CSE325 Computer Science and Sculpture

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CSE325 Computer Science and Sculpture

• Prof. George Hart

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Lecture 11 Maya

• Previously we made geometric forms.
• This week organic and human forms.
• Sculpting a human form requires both a sense of
  3D design and an understanding of human anatomy.
  This is covered in various art courses. In this
  class, we will look at just a few of the
  technical issues.

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Malcolm Thain Kneeling Girl
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Various End Uses

• Possible uses for 3D human form models
• 2D rendering
• 3D Solid Freeform Fabrication
• Video game characters
• Animation/movies/educational software,
• Digital Sculpture
• Varying techniques, types of models, level of
  detail, resolution, use of textures, materials,
  lighting, etc.

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Malcolm Thain Torso
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Bernini, marble sculpture, 1521
Current software tools are not suitable for
capturing human form. Physical sculptures made by
traditional techniques have detail and impact
enormously beyond anything yet made with software
tools.
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Scan of Michelangelos David

• Any 3D form may be approximated with enough
  triangles, but enormous dataset may be required.
  Stanford project
• 0.011 inch resolution
• 2 billion polygons collected
• More than can be displayed on current computers

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Which is photo? Which is rendering?
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Laser-Scanned Human

• 25000-triangles example
• Appears coarse to viewer.
• It is important to put higher density of
  triangles in the places where viewers look
  carefully, e.g., the face, eyes, hands.

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Maya Representations

• Polygonal Meshes
• Polygons, two meet at each edge
• NURBS
• allows smooth curves
• Subdivision Surfaces
• Chunks of NURBS and polygons
• Everything is eventually converted to polygons if
  using solid freeform fabrication machines. But 2D
  rendering may display smoothed surfaces, and use
  images for textures, such as hair, fabric, etc.

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Learning Maya

• Excellent built-in tutorials and help files.
• You can go through the help file steps to make a
  hammer and a hand.
• There are many tips and tricks web sites.
• Tools we will use this week
• subdivision, smoothing, tweaking individual
  vertices, push and pull sculpt tool, etc.
• Dont expect it to be fast or easy