Tutorial: HOW TO Make a Basic Human Body

After reading many tutorials in the past on how to create a person, I found that there were some good ones and some very bad ones that were poorly explained. So I have decided to make a tutorial here, and you are free to leave comments that I will happily answer.

Things You Must Remember When Modeling:

• Create only the shape of the body. Do not attach or mold accessories (armor, guns, shields) into the model. As we progress you will see that during animation, everything on the model deforms. So things that you do not want to change, you should not include in the model
• Use Edit Poly and rarely Edit Mesh
• There are many steps in any modeling process, so for each major step add an Edit Poly modifier to you model. This is almost like saving your work in a sense as you can always revert back to previous versions of the model.
• Also save often and save different versions, like with the Edit Poly modifier it is a way for you to revert back. An easy way to do this in Max is Click File-> Save Version As.

Program:
3d Studio Max

Steps:
1. Create an 8 sided sphere
2. Click on the Modifier panel, and right click on the word sphere and select Edit Poly. Now move at the each end, inner wards to create a human like appearance.

3. Now Polygon under the Editable Poly list, and click Cut. Cut allows you to create edges within your model. We will create a diamond shape at the base of the model to create a neck.

4. Now click the four polygons that you just created and then click Bevel. Now click, hold, and extend the polygons to create a neck.

6. Adjust the vertexes and repeat to form the shoulder blade.
7. Now select each of the triangles again and select tessellate. This will create a new set of verices in each triangle that will essentially make the triangle into much smaller shapes

8. Afterwards, move the vertexes around to create a more body like shoulder frame. Then use the a series of bevels to create the torso.
9. The result is now a bulky torso, and you can move the vertices to create a more sculpted figure. One trick is to highlight vertices on opposite sides, and then use the scale tool, to scale the x axis. If you have trouble with this, you can always manually move the vertices.

10. Select the inner circle at the base of the model, and move it down. Next Scale it so that it is a little larger than it was before, but so that it still follows the contours of a body.
11. Next bevel the base to create a torso.

12. Then create an outline fore the shoulder and use the bevel tool to create the shoulder then bicep, forearm, and then hand. Here is the outline, for you to start the process.

13. Now do th same for the leg.

14. Now highlight the entire leg going up to the base, and rotate it 45 degrees to make it straight.

15. Click Edit Poly and then using vertex, select the vertices on the right sie of the figure, and click delete.

16. Afterwards, click Edit-Clone-Copy, and then Mirror about the X axis.
17. Now select the new copy and add a Normal Modifier to it, and the result should look like the figure below.

18. Select the original model, and attach the copied model. You will notice that everything returns back to normal and there maybe some blank space inbetween the two halves.
19. To fix this, click on the Snaps Toggle tool at the top of program, and select one vertex on right side of the model and drag it so that it snaps to its left side counterpart. Then highlight the two (now one) vertecies and select weld from the Edit Poly tab.

20. Finally, move any vertecies that you find are out of place and add if you would like to make edges more curved, select Edit Poly->Edge-> then select the edges-> and add chamfer. If you would like just points to have a more curved finished in areas such as the face, you can also chamfer vertexes. Lastly, add an ink and paint material to the model to make it look nice. You are finished.

If you like this post, visit the rest of the site and you can go further with your model by reading part 1 and part 2 of my tutorial on how to rig ad animate your character. Also don't forget to check out my lip syncing tutorial to find out how to make your characters talk.