Is Human anatomy important in Character Modelling?
Quite frankly I didn't think it was a big deal. My school of thought has always been..'if i'm modelling a character that's humanoid or cartoon-like, there's no point'. The truth is there is a point!
A character is largely defined by it's anatomy. Different characters can emerge from one anatomy with a few tweaks here and there on certain key features. For cartoon characters, the basic understanding of human anatomy helps to properly position features like shoulders, eyes, hands neck and so on and ensures that you have a smooth polygon flow and ultimately a very smooth output. Modelling a human character to be as believable as possible with close resemblance to realism requires an understanding of human anatomy.
Bull, (2006) in his book further explained how fundamental understanding of human anatomy helps to build a good topology during modelling and also helps to make it faster. Smart topology and edge loops enables key features to be captured properly so that during animation distortions don't alter these key features all together
Some examples of good and bad topologies are seen below
Good Topology
A character is largely defined by it's anatomy. Different characters can emerge from one anatomy with a few tweaks here and there on certain key features. For cartoon characters, the basic understanding of human anatomy helps to properly position features like shoulders, eyes, hands neck and so on and ensures that you have a smooth polygon flow and ultimately a very smooth output. Modelling a human character to be as believable as possible with close resemblance to realism requires an understanding of human anatomy.
Bull, (2006) in his book further explained how fundamental understanding of human anatomy helps to build a good topology during modelling and also helps to make it faster. Smart topology and edge loops enables key features to be captured properly so that during animation distortions don't alter these key features all together
Some examples of good and bad topologies are seen below
Good Topology
Bad Topology
For the head in particular, these topology lines are very important as the lines running on the face will eventually be manipulated to show various facial expressions during animation (anger, shouting, smiles, laughs, e.t.c). A face with the kind of topology as seen above in "bad topology" will not give a realistic smile when distorted during animation.
Some examples of key topology lines for the face are seen below:
Some examples of key topology lines for the face are seen below:
An example of a smiling facial expression with smart topology adopted is seen below
With this little research it's obvious that the human anatomy plays an important role in character modelling and ultimately animation; all of which largely depends on smart topology and very good polygon flow.
References
Bull, C. (2006). A study on the importance of human anatomy in character modelling and design. Retrived from http://ncca.bournemouth.ac.uk/gallery/view/13/A_study_of_the_importance_of_anatomy_in_character_modelling_and_design
References
Bull, C. (2006). A study on the importance of human anatomy in character modelling and design. Retrived from http://ncca.bournemouth.ac.uk/gallery/view/13/A_study_of_the_importance_of_anatomy_in_character_modelling_and_design