Bezier or mesh for modeling this character?

Support Modeling
1

Im trying to model this character here, rig it, and animate it.

zxqjaYM.jpg2300×1725 238 KB

Uiy645F.jpg2300×1725 248 KB

His head is pretty much a rounded cube. This is so far what I’m stuck on. I tried to model him from a subdivided cube, but I couldn’t keep track of all the vertices to make the lips. I tried Bezier curves, but I couldn’t get the cube to be rounded enough without turning it back into a mesh.

Which is a more reasonable method for this situation: Bezier or mesh?

2

Addition: Would ripping the lips and creating an interior for the mouth affect the subdivision?

3

If you want to rig and animate, Beziers are basically out of the question.

4

Yes. No. That would depend on the mesh, which we can’t see…! Sorry to not be more helpful here!

5

currently, it’s a catmull-clark subdivided (3 subdivisions) cube that hasn’t been applied

Capture2.PNG1005×608 35.1 KB


if I apply the modifier and use a lattice to control the vertices instead, could I rip a lip out?

6

Objects that look simple are not always so simple to model, but there is a method that seems to work for most anything, and is considerably easier than modelling the traditional way, if you don’t already have a lot of practice at doing such. The method involves doing a sculpt, and then using retopo / surface snapping to construct an optimized mesh over the high poly sculpt. If I get a minute though, I may take a crack at an example using box modelling, which is a little more traditional, and a good thing to know.

7

this seemed to more or less get it done…I used inset for the eye holes and bevel at a level of 2 for the mouth, then alt S ( scale along normal ) on the center mouth edge.
(edit) whoops I just noticed an n-gon in there…well, there are improvements that could be made. couple of extra edge loops couldn’t hurt…
(edit) I must say, this guy subsurfaced rather nicely considering it has n-gons. I feel compelled now to make a less sloppy example though…
boxyguy.blend (374 KB)

8

I am now thinking, that perhaps the best way to make this, other than the sculpt / retopo method, is vertex by vertex, which is actually a good way to model things.

9

Mesh. Definitely.

Three ways to consider:

  1. Sculpt the model then “retopologise” to make a low poly version of your sculpt. I’ve seen some great models done this way. but I don’t usually work this way.
  2. Box modelling: start with a cube and use loop cuts, extrudes, vertex manipulation to shape it.
  3. Start with a single plane and build up the model (by extruding), by constructing topology (see tutorials e.g. here or here) - ultimately, good topology matters… this is probably how I would work.

You’ll probably want to use a mirror modifier to keep it symmetrical (at least from the beginning).