Hi, I'm James Rogers. Before I get started, let me give credit to a DVD tutorial that I used to learn to model this creature and others. The DVD is called T-Rex Modeling. It features a 4 hour tutorial on modeling by the very talented Kurt Boutilier. Kurt walks you through every step of modeling a T-rex with the use of Nurbs, polygons and subDs. The DVD is available from SimplyMaya.com. One more thing, in the demo that I am providing here, you will see a profile drawing of a T-rex that I used as reference. The drawing was included on the DVD. This way, if you buy the DVD, you will have some good reference material to work from. I highly recommend that anyone serious about learning how to model CGI animals, people, cars or anything else, stop my Simplymaya.com and check out the wonderful DVDs that they have available. It's cheaper than going to school and much easier than trying to figure it out from reading a book.. Absolutely well worth the money..
I started with a profile drawing of a T-rex. Using this image, I began modeling by creating 2 nurbs spheres which I stretched into the basic shape of the creature's head. If you are not familiar with modeling nurbs, watch this short video (1.1meg quicktime) which shows how simple they are to work with. Here is another shot of the 2 spheres after basic modeling. I found nurbs to be very easy to work with when developing the basic shape of the model. After some time with the nurbs, I converted them to polygons for further modeling. In Maya, polys have the largest tool set for working with. There are things you can easily do with polys that are much harder to do with nurbs. For instance, I had to attach all of the separate nurbs together once they were converted to polys. This was a pretty easy thing to do with polys. Here is the head and body after the nurbs to poly conversion. You'll notice that the drawing is visible. I used the drawing as reference until the thing was almost 70% complete. Of course, there were times that I turned it off when it was getting in the way. Here is the model after attaching the separate poly shapes.
The cool thing about building creatures like this rex is that you only have to model half of it!! The other half will simply be a mirror image of the half you spent all of your time on. Here is the basic head, body and tail once I cut it in half.
Next, I modeled the nurbs leg. I started with a nurbs cylinder. This the same way I modeled the arm. You'll notice in this picture that both the arm and leg are penetrating the body and are sticking through the other side. We can trip the excess polygons and attach the limbs to the body is a single command. By using a Boolean function, it's easy to join different models together. Here is a look at the entire model as it appears at this point. I simple selected the model then duplicated it the other side.
Now the detail begins. Here is a shot of eye and brow being roughed in. Here you see the leg taking shape. At this point in modeling, it's a matter of adding edges, moving vertices to create a better shape with greater detail.
The toes were modeled separately then attached with a boolean function.
The eye area is starting to take shape. While working, I like to duplicate the model so that I can see how the entire creature is shaping up. Here you can see more detail in the head plus you can see that the fingers have been added.
The major folds of skin in the stomach area are taking shape.
So far I've been doing most of the modeling with polys and thing are looking really blocky. Never fear, SubDs are here. That's right. SubDs. They are like a cross between Nurbs and polys. I won't get into the technical differences but I will say that when you take a poly model with sharp edges, when you convert them to SubDs, all of the sharp edges go away. Things become soft. Of course there are ways to make subDs have sharp edges too but for this model, we don't need anything very sharp. Anyway, To show you the difference between polys and SubDs. I'll show you the model twice, once as a poly and once as a subD. Here is the poly model... Here is the SubD model. Switch back and forth between the pictures for a great comparison.
Next came the nostril. It was a simple matter of pushing in a couple of faces. Before. After.
Let's take a look at the whole model again. This time as a subD. Time to add more detail. I should tell you that I did almost no modeling in SubDs. I did a little bit of minor tweaking but nothing worth mentioning. I like modeling in polys. They are light and fast and easy. Here is some more detail.
Bottom of the hand as a subD with no detail and no claws. Now, here it is as a poly model with claws and more detail. Finally, here it is as a subD.
The fingernails (claws) and toenails started out as simple nurbs cones. I scaled and modeled them into the look of deadly claws.
After some more tweaking, I finally finished the model. Here are a series of pictures that will help to illustrate the difference between polys and SubDs...Finished poly with wireframe. Finished poly without wireframe. Finished subD with wireframe. Finished SubD without wireframe. I wanted to show you the difference so that you could appreciate the subtle quality of SubDs as apposed to the sharp faceted quality of polys. Click Here. Now click here. See the difference?
Here is my finished T-rex. The half model has been duplicated then permanently merged together. Here is a rendering of the model. If you want to see a 360 degree animation of the beast (1.4meg quicktime) click here.
Here is a shot of the model with 10 copies of its head that will be used as blend shapes so that it can change expressions. each copy will be remodeled to show a unique expression.
The modeling is done.