Teeth and Tongue
This is the first mouth that I have ever had to model and It took me a fair while and a few attempts to achieve this. What I am constantly finding with this project is that although it may be a realistic looking model, if the texture is not right, or exactly spot on, everything falls apart and has a domino affect on everything else. The mouth that I have designed consists of three parts: top jaw, bottom jaw and tongue. The top jaw in the animating process will stay still as it is fused to the skull. The bottom jaw has its rotation point at the back which will act like a hinge, rocking back and forth as my character talks and I'm assuming that I will bone the tongue so it can flick up and down as the character talks.
Like I said this is the first time I have ever tried to do something this advanced and it is hard trying to find tutorials on this. What I'm constantly battling is the look and feel of realism to an uncanny representation but I guess I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't hard.
Project so far...
So over my last few posts I have been talking about my progress in modelling and how I am working through my model but not really talking about the project itself. So as I explained in my oral what I want to do is basically play with Masahiro Mori’s uncanny valley. When we see something so real such as a 3D character or robot , humans have a visceral reaction of repulsion, or more specific an uneasy feeling saying we don’t like it. The character which I still need to name (so any suggestion please let me know) will hopefully fall into the bottom part of the uncanny valley where our visceral, uneased response is tapped into and then Ill get a human to interact with it.
After talking with Sam, my original idea of creating a short film where I would need to not only create my character but a story board, script, film and edit was changed, which I was actually glad as it posed too much work for the time frame I had. Instead what Sam suggested was to create a character head and set up an installation where I would get people to sit in front of the screen with my character and have almost like a “speed dating session” with them. This idea is great as it does exactly what I wanted to do, if not better. I am still playing with the concept of the uncanny valley but what works great is that any individual can sit down and have a go and see what they think instead of watching a short film. I also would like to hear what the people’s thoughts were with the interaction. Overall this new idea makes the project more one on one interactive, fun and something new to try out. Although the responses from my character will probably be premeditated I will try and use broad responses to take into account variances with the human side of the interaction.
Another Idea that Sam suggested was to create different characters that can be placed on different point of the uncanny valley graph and see if people interact differently or if they react more positively/ negatively to them. This idea is great but as said before time is a big issue and I have never done lip syncing before (making a 3D character talk) so depending on the difficulty of that Ill be able to determine how much I can do.
After talking with Sam, my original idea of creating a short film where I would need to not only create my character but a story board, script, film and edit was changed, which I was actually glad as it posed too much work for the time frame I had. Instead what Sam suggested was to create a character head and set up an installation where I would get people to sit in front of the screen with my character and have almost like a “speed dating session” with them. This idea is great as it does exactly what I wanted to do, if not better. I am still playing with the concept of the uncanny valley but what works great is that any individual can sit down and have a go and see what they think instead of watching a short film. I also would like to hear what the people’s thoughts were with the interaction. Overall this new idea makes the project more one on one interactive, fun and something new to try out. Although the responses from my character will probably be premeditated I will try and use broad responses to take into account variances with the human side of the interaction.
Another Idea that Sam suggested was to create different characters that can be placed on different point of the uncanny valley graph and see if people interact differently or if they react more positively/ negatively to them. This idea is great but as said before time is a big issue and I have never done lip syncing before (making a 3D character talk) so depending on the difficulty of that Ill be able to determine how much I can do.
Look at Me
My model is coming along quite nicely and Im up to creating the eyes. The eyes surprised me at how difficult they were to actually texture. Trying to get the right number of veins so they eyes looked real but not blood shot and getting the reflection, refraction and gloss to look as if the eyes were moist also posed a dificulty.
I'm still not happy with how the texture or more so how I have modelled the eyes. Although in this render they actually look fairly real, when they sit in my characters head they look fake. What I haven’t realised is that the iris of the eye is actually flat and not curved as I have modeled it. The eye is then sealed over with a clear outer shell called the Sclera and Cornea which covers over the whole eye and makes it round. If you look at the diagram bellow you can see what I mean. I’ll need to re-make the eyes but it will be an easy fix as these eyes are already the 3rd ones I have made and I know exactly what needs to be done. I’ll just use these eyes as placeholders for now so I can finish off the mouth (teeth and tongue), hair and skin texture.
I'm still not happy with how the texture or more so how I have modelled the eyes. Although in this render they actually look fairly real, when they sit in my characters head they look fake. What I haven’t realised is that the iris of the eye is actually flat and not curved as I have modeled it. The eye is then sealed over with a clear outer shell called the Sclera and Cornea which covers over the whole eye and makes it round. If you look at the diagram bellow you can see what I mean. I’ll need to re-make the eyes but it will be an easy fix as these eyes are already the 3rd ones I have made and I know exactly what needs to be done. I’ll just use these eyes as placeholders for now so I can finish off the mouth (teeth and tongue), hair and skin texture.
Tedious fun with Ears
So after creating the head the next part that needs to be modeled is the ear. This is the first ear I have ever modeled and it was not easy. The lobes, shape and curves were a lot harder then I had pre determined. The hardest part was creating the ridges to look like real ear ridges. Although the image bellow has only a flat coloured texture you can get an idea on the ear dynamics. As I continue through this project I am amazed at how much of the human anatomy I am learning and how much we take for granted and not notice on another human. Yet surprisingly even though may not notice it, when its not there or does not look exactly real all of a sudden it is something that noticed and stands outs.
Ideas and designs
To complete this project I am using 3DS Max 2011 as my 3D platform to create and design my character. This blog will help me to document my progress and be a reference for me to look back at reflect on what I have done and what else I need to do.
First to sculpt my 3D characters head I needed to find some reference images. After searching for a while I came across a few images that I could use. From this point I set up the reference images in the 3D program and started sculpting the head. After tireless hours of modeling I started forming a shape that resembled a head. Once the head was completed I removed the reference images and started to free handedly edit my model. I found that some of the features such as the nose, eyes and lips, although mirrored the reference image did not look natural. I edited these features to fit into the heads proportion. My character is female and and I am only modeling from the neck up. With any project time is a major factor and although I would have loved to have modeled an entire character the time I have got to not only model but texture and animate I have to be realistic in what I can do. This will not affect the out come or impact of my project as my final presentation will be a simulated face to face interaction with my character so even if I did model the rest of the body it will not be seen.
To the Left is an un-smoothed render of my 3D head with the reference images and the image to the right is a smoothed out render.
Honors Blog: The Uncanny Valley
I am currently a student at the University of Canberra completing my honors degree. Over the past year I have been working on a project that plays with the concepts of Masahiro Mori's "Uncanny Vally". Through this blog I will be documenting my progress and creating a 3D character that falls into the lowest part of the uncanny valley.
