3-D Human Modeling and Animation »

Peter Ratner is a professor of 3-D computer animation in the School of Art and Art History at James Madison University. He is the founder of the computer animation program at the university and started the first animation concentration in the state of Virginia. In addition to teaching, writing and illustrating five books, and authoring articles for HDRI 3D magazine, he has exhibited his oil paintings, animations, and computer graphics in numerous national and international juried exhibitions.

3-D Human Modeling and Animation

Third Edition

All the tools and techniques you need to bring human figures to 3-D life

Thanks to today's remarkable technology, artists can create and animate realistic, three-dimensional human figures that were not possible just a few years ago. This easy-to-follow book guides you through all the necessary steps to adapt your own artistic skill in figure drawing, painting, and sculpture to this exciting digital canvas.

3-D Human Modeling and Animation, Third Edition starts you off with simple modeling, then prepares you for more advanced techniques for creating human characters. After a brief overview of human anatomy, you'll delve into the basic principles of proportion and structure, along with the different body parts. Exploring human modeling, texturing, rigging, and lighting leads you to more advanced techniques for digital figure animation.

Filled with?detailed, practical information about creating and animating 3-D human models, this updated Third Edition now features more than 500 full-color images that detail, step by step, the modeling and animation processes for both male and female figures. Most helpful of all, the included DVD features QuickTime tutorials tied to the modeling chapters and provides detailed color images from the chapters so you can get a quick start in bringing your visions to fruition!

Computer Arts Special

With the advent of apps such as Poser, creating 3D human figures has been greatly automated. In this detailed course you're shown how the human form can be constructed from scratch with splines and NURBS, to produce a believable model that will animate with realism.

Profusely illustrated, each element of the figure is covered in detail. Not intended to be program specific, users of LightWave 3D though, will find that many of the techniques, and much of the advice, is relevant to their software.

Beginning with a discussion of the creation of modeling primitives, the supporting tutorials on spline and NURB construction are concise and lead to more detailed information on the use of texture mapping. Concluding with two chapters on preparing your figure for animation, and how the human figure behaves when in motion, this book is thorough, comprehensive, and flexible.

Overall, this is an excellent guide to creating the human form with your favorite 3D modelling package; especially when you need more control over the modeling structure as detailed advice is given on Metaball, polygonal, lattice deformations, as well as seamless spline based modeling.