New avatar

daylanKifky

Hi everyone.

I'm happy to announce that we are starting the creation of a new humanoid avatar!!
Even if we love the one we normally use now, there are some technical aspects of it which makes it non completely suitable for visualizing mocap data.

I would like to introduce @FlonkDonk, one of the earliest Chordata contributors. He is resposable for the current shape of the female model we all use. He's an outstanding 3D artists, particularly skilled on hard-surface modelling, and sci-fi character creation. He will be taking care of the modelling, so we are in good hands 😁

We have been talking about this new model for a while now, and we thought it would be a good idea to open the discussion here, so you people can follow the process, and contribute with ideas or suggestions.

We wanted the general look of the model to be a little more techy than the ones normally used in mocap applications. Something in the middle between a drawing dummy and a sci-fi humanoid. We collected references in this board.

And here's a sketch of the general features:

Can't wait to see what comes out!

PS: I would also like to thank Alexander Lee for sharing his amazing female model at Blendswap

FlonkDonk

Hi daylanKifky !
Thank you for the great introductionand detailed you've given me!
Much appreciated. I already started the modeling phase and I'll update you in due time.
I may choose to change a bit the joint parts to avoid any clipping but so far, all works great.

The Idea of underneath tech in contrast of the glossy shell is really a good idea!
Different materials on the avatar would look way less blend than other avatar suit such as rokoko or xsense.

This is where I'm at.
I will cut some holes to expose the inner tubes and mechanics. of course, I would like to intergrate pannels but with the texture so we can save some polys.

FlonkDonk

So here is what I came up to for the design.
The shell gonna be glossy, as expected, and there is gonna be cloth or some kind of flexible rubber for the neck, Some flexible tube to simulate inner upper thigh muscles (adductor muscles) and lateral torso muscles as well (thoracic portion). Mechanical part such as, mechanical joints, circuit boards (on the face beneath the facial shell), static tubes and other "techy" hard surface components and the joints that gonna be "quaded" sphere for a better topology.
I will expose some torso shells that can be moved independently to the clavicle, hence showing some inner mechanical parts again for a flexible clavicle/shoulder interaction and compensation when the arm would move for external applications (E.g. Autodesk's Motion Builder).
As suggested to @daylanKifky, I would like to add a shell for the face on top of the head that would reveal some kind of printed circuit board underneath for a small Easter egg to Daft Punk's Electroma movie. I would like again to design some kind of k-ceptor that would be embedded to the shells of the avatar. Note that most of the details would be done in the texture process so that it would be lightweight and suitable for in real time activities.

All suggestion is greatly encouraged but the time si running out fast, had a lot of things to take care latetly, such as shovel a lot of snow here in Canada etc XD.
Anyway thanks to all for all good works you've done!

FlonkDonk

daylanKifky

🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌
it's hard to add any comment. I love the way it's looking and your vision.

FlonkDonk

Haha thanks! The drawings are sloppy, but if you have any suggestion about the color pallet, I am all ear!

FlonkDonk

So That is what I come up so far, need to do the neck and surely redo the mechanic part in the abdomen ( I did not like it but so far this is it XD) All works well in with rotation but I am aproaching the 30k faces/60k triangle wich is fairly low poly for last gen console but I will lower the poly count when model is approved! I reshape the head tonight is it remind me of and egg. Especially the back of the head lol.

Flavia

FlonkDonk Wow!!!! I absolutely love the result you're getting!!!

FlonkDonk

Here is a link to see the model in real time,
let me know what you think 😅 UV and texture not done. Will wait in case of topology modification.
https://skfb.ly/6QJpq

As for the arm, can we put them a bit higher with the armature?
The gleonoid placement of the scapula/head of humerus are too low and a bit outside. Hence the neck seem too long but it is proportionally accurate. As for the head, does it seem too small or too big? It is proportional of the an average female or male body (8 heads high). Also, I will arrnage fingers placement as they are to straight lol.

Guiltyfeet

FlonkDonk
Amazing work 🔥 🔥 we're all so excited about your model!
I think you nailed the robotic aesthetics while managing to keep it minimal and functional.
I can come up with just a couple of suggestions:

the face is a bit in contrast with the rest. Being so detailed it drags the attention away from the body and makes the avatar feel a bit unbalanced. One famous good example of simple but expressive robot face is Adam by Unity. Obviously this is a bit overly dramatic for our purposes but you get the idea..
The cuts in the outer shell seem a bit too complex at times and can be perceived as cracks or in general too random and overwhelming. I would suggest you check out the Gestalt principle of Closure that is "the effect of suggesting a visual connection or continuity between sets of elements which do not actually touch each other in a composition."

http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sgrais/gestalt_principles.htm
Hope this will be somehow useful! Again, amazing job I can't wait to put the new avatar to use!!! 😍

daylanKifky

FlonkDonk One of my constraint though is that, the character would be able to be adjusted by the actors height and limbs length and chest size etc.

Yes, the idea is to prepare the model to accept parametric tweaking of the body proportions. This is a planned feature that will be added on future releases of the Chordata software.

Another restriction @FlonkDonk is dealing with is the fact that he still doesn't have the exact shape of the underlying armature (we are defining it based on statistical anthropomorphic models, and experimentation). So he's intentionally leaving the overall proportions definition for latter.

Whit that said, in the meantime we can go with canonical proportions to make it feel balanced and harmonic. I do agree with @Zoombapup about the upper part feeling too narrow.

FlonkDonk As for the arm, can we put them a bit higher with the armature?
The gleonoid placement of the scapula/head of humerus are too low and a bit outside. Hence the neck seem too long but it is proportionally accurate. As for the head, does it seem too small or too big? It is proportional of the an average female or male body (8 heads high)

Yes, for now we can only make decisions based on artistic proportions. The head size looks correct to me, perhaps changing the upper part of the torso might change the long neck perception.

PS: I posted this WIP in blender.community. We would love to see more blender users get involved with Chordata, so if any of you have an account there please show some love to the post 😉

FlonkDonk

Guiltyfeet Haha!
Thank you sir for the constructive criticisms!
I love what you proposed me about the Gestalt principle. Will keep that in mind more further correction!
If by any chance you can help me in that aspect as for what seems ok and what specific part I could change reguarding shell's cuts, that would be nice 🙂. For me legs needs refinement, as the lower cuts, I would get rid of it to keep it simple (but surely will put panel loops in the texturing phase). I Sure do know the Adam animation from Unity! this is great references as well and will adjuste the face ASAP 😃

Again thank you!

FlonkDonk

Flavia Thank you! Will continue working on it to better fit vision of everyone!
It's really encouraging!

admin

@bristle2008
deleted your comments because there were not relevant for this thread. Please read the Community guidelines to continue using the forum.
If you want to discuss your robotic project everyone would be glad to give you feedback if you open a dedicated thread.
FYI the system can export to BVH trough the Blender exporter

Zoombapup

The proportions on that last sketchfab look wrong to me. One of the main things is that the upper arms are very narrow compared to the thighs. Which is probably quite correct from a human standpoint, but looks weird for a mocap mannequin.
Here's a more athletic build mannequin for reference: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/female-mannequin

I think the problem is that upper body and lower body don't match and the musculature is unbalanced.

FlonkDonk

Zoombapup In that aspect, I can understand what you are saying, and I think the reference you gave is top notch!
What I can do is, for visualization purpose, scale the arms to better fit proportions. a bulkier mannequin is a great suggestion! One of my constraint though is that, the character would be able to be adjusted by the actors height and limbs length and chest size etc. The one in the UE4 bundle have different body types. As other mocap mannequin, they are mostly thin. A bulkier character can be a problem in certain cases. Limbs clipping/range of motion and whatnot. despite that, I totally agree with you on the arms/tight size relation. That would surely improve the silhouette and readability!
Thank you for your keen eye and criticisms!