Brandon Wehenkel: Independent Study (Update 2)

Comparison

Since I already established the purpose of this study here, I won't need to reiterate the exact same thing again for this and the next two posts.  Unfortunately, by the time I created my first blog post I was already 3 weeks behind.  The scanning process was an utter nightmare for me, and I've understood that I may have made my sculpture a bit too detailed (I still wanted more detail too) and too large for the scope of the NextEngine 3D scanning device.  This time around I spent many hours after normal business hours in the lab working in the RapidWorks application.  The first week of February was nothing but hole filling and retopologization for the standing figure only.

For a turntable go here.

Modeling Techniques:

RapidWorks, Body

A great tool I used a lot was sew boundary, it fixed a lot of the Zfighting.  Healing Wizard also helped me identify which parts of my model had issues, not everything was fixed by the wizard, most of the time it was an assistance tool.  Isolating the problems that were identified with the healing tool made it easier to clean the mesh.

Standing Figure 

Before Alignment, 16M polys

Here you can see the color variation for each layer that became a clutter of massive problems.  A whole lot of messed up geometry and misalignment issues.  I also had an issue with the texture not following through to RapidWorks as well, but that was the least of my issues.

After Alignment, 26.85M polys

By the way, aligning took 6 hours with Rewrap.  The solution to reducing time, smooth = fewer polys.  I used three different methods:  Mesh Buildup Wizard, Rewrap, Optimize Mesh.  Optimize mesh never worked, it was an absolute 100% waste of my time.  From 1pm to 10pm the computer did nothing but "load," at one point the computer was running at 92% memory capacity due to this tool.  In my case, the wizard helped tremendously while the rewrap helped fix some of the overlapping geometry.  However, I still had to go in and delete a lot of the manifold edges and overlapping geometry because they made the model mucky like chunky peanut butter.  Some areas such as the buttocks and the legs were so destroyed by the manifold faces that I needed to rebuild a lot of the modeling with the sandpaper tool by hand.

One of many massive issues that came with Rewrap (after Global Remesh retopologizing) and decimate is that a large chunk of the normals flipped.  I am using the bridge tool here.  Take note of the massively broken boundary (aka squiggly yellow line on the back of the head).  Most of the model looked like this.  The horns were destroyed entirely from underneath.  The face lost a lot of the modeling from the nostrils to the neckline under the chin.  The gap underneath the udder to the pelvis was nonexistent and contained a boundary that went from the hand all the way down to the knee.  All the effort I put into making a unique stand also went to waste, now it's mostly flat.  A large chunk of that boundary was created from one of my partial scans from ScanStuido. (Later, I had to rebuild the stand in Mudbox just because RapidWorks didn't create a nice smooth mesh).

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: If you're trying to fill holes in ScanStudio and have an issue with the model being too large for the view window and think that you'll just fill the gaps with partial scan data, don't do it. It's best to not do close up scans of the object that are only partially aligned.  Make the decision to fit the entire object within the window or pick another scanning software.  If you can't make a fully attached scan discard it, otherwise you'll end up with a lot of massive broken boundaries in Rapidworks when trying to fill holes. Or unattached scan data.  The reason I chose to make only partial scans is that I couldn't get the torso to fit in the view window, so I let the scanner do what it needed to do and moved on with the data that I had.  Because I had about 1/3 of the torso scanned, the other 2/3rds were broken.  The location where the extra scan data overlapped with the original mesh caused a lot of flipped normals and massive gaps in geometry.  The tools in Rapidworks that try to remap or retopologize the sliced date sew pieces that you might not want to be sewn together creating a lot of problems later.

PARTIALLY ATTACHED SCAN DATA IS BAD!!
Scans B, C, and D were only sections of data, which basically corrupted my geometry.

 

This is the best example of what I'm talking about. (Ignore the massive wall on the backside of the figure, that was something that came about from using the wrong setting in a tool.)  The left thigh has a massive flipped normal, that is not a hole.  There are two layers of data on this model.  The legs had a more clean set of geometry, and the geometry underneath caused a lot of that messy, jagged noise.  This was a nightmare to repair.  Also if you go back to the image that I posted above with 26M polys, you can see the floating geometry that caused a seam from from the pelvic region all the way to the tip of the ear.  Most of it was deleted.  The hands were never fixed entirely in Rapidworks.

Mudbox, Body
I imported the body .obj file into Mudbox. Before you go any futher make sure you hold "spacebar" and select the arrows to change the position and scale of the object.  The importing process into Mudbox is dumb and the models are always scaled wrong.  When I imported the models, there were a few errors such as High-valence vertex, Two-sided faces, Zero-length edges, Degenerated Face. The best thing to do to correct these:

1. Make sure you're in triangular topology (quads don't work, *go here for more info)
2. Press "V" (goes into selection mode.)
3. Select all of the faces surrounding the error.  
4. Delete. 
5. Then use Mesh --> Patch.
6. Undo and redo the process until this works.

 Holes

I had run into a stopping point for the week of February 19-25th because of a significant error that has prevented me from continuing.  Sometimes on 22nd, I noticed I had a hole in my mesh post-quad topology.  Some reason Mudbox doesn't like editing errors in this topology type, so I imported the file into Rhino to clean the holes and discovered there's a vertex alteration in the .obj conversion.  The data becomes 4x larger when importing from Rhino to Mudbox.  The file never loads in Mudbox, unfortunately.  Professor Scott said to ignore the holes till I need to work in Rhino officially.   The Feb 23- Mar 3rd I was busy cleaning up the butter mesh on the body.

* March 5th, I discovered the solution to this hole problem and it was much easier to fix than I had thought previously. Use the Freeze tool to mask the holes (to prevent tearing in the mesh) then use the Remesh tool under Mesh --> Remesh, similar to Smooth --> Decimate in Rapidworks.  It asks for a percentage and poly count.  Just type in the poly count and it retriangulates the model.  Then you can go back and select all the polys around the hole with the "F" key and select mesh --> patch.

 Goat progression

The feet progression.

Because the feet were made on the base, the scanner didn't really like it much.  So I had to rebuild the feet twice.  Once in Rapidworks and again in Mudbox.  Nothing different was involved with Mudbox, I used all the same tools as the rest of the body.
 

Sitting Figure:

Import from ScanStuido

Udder mess

Scan Studio, Sitting

This part of the figure is the sitting portion of the process.  I did not run into any significant issues with this part.  The figure fit perfectly centered in the view port, and I only needed to do 2 scans, a top, and a side scan.  I aligned them with minor errors.

Before cleaning

Bridging the hoof

RapidWorks, Sitting

I first I fixed the viewport alignment with tools --> align --> Datum and changed the right image to match my view window for the front.
Then I used Mesh Buildup Wizard to attach all my scans from scanStuido to make a workable mesh.  The main problem is that the dew claws and the forward section of the hoof were misaligned similar to the standing figure, so I spent most of my time in RapidWorks cleaning up those areas.

Cleaned version 1

I had a few crazy boundaries that required some finesse.  Like I mentioned before the areas around the hooves were the worst.  I had to destroy most of the exterior mesh to rebuild it with the fill holes tool, golf and bridge were most useful.  I don't much like plateau much because it doesn't really know which part of the mesh to destroy; sometimes it erases the entire mesh.

The groin area was not possible to fix in RapidWorks.  I had to adjust in Mudbox.  There was a lot of non-manifold edges there, and I did the same as the hooves.  Used bridge and golf to remake the modeling of the legs and the teets.  The legs are folded over one another in this location and because there isn't a "pinch" tool like Mudbox/Zbrush.  In this program, you have to trick the mesh by building and destroying the mesh over and over till you get the right elevation for the geometry.


Mudbox, Sitting
The udders, the modeling around the buttocks and ankles, the creases, and the hooves were lost in the scan.  Same as the body and the arm I used the smooth, bulge, and knife tools. 

Cleaned version 2

Arm:

Mudbox Cleaned

Because all the issues I had with the standing figure I needed to create a new arm.  The mesh for the arm was fused to the udder, and I need to create a part that could be separated from the rest of the mesh for when the goat is sitting.  The standing figure is holding their udder while the sitting figure is not.

Scan Studio, Arm

Only one full 360 revolution scan was required for this model. I used 6 photos to complete the scan due to its simplicity.  It's just an arm.

RapidWorks, Arm

Same as the last two meshes, I first uploaded the scanStudio file then used mesh buildup wizard to attach all my scan data.  The bottom had a hole, and it was patched with bridge and golf.

Mudbox, Arm
Imported to Mudbox where the smooth, bulge, flatten, and knife tools were used significantly.

Rhino, All
I imported all the models into one file and manipulated them to begin my cutting.  I put all object on the origin by using Move and typed 0,0 in the toolbar.  Then used the various perspectives to position each object to intersect its corresponding geometry that I want to cut.

At this point, I wanted to see how the geometry matched up so I can go back and forth on Mudbox & Rhino.  Before and after, I wanted to bulk up the appendages. I made a minor error when creating the extra arm, so thats the last thing I need to fix before I cut all the geometry for 3d printing.

Problems:
This project was much more ambitious than I thought.  I am seeing that the descrepancies between the scan and the next stage in Mudbox/Maya/Rhino is a significant amount of repair and remodeling time.  Because Rapidworks doesn't have much for modeling a lot of gemoetry is lost when repairing the alignment problems.  I spent several hours just working in Mudbox which I didn't expect was going to happen.

The hardest part for this project is correcting my own bad geometry.

Brandon Wehenkel: Independent Study (Update 1)

Concept:
The scope of this project is to make a 3D printed figure that has interchangeable parts. The best example of what I was trying to do is similar to 3DTotal Games' Kickstarter project.  My idea is to create a figure that can be displayed in a standing position or a sitting position.  The idea stems from my interests in action figures and anthropomorphism in the art world.  My 3D printed sculpture will be painted when finished.

The inspiration for this project begins with Greek mythology, specifically Pan the Satyr servant to Dionysus (the god of wine and parties) who is half-man half-goat. Goats are one of my favorite animals, and I found it quite fun to make a goat sculpture. I want to create my own figurine. I am an avid collector of action figures as well as an active member of the furry community.  I prefer to work with anthropomorphic art when I have the desire to make something.  The sculpture was influenced and inspired by some artists I follow.  Bear in mind those who have a "*" in front of their name have works that involve nudity and may not be appropriate for all.  *ECMajor (who is the best source for anatomy for anthropomorphic characters,) *Tchaikovsky2 (my favorite artist), Danny Choo, *Miura Etsuko, *Hans Bellmer, *Liu Xue, *Kristine Poole, Beth Cavener, Ryohei Hase.


Modeling Techniques:
I was required to make my sculpture before the 1st day of class because of the complexity of the design and also my skill.  Sculptures such as these need a lot of time and planning for it to be done correctly.

 Scetch

Full body Scetch

I started first in the sketchbook May 2017 with a few hand-drawn pictures of how I wanted my figure to look.  I drew a few poses to understand what I wanted to make, but I never knew exactly which pose till I had clay in hand.  I started modeling my sculpture in August 2017 with the creation of a metal armature.  The clay modeling phase took several weeks.

 WIP V1 Bust (August 2017)

 WIP V1 Body (October 2017)

 WIP V2 Body; Udder V1 (October 2017)

Armature V3 (November 2017)

I decorated the armature with tape and tinfoil to speed up the cooking process.

Armature with tape and a beginning layer of clay (November 2017)

Udder V2 (November 2017)

Udder V3 (December 2017)

Sitting V3; WIP Standing V1 (December 2017)

Once the sculpture was to the point of desirability, I needed to make a sitting version as well.  I also learned I needed to create a new arm after I finished my first scan.

 V3 sitting finished with extra arm (January 2018)

I cooked the sculpture shortly after New Years, so the family didn't have to worry about needing the oven.  The texture darkened some.

Cooked (December 2017)

Then I took the project into Scan Studio where nothing turned out right except the first standing sculpture.  The top and bottom of some surfaces did not show well in the scanner.   I scanned everything in 360 HD with 14 layers.  All the scans took 72 minutes, and I did 9 scans.  6 of those scans corrupted or failed to align.

The only thing that scanned correctly for the standing figure.  The extra arm and the sitting sculpture scanned much better than the standing figure.

Massive Issues:

In Scan Studio with the 6 scans that caused problems I also tried to do individual scans, and for some reason, they couldn't align with existing families.  I made 2 individual scans (took about 10 minutes each) when the sculpture was on its side to try to get underneath the udder and chin, but those corrupted the entire 1st scan process.  I did manage to get a save file before the corruption, so it didn't waste a huge chunk of my time.

I used a zip tie to try to keep the sculpture in an angled pose for the scanner, and it didn't translate for the scanner.  Also due to the size of the sculpture, I had to make several dissected scans for it to fit in the view window in HD mode.  The torso was the most frustrating because it did not stay inside the view window when doing a 360 scan.  For some reason, the scan corrupted when the scanned object went outside its cutouts.  I could not do a 360 scan of the torso because of the corruption issue, so I only got HD layers for the legs to the stomach.  This was the scan after I turned the model on its side to try to get the modeling around the holes.  It was not possible to fill them with this bad scan.  I scanned 2 different ways, and both were unusable.

  Holes

After I scanned the sculpture, I noticed there were a significant number of holes. The top of the head, underneath the chin, a large chunk of the udders, the calves, and all of the base.  I was told this could be fixed in nextEngine where I could bridge the holes together, it is my next step.  I lost 3 days dealing with the masking process for Agisoft then two days figuring out why the point cloud wasn't working.

I used Agisof Photoscan as well, and it didn't work either.  I took 40 pictures with my lazy susan on a cloudy day in my backyard, uploaded them to photosphop, and created a mask for all 40 individual photos (1 of the 40 is on the top of this blog post).  I followed this tutorial and this tutorial.  I uploaded them to Agisof, aligned the photos, and was given a cluster of dots that sorta looked like my sculpture.  I then created a dense point cloud to create a better image, and it didn't change much.  I only had a little more than 4000 points in my dense point cloud which was not good.

Agisof Photoscan dense point cloud error

1st four weeks expectations were to scan the model to 3D, remodel in Mudbox and Rhino where I wanted to cut the model into smaller pieces for 3D printing.  Unfortunately, I ran into too many issues with the scanner that put me back.  I came in several times after regular school hours, and I kept running into significant problems with the scanning process.  I had to delete some of my scans because something corrupted and ruined a bunch of the save files.

 This was the best alignment I could receive.  There are some ugly layers of certain parts of the legs, the udder, and the arms.

Materials:
Black Polymer Clay
Grey and Peach Polymer Clay
16 and 18 Gauge galvanized wire
Masking tape
Heavy Duty Aluminum foil
Clay modeling tools and pliers.

Brandon Wehenkel: 3D Scanned Object

  Final Concept & Design

 Work Station

Concept:
I've been wanting to do this project the entire time I've been at this school.  My goal is to buy a scanner to manipulate my sculptures in a more detailed digital fashion.  My design was to recreate one of my drawings into a sculpture.  I made a character when I was in ARTS 1201 (Drawing Fundamentals) at my previous school.  I'm quite fascinated with primates and anthropomorphism.  So I used my original drawing and the original picture as an inspiration to make my sculpture.

This is Bubbah he is my character, he's based off of the Common Chimpanzee or Pan Troglodyte species. He is currently a newborn shapen into my mind. Bubbah is a kind and intelligent half-breed. He didn't transform into how he is. He was merely born half man half Chimpanzee.


Modeling Techniques:
I started off with, I believe 12 gauge wire, no bigger than a coat hangar, and created a helix with a drill to build strength.  I just made a circle for the base and a 4x twisted spine.  I forgot to photograph it.  But trust me there's metal inside.

I bought about $100 worth of polymer clay of grey, black, and fair skin color.  I saw tutorials in the past to mix the black with other colors to make the clay softer.  It works but not as much as I wanted it to.  I ended up with about 10 lbs of clay into one gigantic marbleized clay block.  I ran into quite a bit of trouble mixing the clay together to make the shade I have now.  I bought an electric pasta maker to aid in my battle and it broke after 10 minutes of work.  I got my money back.  Next, I tried a meat grinder.  This lasted me 2 weeks.  The handle broke from excessive heat build up in the working process.  Because that crap was made out of cast aluminum I bought a cast iron one instead which you can see in the Work Station photo.  This worked a lot better to an extent.  I had to go and buy some clay softener liquid to use the machine more efficiently.  But I found out that it was much quicker to do everything by hand after I spent more time screwing around with machines.

Tools

None of the tools I use are meant for clay but I've repurposed them for my work.  I've got 2 crochet needles, 4 dental needles, a jeweler's flat head screwdriver & hammer, pliers, a spoon, an unsharpened knife, an eyedropper, and a plastic rolling pin.

Because the clay was such a disaster to work with I managed to smash it with the jewlers hammer when it was very hard to save my hands, thats when the rolling pin worked its magic as well. I asked around and learned that a hair dryer works too. Also the most efficient way is to heat up water and placing the clay into a plastic bag while it sits in the water for about 30 seconds. When I was able to get the clay into a swirled mess I put it inside the meat grinder.  That only worked for about as much as two handfuls of clay.  I gave up on the meat grinder after wasting about 4 hours cranking it to no avail.  Once I had about 30 balls of clay I started putting it on the armature and making the sculpture.

  Reference Images & WIP

 Facial Detailing

I was using a magnifying glass mounted to the table with some dental tools to remove all the burs that were left behind, left picture.  Right picture shows less burrs.  Burrs are the little pieces of clay that clump up when you slide a piece of metal into it kinda like how cheese curds.

  Ditched Design Idea

I originally had him planned as a bust design inspired by Gian L. Bernini, but I ditched the idea because the object was getting too tall. I would need to chop the bottom off and that would get in the way of the armature (also seen a part of my armature already cut, which came from the neck). Bad design on my part.  Next time I'll just make a thinner spine armature and not worry about making a wire base.


Materials:
Polymer Clay, Polymer Clay softener, 16 gauge galvanized steel wire, various tools I mentioned above,  NextEngine, ScanStuido, Rapidworks, Mudbox, Photoshop

 Scan Stuido Align Process

Next Engine 6.3M poly reduction to 900k

 Mudbox (Colored)

I ran into a problem where I couldn't get the paint effect to export to any other program.  Never used this program so its probably some very simple solution.  But I tried importaing as .obj to Keyshot, Maya, 3DSMax.  So here is an unrendered colored version of how my character looks in Mudbox.  The lighting is also quite wasky in mudbox.  I wasn't completely sure how to change them.  Their default presets were pretty awful.

Mudbox

Keyshot

Keyshot

Keyshot