Finishing and Refining - Game Character Development with Maya - page 125

Know Your Anatomy
Studying anatomy will help you be more aware of character form and movement.
You'll become better at drafting and animation, and you'll build more efficient
models.
Before you embark on this chapter, it's important to gather a few good anatomical
references, be they topics or Web sites. There are hundreds of online resources
you can use. Each of these sites offers literally hundreds of images available to
download. See Appendix B , “ Reference and Further Reading ,” for a list of sug-
gested topics and Web sites.
Of course, the best and most convenient reference is you. Get yourself a mirror
and study your own body.
Muscle Line Mapping
Let's start working. Load the last file you saved in Chapter 2 , called Kila_Basic.mb.
Look at your character model ( Figure 3.1 ). So far, it's quite well defined and the propor-
tions are correct. It is a good base model. In fact, with a bit of optimization, you could use
her as a low-resolution character just as she is. She would not, however, be good as our
main model. We still have a few problems to address:
Taken statically, she looks fine, but once you start to animate her, the flaws will
show. There will be breaks or bulges in the areas that bend, either because they
don't have enough polygons or because the topology needs some work.
The mesh as it stands has too many polygons that simply are not needed.
She lacks physical detail in both her body and face.
This model still has no hands or feet.