The New and Improved James Bond Character

This is the body of the new character that will star as James Bond within the trailer. As mentioned from the reaction to the feedback, more modelling tools would be incorporated into the making of the model and this has been the case for this model. Tools and techniques that have been used thus far include, Inset, Extrude, Bevel, Connect, Ring, Loop, Chamfer, Soft Selection and the use of 'See Through'.

The boots were created first, by creating a box and then extruding. To make them appear less boxy, highlighting the edges of the boots, and selecting the loop tools, it selects all of the edges and the connect tool, connects them together by adding more faces, which can then be modified. The reference plate was then used to guide the shoe into place. The bend tool was used to make the boot bend slightly with the foot, as the position he is standing in would not make his shoes go completely straight to the floor.

To create the legs, the cylinder shape was used with extrude to make the leg bigger. The rotate and scale tool was used to make the leg shrink and enlarge to the contours of the legs, to match the reference plate. This work much better than previous attempts of the models. The inset tool was used to make the gap in his trousers at the top, this allows you to see all the way through the trousers looking through the top view port. This was also completed for the boots as well. For both the boots and the legs, instance clones were created and flipped into place using the symmetry tool.

To make the T-Shirt, the plane shape was created, and then extruded around the outline of the reference plate uisng the left view port. This was particularly difficult to master, and took many attempts before reaching a standard that would be satisfactory to include in this post. The vertices were then amended to match the outline of the reference plate. Using the loop tool on the outer edge of the plane outline, all of the edges are then selected on that side. Holding the shift key as the move tool is used, it extrudes the same outline again and again, until the bulk of the t-shirt has been completed before reaching the sleeves. Before the sleeves were begun, the bridge tool was used to join the edges from one side to the other to add some more basic details to the t-shirt. There was still a gap in the clothing for where the arms would go.

The arms were created by making a cyclinder and extruding, rotating and scaling the arm using the front, side and top view ports to conform to the guidelines. Once the arm was made, the hand was created by making a simple box that had been put into place with the guidelines. Each vertex was modified so that each edge was in line for where the fingers would go. To create a space for the fingers, the chamfer tool was used to add some extra sections, so that when the faces of each finger were extruded and beveled, they would not mesh into one large mitten like feature. This was completed for each finger and the thumb which required some more rotation and scale. The arm and the hand were attached together. Upon completion, the faces of the hand and arm were bridged together to make it one object. This again was mirrored using the mirror tool in the main tool bar and then put into place.

To bend the fingers, soft selection was used and the edge distance was altered from the default 1 to 4. This meant that the other fingers would not be effected when one was moved. They moved down to make them appear more organic and less box like. The rotation tool was then used to make the fingers appear slightly bent.

So far, this model appears to be making much better progress than any of the previous models that have been created in this project. To accomplish this model, a very useful tutorial is available in 3DS Max in their tutorial section.

This is the head as it is begins to take shape. This was made from a box with the vertices moulded to fit the reference plate. There is only half of the face as the symmetry modifier will be applied later. The nose was created by using the cut tool and making the basic shape of a nose, which was then extruded and rotated into shape ready for the symmetry tool to be activated.

The mouth was then created by adding faces using the connect and cut tools. The vertices were then moved and rearranged to create a small mouth with a result like below:

Next, the shape for the eyes needed to be made using the cut tool. Once, cut the outline was then inset to make the eyes sink into the face. The vertices were then atered to reduce stretch lines where it had been inset. The face of the eye was then removed, and replaced with a geosphere placed within the head. The vertices were then adjusted again so that the eye lids cover the eye rather than the eyes escaping them as this would be unrealistic. Compared to the previous attempts for models especially the previous posts for heads, this has made a lot of progress. The cut and connect tool was also used to define the cheeks, forehead and chin a little more.

When this was mesh smoothed, it had puzzling results as the nose kept caving in on itself, this was overcome by deleting the two faces on the side of the nose, which was preventing the edges from being bridged together. Once this was achieved the nose looked much more sophisticated. Furthermore, the shape of the nose began to take more shape, when more edges were added using the cut tool so that vertices could be pulled out in different positions to give it more shape and the effects were like so...

To complete the face so it can be attached to the rest of the body, the ears and hair need to be added and then the character will be ready for animation.

The next step was to create ears for the Mr Bond. This was achieved by using the cut tool on the side of the head, using the symmetry modifier this meant that the cut tool worked on both sides of the head. The faces that had been created by the cut tool were then extruded and the vertices were then adjusted so that they began to resemble a pair of ears better.

Next, the top of the head was extruded to make a hair line. This was basic as the vertices were adjusted and it now makes James Bond look like one of the disastrous hair cuts from the 90's. Upon completion, the stack for the head was collapsed so that when the file was merged with the body the neck could be bridged together without only half the head showing. Once both of the files had been merged together the body and the head were then attached to make one large object.

To make the character ready to walk in the trailer, the Biped tool was used and merged together with the object. The Biped tool can be located in the create panel followed by selecting systems. The biped was formed in the front view port and made to scale to the model. The shoulders were adjusted on the biped to match the model. It was then merged to the model. To test if all of the objects within the biped were controlling the corresponding model limb, using the footstep tool, the model is able to walk across the screen following a set layout of footsteps. The parts that are not being controlled by the biped leave nasty stretch marks that will move on the model. In this case, there were marks on both the feet, the arms and the head. This was adjusted by altering the radius on the physique envelope modifer along with the parent and child contols. The way to know if it should be the parent or the child control to adjust is thinking which limb is being adjusted. For example, the hand to the arm is the child to the parent. The toes on a foot is the child to the parent. Or vice versa, the thigh to the shin on a leg is the parent to the child.

Once, there were no stretch marks, the limbs of the biped were then moved and adjusted by selecting figure mode when the biped was selected. This was so that when the trailer plays, the audience doesn't see a mixture of both models but rather just James Bond and not his skeleton trying to get to the spot first.



To complete this character ready for animation is to apply some materials to him to make him appear more sophisticated.

Using the paint selection region tool, the individual faces were able to highlighted rather quickly, so that materials could be made and applied to the different body parts quickly and effectively. A skin texture was found from the internet (Filter Forge, 2006) which were applied to the arms and face. This had the bump modifier applied as well with the same skin bitmap and applied at 30. This added extra texture to the skin and worked rather well.

The t-shirt was made again by finding a fabric texture from the internet (Hart-Davis, D (2011) which was then mirrored to create the effect shown in the image above. To create the khaki style trousers, an image of a khaki fabric was located from the internet (Lings Designs, ND) and then given the bump modifer with smoke, this added an interesting effect especially when the specular level was adjusted as well.

The boots were given a leather bitmap to begin with, again taken from an internet source (InetGiant, 2009), which was then adjusted by mirroring and tiling was adjusted to 10. Furthermore, it was also selected to be an environ rather than a texture. This made it look better as before this was applied, the boots looked very bumpy and not shoe like at all.

The hair again selected using the paint selection region tool was made by finding a bitmap from the internet (Bangin, 2007). This didn't appear very sophisticated when adjusting the qualities of the bitmap, and is more a shade of black than having a texture of hair. Alternatively, the hair and fur modifer was going to be applied but then the file size and render time would be severly affected, so this was a decision that would have to be kept.

The final step for this model so that animation can begin is to add eyes and apply the textures to those eyes.

Here is an image with the model with eyes:

To create the eyes a basic geosphere was created and copied. They were then converted to editable poly's, so that faces were able to be selected and adjust the specular levels to make there be a light reflecting off of it. These are very basic eyes but the animation will not focus on it for very long at all so, to ensure that there is enough time ot complete the animation, this detail will be left as it is.