Making a 3D model:
Created a primitive cylinder, and moved the vertices to match the reference image. This cylinder created the chest. I also rotated the top row of the chest which will become the neck.
As with the chest, I created primitive cylinders, and scaled and moved the vertices to create the shape of the legs. Using the face selection, I removed the faces on the top of the cylinders, which is where the legs will join together with the pelvic area of the chest.
Once I had created all the limbs, I attached the limbs to the chest/pelvis by merging the vertices of the top row of the arms/legs and the closest vertices on the chest. In some places, I had to reduce the vertice count by deleting edges, as well as add some in, by adding divisions to the existing edges. Attaching the vertices closes the gap between the two primitives, which looks much more professional, as well as working better for future animations.
I created the hands using a cube, which I extruded to create the fingers. I moved the vertices to match the fingers on the reference image, and off camera I extruded the side face out, and extruded again to create the thumb. Using the same merge vertices tool, I attached the hand to the wrist of the left arm. There is no hand on the right side, as I am creating a zombie character, I will texture the left arm to look like it is badly injured, and the lower arm/hand has been chopped off, with a little gore.
I started the face by creating a primitive cylinder, and removing all the faces except the front end. The inner division row is used for the lips, so I moved the vertices to match the lips of the reference image, and the other row to around the mouth. With the same method, I created both the eye sockets. Using the extrude and merge to vertice tool, I created faces between the mouth and eyes, forming the cheeks, and extruding the edges below the mouth/above the eyes to form the chin and forehead.
I created a sphere, and merged the vertices of the sphere to the vertices of the forehead/cheeks and below the chin to create the head. I creased the edges of the eyes and lips to add some definition, as well as harding/smoothing the edges to make them look better when smoothed.
I then attached the head to the neck by removing the faces on the top of the chin, and the faces of the underside of the sphere, and merging the vertices, adding and deleting additional vertices as I went.
Here is the finished zombie model, with all the different components attached to each other.
Personal Evaluation:
On the whole, I am reasonably happy with how the model has turned out.
Things I'm happy with:
- The overall shape of the chest area and the arms.
- The shape and size of the hands, as the model is going to become a zombie, and so the fingers look like they are broken/cut or swollen.
Things I'm unhappy with:
- The size of the face/head.
- The hand.
- The boots.
- The detail in the face.
The model is missing some detail, such as finger/toe nails, and detail to the boots, as I want to see what the detail will look like with textures first, before I tried to sculpt the tiny finger indentations.
I am not very happy with the face, as I struggled to get the size and definition of the eyes/mouth and cheekbones right. I also think the head is disproportionate to the body. As it is a zombie, I planned to have a smaller than human head, due to the weight loss and shrinking of the brain, and collapse of the skull.
I hope adding textures to the face, hands, boots and legs will make them look better than they already do, and that I am happy with the textures.
