Figure 1.7 Click for larger view

Figure 1.8 Click for larger view

Figure 1.9 Click for larger view

Figure 1.10 Click for larger view

Figure 1.11 Click for larger view

Body Building

Figure 1.12 Click for larger view

Figure 1.13 Click for larger view

Figure 1.14 Click for larger view

Figure 1.15 Click for larger view

Figure 1.16 Click for larger view

In the front viewport create a sphere and change the number

of segments to 32. Change the viewport to "smooth+highlights." Hey! I can't see the reference material with that sphere sitting there (Figure 1.7). Open up the material editor, select an empty material slot and change it's name to "wire frame." Under basic parameters select "Wire," change the diffuse color to red (or whatever color will enable the wireframe to pop off of the background), set it's Self-Illumination to 100% (see Figure 1.8) and apply it to your sphere. Viola, you can now see the sphere in wireframe while the reference planes are in shaded mode (see Figure 1.9).

Apply a 3x3x3 free-form deformation (FFD) and move the control points into a rough approximation of the lizard's shape as seen from the front (see Figure 1.10; in this and subsequent figures, I have decreased the self-illumination of the reference material to make the wireframe more visible). Switch to the left viewport and do the same thing (Figure 1.11).
Next apply a 4x4x4 FFD to fine tune the remaining areas (Figure 1.12). Through-out this tutorial, we'll be using low resolution FFDs to get the basic shape of the object and then higher resolution FFDs to refine the object further. With this method, we can quickly sculpt out the basic shape by manipulating only a few points and then refine the shape with more points later.

You might find that you need more than a 4x4x4 to adequately deform your object. If so, use FFD box. With this modifier you get to specify the number of control points in each direction! You can use a many or as few as you want. For me, I noticed that I needed to get a dip in the lower center of the front viewport to represent the fambaa's belly. So I applied a FFD box and set it resolution to 2x2x5. Then I moved the control points on either side of the center one up to get the stomach (this is shown in Figure 1.13).

The Head

Once you have the basic shape of the body done, move on to the head. The lizard's torso and head seem to have a very similar shape. There's no reason not to take advantage of this; so, copy the torso to make the head. Once you've finished making the clone (name it "fambaa: head"), hide "fambaa: torso." Rotate the head 180 degrees around the z axis in the top viewport. Then rotate it in the left viewport so that it more closely lines up with the reference image. Finally, scale the image to the correct shape (Figure 1.14).

Next examine the head in each of reference viewports (front and left) and modify the control points of the FFDs appropriately. For instance, I removed the 2x2x5 box FFD because the head doesn't need a "stomach" area. In the FRONT view I then modified the top FFD (4x4x4) to widen the head and create a central peak. I also added another 4x4x4 FFD and rotated the lattice (before changing any of the control point locations) to align with the front and left viewports and then used the FFD to add some indication of the jaw/cheek structures. The results of all of the tweaking can be seen in Figure 1.15 and Figure 1.16.

NOTE: Don't forget that with FFDs you can always go back and add more detail to the base object. When you do this to one of the objects, you should also do it to any other "similar" object you're going to connect to this object. Here, similar means that a common heritage exists (such as both being made from spheres). If you don't make sure that the objects have similar segments, the object which results from the Connect modifier will have striations which can be a pain to get rid of (especially if you don't have the Blend modifier).

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