TUTORIALS | Modelling the female body

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Body
beautiful
CG artist Alessandro Baldasseroni
01
The base figure was modelled traditionally with
subdivision surfaces, using a lot of nude references
for the anatomy. It was posed for the 3D World
cover using just soft selections and freeform deformation
walks us through the creation of modifiers. This version has polygonal hair: a useful Maya
tutorial on modelling a polygonal braid can be found
our anatomically correct cover star at www.christerb.com/tutorials/maya_modelbraid.

he cover star this issue is actually an unclothed

T version of a character I had already created for

a series of images on my website. The model
was crafted in 3ds Max using subdivision
surfaces, with Photoshop used for texturing, ZBrush for all
the fine anatomical details, and Brazil r/s for rendering.
However, the original model lacked detail, mainly because
the figure was originally created with clothes. For the
purposes of the cover, it was necessary to show this fine
anatomical detail, so I generated normal maps in ZBrush to
achieve the desired level of realism.
For this kind of work, observation is key. Unless you have
a good knowledge of artistic anatomy, you should use photo Once I’m happy with the level of detail in the desired
references extensively, observing each one close up. If you 02 pose, I push things to the next level, which is where
ZBrush comes to the fore. Workflow dictated that I
have to focus on one specific anatomical detail, try to collect
exported the base body mesh from 3ds Max in the OBJ format
as many pictures as you can of that particular part of the before importing it into ZBrush, and increasing the
body. Often, when you look at the same area in different subdivision level to at least 5 before sculpting the fine detail.
poses, small details are revealed, especially in varying lighting
conditions and with different body shapes.
But when it comes to more complex considerations, such as
the proportions, emotions and gestures of the character, any
anatomical detail will be ineffective without contextualisation.
Once again, reference material is invaluable in this respect, yet
photographic images are often less helpful than paintings (a
useful collection can be found at www.artrenewal.org) and
classic sculpture (www.thais.it/scultura/default_uk.htm).
The old masters dedicated their lives to recreating form and
beauty, so let their work inspire you.
In this article, we will explore some of the modelling and
rendering technique used in the creation of the image. A scene
file showing the lighting set-up can be found on the CD. With the fine detail of the back and hair complete,
03 I generated a couple of maps to be used as normal
bump sources in Max. I prefer normal maps to
Alessandro Baldasseroni is employed as a full-time digital
displacement maps for subtle details, as they’re faster to
artist at Milestone, a leading developer of entertainment
render. The braid’s normal bump was created in Photoshop
software based in Milan, Italy using Nvidia’s free normal map generator plug-in: http://
www.eklettica.com developer.nvidia.com/object/Photoshop_dds_plugins.html

048 | 3D WORLD March 2006

 Modelling the female body | TUTORIALS

After creating normal maps, I built up the skin

04 material using the Brazil r/s skin shader, then put
the normal maps in the normal bump slot, and
tweaked the subsurface scattering parameters. Although it’s
usually a good idea to build custom maps to control intensity
when working with subsurface scattering, I didn’t in this
case, as I wanted to create a generic ‘resin statue’ look.

The rendering and lighting set-up was simple: a pure

05 white skylight, a spot directional light that casts
shadow maps, and a couple of omni lights close to
the face to brighten dark areas. No bounced light or area
shadows – only subsurface scattering turned on to keep the
render time acceptable, yet still maintain artistic quality.

Finally came the compositing stage in Photoshop.

06 With considered use of gradients, filters and
blending modes, you can dramatically enhance the
quality of your renderings. I placed a white, noisy layer in soft
light mode over the rendering to soften the tones, and
increased saturation of selected areas to enhance the effect
of the subsurface scattering.

March 2006 3D WORLD | 049