Yoda modeling tutorial

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Yoda Tutorial by Ken Brilliant www.brilliant-creations.com

This is a tutorial outlining how I constructed a Yoda head in Winged Edge’s 3D software, Mirai. The commands might be Mirai specific, but you’ll be able reproduce similar results with most programs these days.

Modeling

As the this tutorial progresses, you’ll notice the pattern of tools used to create this model.

I wanted to have Yoda reference images I downloaded from the internet readily at hand. I though about keeping them open in a paint program running along side of Mirai, but decided that I didn’t want to always flip back and forth between the 2 programs. That would be like painting a portrait with the subject in a room separate from where you were working. You’d have run back and forth, painting from memory. The solution was to load a bunch of reference shots right into Mirai. Then, I could drag the images from the scene editor into the geometry window where it would be in the background. Pressing "i" lets you move and scale the image.

I also wanted a 3D template of Yoda to start work from, so I created two rectangles, named them "front" and "side" and intersected them at the center origin. The two images I chose for this were first brought into PhotoShop and sized so they were as close to each other as possible. The front view image was Z planar mapped onto the "front" cube and the side X mapped on "side." (makes sense!)

Life for characters built in Mirai usually begins as a simple cube.

To add more geometry necessary to shape the head, I performed a SMOOTH with one iteration. I left "copy with history" unselected for now. The head was going to be subdivided again to create more polygons, but

before I did that I wanted to start getting the head shaped in the right direction. I like to get these forms going as early in the modeling process as possible, since it’s always harder to manipulate larger bunches of polygons.

I like to think of modeling in terms of stages. Stage 1 is the initial blocking out. Stage 2 is adding secondary forms. Stage 3 is the fine detail. I suppose Stage 4 could be the detail added with texture maps. Depending on your projects needs, you might only take this to Stage 1 or 2. Or course, a cartoon character isn’t going to necessarily have little wrinkles and folds, but you still apply this way of working to it. Certainly, their proportions are the most important!

I feel compelled to stress this work flow. One drawback of point by point modeling (if you’re not digitizing a sculpture) is that you’re not seeing the model as a whole until you are far along. I know what it’s like to be all too eager to jump into the details of a model. But by showing restraint, and taking time with a model in the initial blocky forms; making sure the proportions look good from all angles, will make a superior piece in the end. We are all impressed with detailed textures and surfaces of 3D work. But if these details are put onto a poorly proportioned and balanced form, it still won’t save the work. I believe that the design, overall broad strokes and proportions of a model are what read first and give the best impression. Refinement and detail can only strengthen this.

MOVE, magnet MOVE were used to start shaping the head.

The SMOOTH command was performed once again Also, at this point the head was cut in half to take advantage of the VIRTUAL MIRROR feature.

Plane Cut on the X plane normal, positive side. The body was selected again, and VIRTUAL MIRROR was performed selecting the large middle polygon as the mirror face.

You can’t actually edit the geometry on the newly formed side. As the name implies, it’s virtual. But this way we’ll be able to see the form as a whole, and not have to grab twice as many points etc.

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