CSE325 Computer Science

and Sculpture

Prof. George Hart

Lecture 11 – Maya

• Previously: we made geometric forms.• This week: organic and human forms.

• Sculpting a human form requires both a sense of 3D design and an understanding of human anatomy. This is covered in various art courses. In this class, we will look at just a few of the technical issues.

Malcolm Thain — Kneeling Girl

Various End Uses• Possible uses for 3D human form models:

– 2D rendering– 3D Solid Freeform Fabrication– Video game characters– Animation/movies/educational software,…– Digital Sculpture

• Varying techniques, types of models, level of detail, resolution, use of textures, “materials”, lighting, etc.

Malcolm Thain — Torso

Bernini, marble sculpture, 1521

Current software tools are not suitable for capturing human form. Physical sculptures made by traditional techniques have detail and impact enormously beyond anything yet made with software tools.

Scan of Michelangelo’s DavidAny 3D form may be approximated with enough triangles, but enormous dataset may be required. Stanford project:

• 0.011 inch resolution

• 2 billion polygons collected

• More than can be displayed on current computers

Which is photo? Which is rendering?

Laser-Scanned Human

• 25000-triangles example:

• Appears coarse to viewer.

• It is important to put higher density of triangles in the places where viewers look carefully, e.g., the face, eyes, hands.

Maya Representations• Polygonal Meshes

– Polygons, two meet at each edge

• “NURBS”– allows smooth curves

• Subdivision Surfaces– Chunks of NURBS and polygons

• Everything is eventually converted to polygons if using solid freeform fabrication machines. But 2D rendering may display smoothed surfaces, and use images for textures, such as hair, fabric, etc.

Learning Maya

• Excellent built-in tutorials and help files.

• You can go through the help file steps to make a hammer and a hand.

• There are many “tips and tricks” web sites.

• Tools we will use this week: – subdivision, smoothing, tweaking individual

vertices, “push” and “pull” sculpt tool, etc.

• Don’t expect it to be fast or easy…