D-Mesh Tutorial II - Adding Muscle Maps
The following sections of this tutorial have been moved to the Documentation files. It is suggested that you briefly review these sections before continuing.
The following examples use the dragon1x.dmz files, where the x is replaced by a letter from a to g. Alternatively, you can open the dragon1.dmz, which has all the muscles defined, but set to inactive. For each step you can simply activate the specific muscle.
| Bone Surfaces Layer | |
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First we create the basic shape for the Dragon, fat at the bottom and through the tummy with a skinnier neck. Open dragon1a.dmz and refer to the Basic Shape layer. The X-Section is a single valued entry and so circular. The Radius section contains the Control Point definition to give it the shape. (This is similiar in concept to the standard lathe or Surface of Revolution found in most 3D packages.) |
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Next we add a little tummy to the front of the surface. A little difficult
to see in this example, but should be more apparent from 3D preview window.
Open dragon1b.dmz and refer to the Tummy muscle in the Bone Surfaces layer. The Position, Width, Height and X-Section Control points are all used. The Tummy muscle is centered at u=0.50 so it will be in the center of the model. The scaling for this muscle has also been reduced to 0.25 so that it produces a 'cute' bulge. Increase this if it is not apparent in your view. |
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Next we add some Spine Spikes to the back. Open dragon1c.dmz and refer to
the Spine Spike muscle. This has its center position at u=0.00 so it will
appear at the back. We could have created 6 individual spikes, but in this
case, we set the Height definition to a repeating value.
Click in the Height control point field. The left-bottom button will change to "Edit Height Properties". Click this button and the Curve Properties dialog will be displayed for the Height curve. Note that 6 has been entered in the repeats field. The Scale for the Spikes has been increased to 2 so that they appear more menacing. |
(left)
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Now we add some small tummy bumps or ridges to outline the main tummy muscle.
Open dragon1d.dmz and see the Left and Right Tummy Bumps. The Position curve
has been set to match the right and left most positions of the Tummy muscle
(ie 0.50 +/- 1/2 the width of the Tummy muscle.).
This muscle also sets the repeat value for the Height curve but this time to 20. The muscle scale has been reduced down to 0.25 so they don't overwhelm the other muscles. |
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External Muscles Layer
Now we want to add some ridges or tummy plates to the basic tummy shape. We want these to be placed on top of the existing tummy muscle and tummy edge bumps so be sure to add this muscle to a different layer. |
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The tummy plates follow the same Position curve as the main tummy. The Width
curve is similiarly shaped, but with a slightly smaller width, so it fits
inside the tummy bumps. The Height repeat value has been set to seven.
Open dragon1f.dmz and refer to the Tummy Plates muscle in the External Muscles layer. |
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Finally, we just add a slight 0.25 twist to the model, (from the Basic Shape layer) and view from the left, front, right and back. (see dragon1g.dmz)
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