Help with edge loops and fixing edge flow

[Anonymous]

Hey Guys,

I'm pretty new to organic modeling, I got this base mesh for my characters body, and I'm having a hard time understanding how to end some edge loops so I can maintain quads, and only quads. I have attached the file so anyone who can look at it and help me out I'd be grateful. What I specifically need help with is creating an edge loop around the are where the legs will be placed. If you open the file, click on the mesh and go to the edge sub-object level the loop I am referring to will be highlighted. Also if you guys have any other critiques on the mesh pleas feel free to tell me.
Thanks.

basemesh01.zip

[Anonymous]

Hi Atlas,

Maybe it is not bad to take a look into the AREA Tutorials data base. There are many very useful tips and tutorials which will surely show you the right way to get the result you are after.
For instance you could follow the nice video tutorials published from
Eugene Mishibinijiama (there are 5 of them); http://area.autodesk.com/tutorials/human_face_modeling_nose_part_2
As attachment here is an image of a topology study I did many years ago have a look into it as well. But as I said above the are a lot of very nice tutorials delving into the topic here in AREA and every where online.

ivan

[Steve_Curley]

And in case Ivan can't find his own posts, you could do worse than look through his Psyche series of threads, They're not tutorials but show the quality of work you should be aiming for.

You'll likely not be able to model entirely from quads, but the trick is to keep the non-quads to a bare minimum and in places where they either won't be seen or where their impact will be minimal (flat areas).

Your model looks like a good start to me (though I'm no expert). If you add a TurboSmooth (or MeshSmooth or turn on NURMS within the Editable Poly) with a couple of Iterations you'll be able to quickly see which areas need attention - the Edges tend to "clump together" in such areas. Note that Edges tend to be clearer in a Shaded rather than a Clay view - White instead of black - if you have a suitable Wire colour (no material). Like Ivan, I normally use a dark Gold colour when modeling as it doesn't conflict with sub-object colours and selections.

On my system, yours may differ.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. The tutorials are very helpful considering edge loops are a new subject with me. When I model I'm sort of cautious because I feel like theres a certain way things need to be done, or laid out, and I don't want to deviate from that or mess things up. Case in point this thread. I ran into a problem with my flow and was like "uh-oh" so I stopped and came here for advice. I wasn't sure if there are certain techniques used to close edge loops otherwise I would just keep drawing edges as I please to create the shape I wan't but in the end it would be a very messy model.

[Anonymous]

Hey Steve, thanks for the help, and yes Ivans topic is another great resource. I forgot about the use of smoothing to find artifacts in the model. Also I just recently upgraded to Max 2013, from 2011. I couldn't find the smooth and shaded option that used to be in the previous packages. Now they have clay, and realistic and all sorts of things, I chose clay because It seemed to give off the least amount of glare from the default light, I'll look again though. Gold is definitely an interesting color choice to model in, I normally use a mid tone gray and I can see everything just fine. Thanks for the tips though.

[Steve_Curley]

Smooth/Shaded is still there, but only if you change the Viewport Driver to DirectX instead of the default Nitrous. I leave mine on Nitrous, use the Shaded instead of realistic mode, and turn off shadows/ambient occlusion/etc for the modeling phase. They come in useful though once the model is textured and you start adding real lights.