Creating Teeth For Billy

Now that billy has been created he needs to have some teeth so he can smile and get angry.

To create the teeth I first found a picture of some teeth using the internet then edited them on photoshop.The next step was to create a cylinder in 3Ds Max and then deleted half of it so I had the shape of the mouth so it was ready to add the material to it. I then added the teeth image to the material editor using the Bitmap option and then changed the name of the material to "Teeth".
The next step was to click and drag the material onto the cylinder so that the cylinder had the teeth showing on it. The mouth was now on the cylinder but the dimensions werent right so I needed to use the UVW map to edit the shape of the teeth on the cylinder.
Once I had edited the shape and size I cloned the cylinder and changed it so I had top and bottom teeth for Billy.
Next step is to begin animating billy.

Character Information

Name: Billy "The Kid" Jones
Age: 16
From: Essex
Interests: Computer Games, Drinking
Dislikes: Losing, Sprouts and Homework
Hobbies: Computer Games, Football & Drinking
Favourite Food: Pizza
Favourite Drink: Beer

Billy is a usual teenage boy that spends most of his day in his room playing computer games and sneaking drinks into his room without his parents noticing.

Billys biggest flaw is his short temper when it comes to losing, he has to win everything! Losing isnt an option.

He spends 90% of his time playing his xbox and the rest of the time he is either eating or drinking alcohol with none of his time ever spent doing homework.

This 16 year old hopes to become a professional gamer and uses it as an excuse to get out of doing his homework.

Controller & Television For Environment

To begin with I created an Xbox 360 Controller for the character to hold whilst playing the game on a television.
First of all I created a plane and added a material of a picture of an xbox controller to the plane so that I had a reference image to go by when creating the shape of the controller.
Once I had the shape right for the plane I created the shape around the controller using the line tool.The next step was to convert the shape into an editable polygon, then selecting the polygon tool I selected the top of the shape and extruded it until it was a 3D object, then removed the top and bottom of the shape so it was hollow.The next step was to begin forming the shape of the controller to look more like the shape of the controller. Using the extrude tool and the rotate and scale tool whilst holding the shift key down to create different levels for the controller.
I repeated this technique until the controller had a shape I was happy with so it was ready for the next step of adding a top and bottom to the shape and have the sticks and buttons for the controller.
Now the shape was right I selected the "Border" tool and clicked the top and bottom of the shape and then clicked the "Cap" tool and then Turbo smoothed the outcome.
Now that the shape was finished it was time to start creating the, d-pad, sticks and buttons for the controller. To do this I created a shape using the the cylinder tool and extruded it until it was the right height.
The next step was to remove the top and bottom of the shape using the "polygon" tool then using "border" tool selected the top of the cylinder using the "scale" tool whilst holding the shift key moved the shape inwards to create a open cone shape.
I then cloned the shape and placed them in the places that they needed to be on the controller layout. Changing the sizes for each part of the controller.
The next step was to create the buttons for the controller, to do this I created a cylinder and edited the shapes of the top of them using the editable poly mode and changed the shape using the uniform scale tool and selecting the border of the cylinder and then capped the end so that it had a curved top. The last step to the shape was to use the turbo smooth tool to create a smoothed curve on the button.

Now that the button shape had been created I cloned them to create the buttons for the controller moving them into place and changing the sizes for each button.
To create the analog sticks for the controller I created a cylinder and converted it to an editable polygon. Then by clicking on the "Polygon" tool I clicked the top polygon of the cylinder and removed it from the cylinder creating a hollow top to the cylinder.
I then used the border tool to select the top of the cylinder to make a shape of a stick, to do this I used the uniform scale tool to make the top of the cylinder wider and pulled out of shape.
I then lifted the new side upwards and then repeated the step to make a rounded top to the stick, then once I was happy with the end result I capped the end using the border tool.
Now I had a shape I was happy with I turbo smoothed the shape to create the shape of the analog controller.
The next part of the controller to make was the "D-pad" to do this I created a cylinder that was as high as the lifted edge that I created earlier. Then using the box tool created a shape that had 4 points, then using the extrude tool I lifted the parts to create a raised "+" I then used the uniform and scale tool to make the top of the cross curved inwards to give the effect of buttons.
I then placed all of the buttons, sticks and the D-pad into place ready to add textures and make the right sizes.
The first thing I decided to do was to change all the colours of the raised areas to a darker white so that it influenced the lift from the controller, then created 5 materials for each of the buttons.
Using Photoshop I created the Xbox logo button in the center, and the 4 controller buttons for the X, Y, B, A.
The next step was to place them on the buttons of choice by clicking and dragging the bitmap image from the material editor onto the objects, then using the UVW map modifier to edit the placement on each button. Then using the Turbo Smooth modifier to make the button look smooth.
Now that all of the materials were complete I needed to just edit the size of the controller to make it look more realistic and changed the sizes of the analog sticks and the placement on the controller.
Now that I was happy with how the controller looked I added it to my environment and placed it in the characters hands were I wanted it to be.
The final part of the environment I needed to create was the the Television for the character to be playing games on, to create this I created a box and make it longer in width than in height.
I then converted it to an editable polygon and extruded out the front of the box to create a slight change in size, then using the uniform and scale tool with the front polygon selected I made it come inward so it gave the effect of having a screen.
I then changed the front polygon to be a separate series so that when I created the multi sub object material I could have two different colours for the tv. Black for the outside of the television and gray for where the picture of the game will be.
I then placed the tv in the environment I had created and then moved it so that it was at the characters head height. I added an omni light to give a glow from the television so it looks more realistic.

Joining the Clothes to My Character

To add each of the peices of clothing to your character model you need to go through these steps.

Firstly select all of the parts of the character you want to Physique so for my character its the Head, Arms, Top, Trousers and Shoes.

Once they are all selected click the modifier panel on the right of the screen and scroll down until you reach the "Physique" modifier.
Click on the "Physique" modifier and it will add to all of your selections as shown below for the plane object which is the Top item.
A new object appears below the list of modifiers you have selected for the item, this new object appears as a person with a red mark in the middle of them.

This is the "Attach to node" button, when you click this button nothing happens until you press the "H" key on your keyboard and you can then pick an object from the list of all of your objects. Select the "Bip01" option to select the whole biped and it will attach each individual item to the joints that they are nearest to, aslong as they are nearly connected when modeled.
Select "Pick" at the bottom of the pick option and it will take you to the "Physique Initialization" window, the last part you need to do from here is click "Initialize" and the items will be attached to the Biped.
Now that all of the items are connected to the Biped its time to start changing the Envelopes on each of the items of clothing so that when the character is moved there is no pinching on the clothes or sticking to the verteces.

To change the envelopes you have to click on the "+" sign on the physique modifier in the modifier panel and select "Envelopes".
Then its a case of selecting each bone on the biped around the objects so that you can change the Inner and Outer Envelopes to select all of the object you have created.

The way in which you know all of the object is selected is by the little red "+" signs on the screen. Check all around the object to make sure all of the areas are red so that you know you have selected the whole object so there is no pulling or pinching.
Do this for all of the clothing objects you have created to make sure that the model doesnt pull when animating, test the movement by clicking the bones and moving them seeing if anything looks out of the ordinary.

If anything does stay still or pinchs edit the envelopes until you are satisfied with the results.
This is what all of the envelopes looks like for my character in front and side views of the model.
I noticed that the legs envelopes were far too wide so I edited them to make sure the size was right.
Next step is to finish the environment and begin animating the character.

Creating Environment

Creating A Bed

Creating a bed is the first part of the environment I wanted to create for the character animation.
I started by creating some posts for the top part of the bed, to do this I started by creating a Cylinder and edited the shape at the top by uniform and scale selecting parts of the cylinder to make them come inward towards the ends.
I then added a sphere to the top of the cylinder to make them look more like bed posts.
I then decided to create the matress to do this I created a box and then chamfered the edges so that it had curved edges I then applied a "Turbo Smooth" to the bed to create a smoother more realistic looking mattress.
The next step was to create two pillows for the top of the bed, to create these I selected the "Box" tool and created a box then using the "Turbo Smooth" tool it created a nice shape for the pillows using an iteration of "2".
The final step for the bed was to create a bedsheet, to do this I created a cloth modifier on a plane.

To begin with I created a plane that was slightly larger than the matress size and created the plane with 50 width and length segments so it would be easier to manipulate.

Once I had a size that was suitable I selected the "Cloth" modifier and then selected the 2 objects, the plane was the cloth and the matress was the collision object.

I ran the simulation until a point I felt the plane looked most like a bedsheet.
This is what the bed looks like when all of the parts are together.

Creating A 3D Character

Before creating a character I desided to create a Biped so that I had reference points to go by when making clothes for the character.

To create a Biped I selected the "systems" option then clicked on "Biped" then by selecting the different options on the side to have 5 fingers and 5 toes. Then by clicking and dragging on the screen you can create your biped model.
Creating Top

The next step I took was creating the top for the character, to do this I first selected the "Plane" tool and click and dragged a square onto the screen. By right clicking and selecting "convert to editable polygon" I would then be able to edit the shape of the plane into a top.
By selecting the "Edge" tool I was able to click and drag upwards whilst holding down the shift key to create another square above the plane I had already created.I kept doing this technique until I had reached a height I was satisfied with, then holding the shift key down again created a right angle at the top of the top and then followed the technique down to the starting point of the plane.
This gave me a shape that was like an incomplete box, the next step was to select the right side edge to do this I selected one of the edges on the right then clicked the "Loop" tool, this seelcted the border of the shape and then hold shift and click and drag to the right to create a larger shape I did this for 3 more squares so that I had a shape that was 4 squares in width.
Now the I needed to create sides to the top, to do this I selected the edge of the inside of the top & selected "Bridge" then by clicking one of the edges and selected the 2nd edge to connect to.
Once both sides of the top where connected it was time to start moving parts of the top so it had more of a top look to it, to do this I selected the "Vertex" tool and moved each area that I felt needed to be moved to create the shape of a top.
Once I was satisfied with the look of the top I decided to "Turbo Smooth" the object to see what it looked like smoothed and the result was good all I needed to do was change a few of the vertex's and then it was how I wanted it to look.
Creating Trousers

The next step for the character creation was to create some trousers for the character, this takes a different technique than before but is just as simple.
To begin with I created a cylinder and converted it to an editable poly, it was then time to start extruding the shape upwards changing the size of it as it went up using the "uniform scale" tool.

Once I had reached the top part of my characters leg I removed some polygons and then used the edge tool to pull out the sides creating a shape of the cruch.
The next step was to create a "symmetry" and then connected the trousers using the weld option in the symmetry option.
Once I was happy with the look of the trousers I used the "Turbo Smooth" modifier and was happy with the result of them.
Creating Shoes

The final clothing I had to create was the shoes, to begin I created a small box and converted it to an editable poly this is for the heel of the shoe. The next step was to start extruding points out from the heel creating a shape of a shoe.

Once there was a base structure of a shoe it was time to start editing the shape using the "Vertex" tool selecting each part and molding it into the shape I wanted it to look like.
Once I had a shape I was happy with I added the "Turbo Smooth" modifier onto it to create a smooth finish to the object.
Creating Arms & Hands

To create the shape of the arms I used the same technique as I used for the trousers, starting with creating a cylinder and then editing the shape by extruding out the sides.
Once I had reached the top of the arm I deleted half of the shape so that I could create a bulge in the arm like muscles.To do this I selected the "Border" tool and selected one side of the arm then clicked on the "Bridge" option and selected the first point of reference then clicked the second point of reference to bridge the empty gap. Within the option there is a "Taper" option which allows you to create a bulge by changing the thickness and segments you wish to create.Once you have created the taper on your arm you can start to edit the shape by selecting the "Edge" tool and clicking the option "Loop" so you select the whole area then you can move it to the places you want the arm to have muscles.
I repeated the technique described above until I had a shape that I wanted for my characters arms.
Now that the arm has a shape it is time to create a hand for the arm.

To create the hand you need to create a box with 4 length & width segments and create it with a little bit of height.
The next step is to edit the shape of the hand by extruding out 4 fingers from the top of one side of the box you created, then extrude from the side of the box for the thumb.
Once you have a shape of the hand you can start editing the way in which the hand looks by rotating the fingers out slightly so none of the fingers touch.
Now that the hand has a shape you need to change the corners of the hand so it looks more like the shape of your hand. Once you are happy with the way the hand shape looks you can "Turbo Smooth" the object to make the hand look better and more like a hand than a box with fingers.
The next step is to attach the hand to the arm, the best way to do this is to select the end polygon on the arm and delete it so the arm is hollow and do the same for the hand.
Select the Arm and click the "Attach" button and select the hand from the list.

Then to join the hand to the arm select the "Border" tool and click the area which you deleted from the arm, select the "Bridge" option and then select the hand and bridge them together.
The last part you need to do is to edit the shape of the wrist and the hand so that it looks like its connected properly and looks a bit more realistic.
The last thing that I did was to add the head that I created from last semesters Virtual Environment module to the character model, to do this I merged the old 3Ds Max file which included my face model and added it to the character model.

Here is what the character looks like so far.