[redsniper]

Heya HLP,

I've been working on a project on and off over the years that involves, among other things, modeling human characters. I'm currently trying to rig a model here and I'm having no end of trouble trying to get the hip to deform nicely. I think my topology might be no good and I'm currently experimenting with different topos, but I thought I'd get some advice from you guys as well.

Here's a turnaround, the center-line is highlighted on the left view...


... and a couple perspective shots


I'm planning use non-photorealistic rendering, probably a cell-shaded style, so I don't think I need too much detail. Also, I think I'd mostly use this for still images, so I want things to be poseable but not necessarily animateable (Though I suppose the two go hand-in-hand).

So any input here is appreciated. Thanks.

[redsniper]

So almost immediately after posting that, I had a flash of brilliance and came up with this:


Not sure what to do about that six-sided pole though....

[Galemp]

You might want to throw a few more rings of vertices around the buttocks, as they'll be stretched the most when the legs bend. Already at a 45 degree angle you can see some sharp corners, just imagine what they'll look like when the legs are 90 degrees.

[Thaeris]

Character modeling - something I find very interesting indeed, but something I've not invested enough time into.

This site may possibly be of interest to you, red:

http://www.makehuman.org/

[bizzybody]

Needs more polygons at joints. Problem areas I've seen in many animated characters are knees and elbows. Observe your own knees and elbows to see what areas deform as you bend and which don't.

[redsniper]

Nevermind. I got it figured out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzqXZxugfGo&feature=email

[jcarl904]

That looks great redsniper.  I'm doing some leg rigging myself and would like to see a side and back pic to see how it deforms.
Would you mind sharing your topology and show the bone positioning?

[Scourge of Ages]

That looks great redsniper.  I'm doing some leg rigging myself and would like to see a side and back pic to see how it deforms.
Would you mind sharing your topology and show the bone positioning?

There's nothing about that that didn't sound lewd. 

[redsniper]

front
side
back
bones side
bones front

The green 'helper bone' is constrained to copy the rotation of the thigh bone in local space, with an influence of 50% for the x-axis and 26% for the z-axis. This helper bone influences the crease in front and the lower part of the buttock in back.

[Colonol Dekker]

I'd hit it


I take it you've no problems with the rigging now?

[redsniper]

Well, not with hips... next project is the shoulder, which I believe is even more complicated. Elbows and knees are well documented online though, so I'm not to worried about those.