be fin-
ished. However,
you can proba-
bly see areas

where you can
make obvious
tweaks and
adjustments. I
did a few, just
to make the
integration of the back and the behind
as well as the chest and the front
abdomen a bit more natural looking. I
also added a wee bit of "anatomical
correctness," so to speak. Figure 14.38
shows the results of my tweaks. It
should be fairly painless for you to
duplicate these adjustments. The only
operations I performed were Select
(Vertex) and Move.
43. Save your mytorso.ms3d file so you
don't lose all your work.
Matching the Head to the Torso
Now we should make sure that the torso and the head match correctly.
1. Choose File, Merge and browse until you find your head file, which should be at
C:\3DGPAi1\resources\ch14\myhead.ms3d. Your head mesh will be loaded in,
centered around the origin.
2. On the Groups tab in the toolbox, choose the new object (your torso mesh will be
called "torso", so the merged head mesh will be the other one). Rename it as
"head".
3. Click the Select button so that the head mesh is highlighted (and the torso mesh
isn't), drag the head up in either the Front or the Side view, and position it as
shown in Figure 14.39.
I see two things I don't like right away—the head is bigger than it should be, and it

also seems that its shape is a little too…ummm…blah. This isn't hard to fix, however.
4. Scale the head to 75 percent in the Y-axis only.
The Base Hero Model 429
Figure 14.37 The well-aligned vertices.
Figure 14.38 The final torso.
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5. Move the head down until it just touches
the top of the torso.
6. Rotate the head by 5 degrees around the
X-axis so that the face is pointing a little
bit down, as shown in Figure 14.40.
There, that's more like it! Now to fiddle
with the torso some more.
7. Select the vertices that form the shoulder
sockets on both sides of the torso, using
Figure 14.41 as a guide.
8. Scale the vertices to 60 percent in the Y-
and Z-axes.
9. Save your work as C:\3DGPAi1\
resources\ch14\mytorso.ms3d.
As we create the remaining parts of the
model, we'll add them to this model by merg-
ing as we go along.
The Legs
When we start the legs, we'll want to keep the
torso mesh around to use as a sizing refer-
ence, at least for the first little while. However,
we won't need to have the head mesh in there,
cluttering things up, so we'll get rid of that.

1. If you haven't already, save your torso as
C:\3DGPAi1\resources\ch14\mytorso.ms3d.
2. Now save your file
as C:\3DGPAi1\
resources\ch14\my
legs.ms3d.
3. Delete the head
mesh using the
Groups tab in the
toolbox.
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model430
Figure 14.39 Matching head to torso.
Figure 14.40 The reshaped head.
Figure 14.41 The shoulder socket vertices.
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4. Select the torso mesh and drag it up about one torso's length above the origin.
5. Create a cylinder with 3 segments (stacks) and 12 slices (faces), and position and
shape it as shown in Figure 14.42. This is the foot.
6. Create another cylinder and rotate it 90 degrees in the Z-axis, making sure that it is
oriented so it runs left to right where the knee would be.
7. Using Figure 14.43 as a guide, move the vertices of the top of the foot up to meet the
knee cylinder.
By now you've
probably real-
ized that almost
everything from
here on is more

a matter of style
and taste, and
less of tech-
nique. So you
should feel free
to go ahead and
deviate from
the specific
construction
details if you
think of some-
thing you might
like better.
8. Reshape the
knee cylinder as
shown in
Figure 14.44.
9. Select the foot
cylinder and
rename it as
"LeftFoot".
10. Create two
more cylinders,
and orient them
as shown in
Figure 14.44 to
make the upper
leg and hip.
The Base Hero Model 431
Figure 14.42 Shape and placement of the foot.

Figure 14.43 The knee.
Figure 14.44 The left thigh.
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11. Select the two new cylinders, plus the knee cylinder, and use the Regroup tool in
the Groups tab of the toolbox. Name the resulting mesh "LeftThigh".
12. Shape the left thigh to match that shown in Figure 14.45—or to suit your own evil
purposes.
13. With the left foot mesh selected, choose Edit, Duplicate. A duplicate of the leg is
created in exactly the same location of the original, so you can't see it yet.
14. Choose Vertex, Mirror Left< > Right. The duplicate leg mesh now appears on the
other side, and in the right place, or pretty darn close.
15. Rename the new leg mesh as "RightFoot".
16. Now duplicate and mirror the left thigh
in the same way, renaming the new thigh
mesh as "RightThigh". You should now
have two legs, each made up of a thigh
mesh and a foot mesh and named appro-
priately.
17. Next, delete the torso mesh from the
model. (You did save the torso in its own
file earlier when I suggested it, right?)
18. Save your work! You should be saving
this as C:\3DGPAi1\resources\
ch14\mylegs.ms3d.
Integrating the Legs to the Torso
Just as we did with the head, we now have to
integrate the legs with the rest of our model.
1. Open the file C:\3DGPAi1\resources\
ch14\myhero.ms3d.

2. Select File, Merge, and choose the legs file
you just created, which should be called
C:\3DGPAi1\resources\ch14\mylegs.ms3d.
3. Choose the right leg, right thigh, left foot,
and left thigh meshes and move them
into position. You should now have a
model pretty close to the one shown in
Figure 14.46.
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model432
Figure 14.45 The finished left leg.
Figure 14.46 The Hero model with head,
torso, and legs.
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The Arms
Finally, the last set of meshes in the model. We can create the arms in exactly the same way
we created the legs—building up from shape primitives, splicing them together until we
have the desired mesh topology.
With arms comes the perennial question—what to do about the fingers? In some models
we can make detailed meshes for each finger, with cylinders segmented at the knuckles,
and so on. However, we must keep in mind that our goal here is to create a low-poly
model, and that typically means fewer than about 1,500 polygons in the model. If we go
over that count by a small amount, no big whoop, but we must remain mindful of it.
So, let's get to work!
1. Open your saved mytorso.ms3d file, and resave it as myarms.ms3d in the same
location as your other work files.
2. Create a box offset to the left side (on the right in the Front view) of the torso, sit-
uated low near the bottom of the torso.

3. Duplicate this box and move the copy to abut the bottom of the original box.
4. Scale the second box to 80 percent.
5. Duplicate the second box and move the new box below the second.
6. Scale the third box to 80 percent of the second box.
7. Align the boxes as shown in Figure 14.47.
8. Hide the torso mesh to keep it out of the way for the moment.
9. Using Vertex Selection, the Move tool, and the Snap To Grid and Weld tools as you
did with earlier parts of the Hero model, align the vertices of the three boxes as
shown in Figure 14.48, and weld the vertices together.
10. Rotate the two bottom rows of vertices by Ϫ30 degrees in the Z-axis, as shown in
Figure 14.49.
11. Move the two bottom rows in the Front view to align them as shown in Figure 14.50.
12. Rotate and
move the bot-
tom row of ver-
tices to match
what is shown
in Figure 14.51.
13. Now, setting
the Select mode
to Groups,
select all the
groups of
The Base Hero Model 433
Figure 14.47 Alignment of the three boxes.
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boxes, duplicate
them, and move
them forward to

abut the front of
the original
boxes, using
Figure 14.52 as a
guide.
14. Now repeat the
process in step
13, putting the
new copies at the
rear of the origi-
nals, using
Figure 14.53 as a
guide.
15. Now repeat the
duplicating
process one more
time, but this
time move the
new boxes to the
left side of the
Front view. This
is the thumb.
16. Choose Vertex,
Mirror Left < >
Right to reverse
the orientation
of the thumb
boxes (see Figure
14.54), and then
scale the thumb

to 50 percent.
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model434
Figure 14.48 Welding the hand vertices.
Figure 14.49 Rotating the two bottom rows.
Figure 14.50 Moving the two bottom rows.
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17. Now we'll
switch back to
the hand part.
In the Top
view, select the
vertices that are
adjacent in the
two forward
parts of the
hand boxes, as
shown in Fig-
ure 14.55, panel
A. Then choose
Vertex, Flatten,
Z and the ver-
tices will be
brought
together onto a
common plane,
as shown in
Panel B of

Figure 14.55.
18. Double-check
the other views,
and if all ver-
tices look to be
coincident,
then choose
Ve r t ex , We ld
Together to
weld them.
19. Repeat step 18
for the rear part
of the hand,
welding the result. Compare with Figure 14.56 to make sure it is correct.
20. Select the rearmost vertices, in the baby finger area, and scale them to 50 percent
in the X- and Y-axes, as shown in Figure 14.57.
21. Move the scaled vertices forward until they are close to the middle hand boxes,
using the Top view in Figure 14.58 as a guide.
22. Repeat steps 20 and 21 for the front index finger area.
The Base Hero Model 435
Figure 14.51 The bottom row of vertices.
Figure 14.52 Two sets of shaped boxes abutting each other.
Figure 14.53 Three sets of shaped boxes.
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23. In the Front view, rotate and shape the thumb to approximate what's shown in
Figure 14.59.
24. Unhide the torso and compare the size and positioning of your hand with the
views shown in Figure 14.60. Rotate the hand to match, if required.
Now you might be

thinking that the
hand looks awfully
blocky compared
to other parts of
the model. You are
right, but take
heart. We can
compensate for
this with our
skins. Remember,
we want to keep
our polygon count
as low as we can.
25.Using the Groups
tab in the toolbox,
select all the hand
groups, regroup
them to form a
new mesh, and
rename it as
"LeftHand".
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model436
Figure 14.54 The start of the thumb.
Figure 14.55 Welding the hand vertices.
Figure 14.56 After the hand welding. Figure 14.57 The scaled baby finger area.
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26. In the Front

view, use the
Sphere tool
set to four
stacks and
eight slices,
and create a
sphere that
completely
fills the left
shoulder
socket of the
torso. Check all your views to make
sure that you have it pretty close.
27. Make another sphere with the same
settings that fills the top of the hand,
and place it there.
28. Make a one-stack, eight-slice cylinder
that you can rotate and move into a
position that connects the two spheres.
Use Figure 14.61 as a guide for sphere
and cylinder sizing and placement.
29. Select all the upper arm components,
regroup them, and name the new mesh
"LeftArm".
30. Select the new left arm mesh, duplicate
it, and then choose Vertex, Mirror
Right < > Left.
31. Adjust the new mesh if necessary, and
rename it as "RightArm".
32. Repeat the duplicating and renaming

operations for the left hand mesh.
33. Delete the torso mesh.
34. Save your work! You should now have a
pair of hefty arms that closely resemble
those shown in Figure 14.62.
The Base Hero Model 437
Figure 14.58 Placing the scaled
baby finger vertices.
Figure 14.59 The thumb
positioning.
Figure 14.60 Comparison of torso with
hand.
Figure 14.61 The left arm.
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Integrating the Arms to the Torso
Once again, it's integration time. If you are
inclined to wonder about doing the model
this way rather than all at once in one file, I
want to point out that now you have a differ-
ent source model file for each major compo-
nent of your model. This allows you to make
different mix-and-match models using the
same components over and over. Just make
three sets of arms, four sets of legs, five heads,
two torsos, or something like that. Mix 'n'
match 'em and you'll have all sorts of differ-
ent model configurations!
1. Open the file C:\3DGPAi1\resources\ch14\myhero.ms3d.
2. Select File, Merge, and choose the arms file you just created, which should be

called C:\3DGPAi1\resources\ch14\myarms.ms3d.
3. Choose both the right arm and the left arm meshes and move them into position.
You should now have a model pretty close to the one shown in Figure 14.63.
The Hero Skin
Now it's time to skin the model. In Chapter 9 you learned how to create the textures for
skins, and in Chapter 13 you learned how to do simple UV mapping for skins. Next, we
have to do the UV mapping for the player-character, which is somewhat more complex.
We are not going to go over the creation of the texture for Hero character skin. The
Resources folder includes a mapped Hero
skin texture for you to use, but I encourage
you to make your own in the same fashion as
the one for the Standard Male.
1. If MilkShape is not already running,
launch it and open your Hero model,
located at C:\3DGPAi1\resources\
ch14\myhero.ms3d.
2. Choose File, Export, Wavefront Obj and
export your Hero model as
C:\3DGPAi1\resources\ch14\myhero.obj.
3. Launch UVMapper and maximize the
window.
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model438
Figure 14.62 The completed arms.
Figure 14.63 The completed Hero model.
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4. Load the C:\3DGPAi1\resources\ch14\myhero.obj. You will see a crazy quilt of
lines. This is the "default" mapping created by MilkShape. Let's forget about that,

because we are going to create our own mapping.
5. Choose Edit, New UV Map, Planar and then use the settings shown in Figure
14.64.
6. Choose Edit, Settings, click Color by Group and then click OK. Your screen should
now look like Figure 14.65.
7. First, choose Edit, Select All and press the forward slash ("/") key on the numeric
keypad to shrink the selection to 25 percent, half-sized in the x dimension and
half-sized in the y dimension (the asterisk ["*"] on the numeric keypad will do the
opposite). Press Enter to save your adjustment. If you didn't like the adjustments
you just made, press Esc to undo your changes since
making your last selection or remapping.
8. Choose Edit, Select by Group, choose the group
"head", and then click OK.
9. Choose Edit, New UV Map, Spherical. Use the Spheri-
cal Settings shown in Figure 14.66.
10. Press the equal sign ("=") on the numeric keypad to
expand the head selection to fill the window, and then
press the numeric keypad "/" a few times to shrink the
selection. Use your mouse to drag the head to the
upper center of the window, as shown in Figure 14.67.
Now you might notice that there appear to be two tri-
angles out of place in the head unwrapping. Look
inside circle A in Figure
14.67 and see if you can
spot them. In your
model this may not be
the case, but the more
closely your model
matches the one I've
done here, the more

likely this is to happen.
This little oddity is easily
fixed. You should be able
to do the mapping with-
out that happening—it's
all a matter of which set-
tings you use. You can
The Hero Skin 439
Figure 14.64 Planar
mapping settings for Hero
model.
Figure 14.65 The unwrapped Hero model.
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try to get the right settings by trial and error. However,
the simplest fix is to just move the miscreants to their
lawful location. So that's what we'll do.
11. Drag your cursor over the middle of the two wayward
triangles. Don't touch any parts of any other triangles
in any other part of the model. The triangles will now
appear surrounded by a selection box.
12. Click and drag them over to the right-hand side where
there is that suspicious-looking gap, and place them as
well as you can. Location B in Figure 14.68 shows
where the triangles end up.
13. Use the arrow keys to adjust the position of the trian-
gles. There you go!
Now you need to do a bit
of housekeeping-like fid-
dling.

14. Choose Edit, Select, All.
You will get everything on
the screen selected in a
selection box with the lit-
tle black sizing handles at
the corners and midway
along each side.
15. Grab the sizing handle on
the right side. Your cursor
should change to the left-
right sizing cursor (this is
an arrow pointing left and
right).
16. Drag the sizing handle toward the
left until you get a blank space on
the right a little wider than the
width of the head.
17. Choose Edit, Select, Group and
choose the head. Drag it over to
the upper right, in the blank space
you just created. You should now
have a layout like Figure 14.69.
Chapter 14
■
Making a Character Model440
Figure 14.66 Settings for
the spherical mapping of the
head.
Figure 14.67 The unwrapped head.
Figure 14.68 The adjusted triangles.

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As you work you will
probably reorganize your
layout a few times—
that's perfectly normal.
You want to keep it clean
and make sure your
items are easily selec-
table.
18. Now choose Edit, Select,
By Group, and choose
the LeftHand group.
19. Choose Edit, New UV
Map, Box. You will get
the Box Mapping dialog
box, as shown in Figure
14.70. Make sure you have Split front/back turned off, and
Gaps in Map turned on. Click OK.
The unwrapped left hand will appear in the window, sur-
rounded by the selection box.
20. Move and size the hand mapping, placing it in the center
of the window in the blank area. Make sure it is small
enough to allow the mapped right hand in here as well (see
Figure 14.71).
21. Perform the same UV mapping operation and placement
operation on the Right-
Hand group, putting
them in the center space.
22. Next, map the left and

right feet the same way.
For each group as you
unwrap it, size the sole
(oval shape) so that it is
longer than it is wide.
Place the feet under-
neath the main model, as
shown in Figure 14.72.
23. Next, map all the arms
and legs. Use Planar
mapping for these.
The Hero Skin 441
Figure 14.69 The reorganized map.
Figure 14.71 The UV mapped hands.
Figure 14.70 The
Box Mapping settings.
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