Modeling the Female Body Series – Part 09 – Upper Torso

by Jonathan Williamson

In this Blender 2.5 modeling tutorial series we go through the entire process of modeling a detailed, female body. This tutorial puts a strong emphasis on topology and anatomy, making use of photo referenced from 3d.sk

Part 09 of this series covers setting up the topology for the upper torso and then filling in most of the forms; always focusing on clean topology that will play nice with animation.

Once the modeling is complete in this series we will move onto texturing the final model.

Reference Images were purchased and licensed from 3D.sk. To learn more about 3D.Sk please visit them today.

Female Modeling Series<>

You must be logged in to upload images. Register

Discussion

51 Responses to “Modeling the Female Body Series – Part 09 – Upper Torso”
  1. Yoann Tonnerre
    Posts: 7

    YAY! thank you for this Jonathan! :)

    #
    1
     Nov 30, 2011 at 6:40 pm
  2. Lance
    Posts: 6

    so happy that the series is free. it is awsome

    #
    2
     Nov 30, 2011 at 7:30 pm
  3. oldman44
    Posts: 43

    Hi Johathan,

    Thank you for the latest part of the series. Was just thinking the other day it was about time for the next chapter. As usual, another great addition to an already great series. Please keep up the good work.

    -OldMan44

    #
    3
     Nov 30, 2011 at 7:41 pm
  4. Richard Wilks
    Posts: 73

    You use vertex selection a lot when filling faces. Is this personal preference or something done to simplify the information conveyed in the tutorials? (There are enough short-cuts to learn as is.) :)

    My personal preference is to use edge select when filling in multiple faces. (CTRL+TAB)
    I learnt a new short-cut from this tutorial. Local view (NUMPAD /)

    Thank you. :)

    #
    4
     Nov 30, 2011 at 9:19 pm
  5. Joey Baltrusch
    Posts: 86

    Thanks Again Johnathan, I can hardly wait to watch this and see how I did :)

    #
    5
     Nov 30, 2011 at 9:23 pm
  6. Richard Damian
    Posts: 47

    Jonathan, you are so busy with tutorials and other projects.

    I am very grateful that you continue to pursue this modelling effort. This is exactly the project that I intended to master when I started using Blender.

    Keep these fabulous tutorials coming.
    -Dick

    #
    6
     Nov 30, 2011 at 10:48 pm
  7. Ashleigh Xeltentat
    Posts: 37

    Can we use the re-topology tools to draw in the topology over the base mesh? The setup and the shape of the person is already done.

    #
    7
     Dec 1, 2011 at 1:00 am
  8. pinkris
    Posts: 6

    Thank you Jonathan! you are my best teacher for modeling! it’s hard to wait more for the next lesson…

    #
    8
     Dec 1, 2011 at 1:18 am
  9. martin silenus
    Posts: 12

    I ve waited soooo long for this part. Thank you

    #
    9
     Dec 1, 2011 at 2:51 am
  10. Evert-Jan Heilema
    Posts: 3

    I already thought it was time for the next part of this series.

    @Jonathan:
    As always: great tutorial, thank you.

    I noticed something in this video: it seems like you are struggling with the axis locking when you extrude. Pablo Vazquez has a great solution for this:
    http://twitter.com/#!/venomgfx/status/103957966209826818/photo/1/large

    It might help you. ;)

    #
    10
     Dec 1, 2011 at 10:19 am
    • Jonathan Williamson
      Posts: 2962

      Ah I knew there was a way to turn that stupid thing off! Thanks :)

      -Jonathan

      #
      10.1
       Dec 1, 2011 at 2:38 pm
      • Joey Baltrusch
        Posts: 86

        Me too, I HATE that setting, thanks Evert-Jan!

        #
        10.1.1
         Dec 1, 2011 at 8:13 pm
      • Maia
        Posts: 10

        Sorry for being an impatient brat, but when can we expect to see the next installment?

        #
        10.1.2
         Jan 28, 2012 at 11:42 pm
      • Jonathan Williamson
        Posts: 2962

        Hi Maia,

        It was going to be this week but I am traveling and so the next installment will be the next week. Sorry for the delay.

        Cheers,

        -Jonathan

        #
         Jan 29, 2012 at 9:20 am
  11. Paul Sinski
    Posts: 10

    can’t wait to watch and get started on this section! i also bought jonathan’s character modeling book and will be spending the holiday break working through all this material!

    #
    11
     Dec 1, 2011 at 11:12 am
  12. Chris Chaney
    Posts: 25

    woop woop :) been looking forward to this for a while :)

    #
    12
     Dec 1, 2011 at 11:55 am
  13. Sebastian Goller
    Posts: 6

    Finally. :D
    I was starting to think that there wouldn’t be another part. Great job Jonathan. Keep ‘em comming. :)

    #
    13
     Dec 1, 2011 at 12:11 pm
  14. bert van den bosch
    Posts: 121

    I don’t really understand why you created the basemesh first if you doesn’t use him?

    -bert

    #
    14
     Dec 1, 2011 at 1:53 pm
  15. Chris Chaney
    Posts: 25

    I know you will be covering the male body at a later point but topology wise is there alot of difference in the way you have created it here in comparison to the female form?

    #
    15
     Dec 1, 2011 at 2:27 pm
    • Jonathan Williamson
      Posts: 2962

      The only main difference is in the breasts. When I get around to the male body, though, I will actually be doing it with sculpting and retopology so as to show different methods.

      -Jonathan

      #
      15.1
       Dec 1, 2011 at 2:37 pm
      • bert van den bosch
        Posts: 121

        Yes, retopology!
        Do you gonna use the bsurface tool?

        -bert

        #
        15.1.1
         Dec 2, 2011 at 12:10 am
      • Jonathan Williamson
        Posts: 2962

        Tentatively, although I would like to keep the tools free for this series.

        -Jonathan

        #
         Dec 2, 2011 at 8:27 am
      • Chris Chaney
        Posts: 25

        Thanks Jonathan :)

        I’m following along but creating a male character for the moment so I wasnt too sure about whether it would work that well or not :)

        #
        15.1.2
         Dec 2, 2011 at 12:57 pm
      • CGuitar
        Posts: 5

        If you will do the male body by sculpting. Will you please just make a quick point to show how to lay down the topology differently using the same method you are here?

        #
        15.1.3
         Dec 8, 2011 at 7:56 am
  16. kenneth plumley
    Posts: 11

    thanks for the cookies.

    #
    16
     Dec 2, 2011 at 3:37 pm
  17. Chris Maltzan
    Posts: 9

    Thanks Jonathan!

    The site every day for this tutorial!

    #
    17
     Dec 2, 2011 at 9:43 pm
  18. Aron Twose
    Posts: 37

    It’s great to see the next addition to the series thank you for this fantastic resource.

    #
    18
     Dec 3, 2011 at 6:54 pm
  19. Vong Pha
    Posts: 3

    Must need more tutorial! I mean, this series is amazing especially if you studied the topology series as well. Very well thought out and executed.

    #
    19
     Dec 14, 2011 at 6:08 pm
  20. Paden Pierry
    Posts: 1

    I love how Jonathan’s voice drops as soon as the nude references images are shown, from 21 to bottoming out at 42 seconds ^^

    #
    20
     Dec 15, 2011 at 9:09 pm
  21. Julian K
    Posts: 4

    Thanks for the Tutorials how to make a female body, nowi know wich is ther first step. :D
    I have done a Athletic Male body step by step like in this video.

    #
    21
     Dec 16, 2011 at 11:20 am
  22. grayrunner
    Posts: 79

    Hey Jonathan.
    Along with David Ward you’ve taught me all I know about this program. Yeahhhhh, that didn’t sound corny.
    The process this tutorial teaches is awesome, my box-modeling attempts at the same goal pale in comparison.
    Thanks.

    #
    22
     Dec 16, 2011 at 8:52 pm
  23. Chalres Schmidt
    Posts: 6

    Thanks for the great tutorial. This method ofcharacter modeling is much more understandable for me. Keep up the good work and I’m looking forward to the next installment. Can hardly wait!

    #
    23
     Dec 19, 2011 at 12:18 am
  24. Oscar Moreno Fosado
    Posts: 3

    Wanted this for so long. Now I’ll get started.
    Cheers

    -omorenof

    #
    24
     Dec 20, 2011 at 1:04 pm
  25. Lele Da Revine
    Posts: 14

    Don’t know if this was alredy said, but you can switch the shear direction by clicking the mouse wheel. Thank you for this spectacular series!

    #
    25
     Dec 26, 2011 at 3:18 am
  26. stephen madaras
    Posts: 1

    NOT TO COMPLAIN. LESSONS ARE GREAT. AS A LIFELONG ARTIST OF 70 YEARS (STARTED AT 8) NEVER HAVE ENCOUNTERED BETTER LESSONS. THIS INCLUDES THOSE I HAD TO LEARN TO DRAW TEST EQUIPMENT FOR THE B2 STEALTH BOMBER. I NOW AWAIT THE NEXT LESSON.
    IN WHAT MAY BE AN IDIOTIC QUESTION, WILL IT FOLLOW AS “LESSON 10 MODELING THE FEMALE BODY”?

    #
    26
     Jan 8, 2012 at 1:59 pm
  27. T F
    Posts: 6

    Jonathan Williamson! Hey, I noticed something you said about shear only working on the horizontal axis, and I have to say:
    Not true! Start up the shear tool (or any other axis dependent tool) and press the middle mouse button, it should toggle through the different axes it supports! It’s a really quick way to pick an axis to work from without having to type anything.

    With shear there’s only two axes of movement (since it is based on the view angle), but the same middle mouse click works on extrude and various other tools supporting (so far I’ve counted) 7 axes: X, Y, Z global, X, Y, Z local, and free movement.

    Your face loop general theory is difficult to use sometimes in lower polygon budgets, but I have to say, it is a fairly ingenious technique. I’ve no doubt it would help me in a number of models I keep failing to finish, if I could only remember to use it. I rely far too much on extruding what I have or adding various primitives as structures to work from. It takes a bit of getting used to I guess.

    Great tutorials. I think if I had to say I was a ‘fan’ of anyone in the 3D field, you’d probably be at the top of the list.

    Back on the subject of primitives, does anyone know how to change the default number of radial vertices in a Cylinder from 32 to 8?
    I almost always use 8 when I need a cylinder, so it gets annoying having to change it constantly.

    #
    27
     Jan 16, 2012 at 9:41 pm
    • Jonathan Williamson
      Posts: 2962

      Hi there,

      Thank you for the humbling support and thanks for pointing out the MMB on the Shear tool! Very useful, I figured I must have been missing something.

      The face loop theory does not apply nearly so much for Low Poly models. Topology, in some cases, can be drastically different for low poly models since the key is finding a good silhouette and edgeflow. Triangles are also okay at times in low poly models, which single handily changes topology theory a lot.

      As for the primitive default, this is not currently possible in Blender 2.61. However, Campbell recently added a feature to the development version (trunk) that saves the last used setting for all tools. Allowing you to essentially save a default. I am not sure, though, whether it saves the settings only within the current session or saves all the time.

      #
      27.1
       Jan 17, 2012 at 10:32 am
  28. Richard Damian
    Posts: 47

    Keep these tutorials coming please

    #
    28
     Jan 18, 2012 at 1:03 pm
  29. Yoann Tonnerre
    Posts: 7

    When is the next part coming out? I can’t wait to finish this body :D

    #
    29
     Jan 21, 2012 at 4:08 pm
  30. Koulang`
    Posts: 1

    Great video! I love watching it and also try to follow your steps even I am poor in 3d program. I am waiting for a new chapter!!!!

    #
    30
     Jan 25, 2012 at 12:51 am
  31. Brandon DeLauney
    Posts: 9

    Yes, great tutorials. I’m using this one for a side project, would love to see the rest released soon. No pressure, but I neeeeed them! :P

    #
    31
     Jan 28, 2012 at 11:38 am
  32. Jesus Torralba
    Posts: 3

    love the videos, keep them coming… where do i donate?

    #
    32
     Jan 29, 2012 at 9:04 am
  33. Paul Sinski
    Posts: 10

    Well it’s been two months now since this one was released so we must be getting close to part 10, CANT WAIT :) :)

    #
    33
     Jan 31, 2012 at 12:33 pm
  34. sietse harms
    Posts: 4

    So I was boxmodeling my mesh, and got into a whole world of trouble when I arived at the shoulders. So after after watching this episode I realized I may have to comnpletely redo my model when its done. Since right now im really worried about the deform in animation.

    As always, great vid ;)

    #
    34
     Feb 2, 2012 at 12:04 pm
  35. Richard Damian
    Posts: 47

    Sigh, many months have passed with modelling cars and rodents. Not where I make my money.

    Another chapter, PLEASE!, hint, hint.

    #
    35
     Feb 3, 2012 at 1:13 pm
  36. ASHOOR MAX
    Posts: 1

    HELLO
    I want to get the program used TO show click on the mouse or keyboard during recording

    http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/6e10/j8oemza1afbm4eg6g.jpg
    THANKS FOR HELP :)

    #
    36
     Jun 2, 2012 at 6:45 am
  37. ZikO
    Posts: 4

    Hi Jonathan.
    You do really a great job. Thanks to this series I managed to understand what is going on when people say to keep a correct topology. I’ve read, heard that so many times but nobody before has really explained the problem in such a great way as you did.
    I am a beginner so I don’t even try to model the whole body yet but I have modelled a few parts and for the first time I can say things seem to look correct ;p Before it was only mess! Your clues regarding a correct topology seem to work for me :)

    Thank you

    #
    37
     Jul 8, 2012 at 2:43 pm

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.