The way to go

I can say with confidence that i feel that the best method for character modeling is by using a plane and then slowly wrapping it round to make the form you desire. With the image below i can not believe how much neater and more perfected my model is already forming compared to how it first looked. Looking at the second image makes me realise just how this type of method is not for me. Using a plane took half the time then it did with a cube and it looks ten times better then my first attempt. As you can see the first image is very smooth and circular which is what i need to show that my character is wearing a dress. Where as the second still looks very blocky even though i had spend more time on this model.

there are a few different ways to model, and none of them are wrong ways in which you can do this but each style suits different people, and now that i have found mine, i now feel a lot more confident about character modeling and how my final piece will form.

Now the main way i have done this is by taking a plane and going into the front prospective, i rotated the plane 90 degrees so that the plane is facing the front, i then took the sub divisional lines down to 5 for vertial and horizontal, as i knew i would not need all that many lines like i have experimented with in my last attempt. I then roughly scaled the plane over the dress as i wanted to start on the biggest area first. That way i can connect the other body parts to the main body part, a bit like slotting everything together. I then just went into vertex mode and started to shape the outline of the body through the image plane i have of my model. As it was a plane it was much easier to shape as it only has one side. Once i had done that i went into the side view, pulled my plane to the front of the dress and started to pull the vertex back which started to form the sides. From there it is pretty much repeating the same process as before, but now i have to move the sub divisional lines so that the shape started to form as a circle, as you wouldn't have any sharp edges around a dress.

Before:

After:

As you can see the difference between the two is an understatement. Now that i have found the best method to suit me i can use this to complete my character to a high stranded.



The image plane of my character is not the final mock up. I really need to use graph paper so that i can make sure that everything is symmetrical, this will be something i shall have to do in order for my modeling to be symmetrical. Although, if i model one whole side of my character, i may be able to mirror this. Even if i can do this i would prefer to redraw my character as i have had to change a lot for my model as in the drawing, i dress would not round out, it would hang down. So in order to correct things, i have had to change my model, which now makes things a little harder because i can not use my drawing resource 100%. I am having to double check things and change them as i go along.

Here i have had to think about the sub divisional lines as i wanted to create a little pocket on her dress like the reference image.

With the dress on its way to completion, i have selected half and deleted it so that i am only left with one side of the dress. I can now go to mirror this so that my dress is symmetrical.