How To Model A Dog In Blender 2.76
Alimayo Arango writes:
This tutorial shows you how to model the head, body, as well as the eyes and teeth of the dog mesh.
You will also learn how to use sculpting to quickly make the appearance of fur on your dog mesh.
Also this tutorial will show you how to use different shape keys to set up basic facial poses for your dog model.This tutorial is over 2 hours long where keyboard shortcuts are spoken aloud as they are selected as well as being displayed on the screen.
It’s not the worst dog model I’ve seen…
Very true :)
It is pretty aweful though…
Ouch. Its my first tutorial on doing a dog.
I believe in constructive criticism even if some is very humbling and painful. Do you guys model or do modeling, rigging and animating as well?
Also I would really like some advice as to how to make this model better if you are willing to give it. Would you know of any links that have a detailed tutorial on modeling a dog that I could use to better this dog model? Thanks in advance.
Sorry that you did not like the model however thanks for taking a look at it anyway.
its not so much your modeling abilities as it is your understanding of anatomy. looks up references, skeletons, muscle structures. another thing is if you’re planning on using something like the multires-mod you should keep your geometry size more consistent. for instance there were some pretty big polys on the body so when you subdivide it, you’re going to have trouble getting a consistent level of detail down the neck to the body then to the tail.
Thank you very much for the reply. My sculpting skill is limited as can be seen here. The original plan was to figure out how to model the basic mesh and then apply hair.
Unfortunately due to computer constraints I tried to take the sculpting route.
I’m very interested in when you mentioned keeping the geometry size more consistent when using the multi-res modifier. Sounds logical. I will try to get a better understanding of this concept and hopefully try it the next time I try to do some type of creature.
Normally when I model something the purpose is to eventually put a rig in it and then to animate it so I try to keep the polygons as low as possible. The original plan for this tutorial was to use the sculpt for a normal map.
I actually have a whole Pinterest page of animal bones muscle setups that I was using for reference however its obvious to me know that I should have put some more time into studying them.
As to answer a possible unanswered question as to why I would do a tutorial on something that I don’t have a full understanding of, its funny how doing tutorials has helped me to learn far more than I would have thought from doing them.
One of the things that I wanted to learn was how to make a dog face. When I couldn’t find a tutorial on how to a do a semi realistic dog face I figured I make one which would probably force me to learn how to model one.
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my comment and to offer me some wisdom. I appreciate it and will try to learn from what you said.
The biggest problem I see is anatomy. Judging from what I see here you really need to study animal anatomy. The legs look as if they were snapped on, instead of being integrated into the body. I always suggest that 3D artists take courses in drawing. Learning to draw will help your 3D work immensely, and your 3d work will help your drawing skills. They kind of feed off of each other. There are plenty of good books on drawing and some very good ones on animal anatomy that will help you get a better looking model. A lot of 3D artists think that since they are doing 3D art they don’t really need to learn to draw. Personally I think that’s a big mistake. The best 3D artists are also great drafts(wo)men as well.
Thanks for replying to my comment Shannon. I agree with your comment about drawing. Before I got my digital tablet I used to have piles of sketch books which is actually how I got into 3D. Though admittedly most of those sketch books were filled with humanoid characters and not creatures.
If have you have seen some of my other tutorials you will notice that its is very rarely that I use a reference at least as far as having in in the back for tracing and I believe that it is my drawing skill that gives me the ability to do this. I’m saying that this to say that I whole heartily agree with what you said about drawing skill.
I appreciate your response it actually makes me want to study draw some animal anatomy and improve my creature modeling skills.
God willing I will improve in my creature modeling and get better Thank you Shannon for caring enough to take the time to right out this comment and instruct me on on first studying animal anatomy, then drawing the animal anatomy, then translating it into 3D.
Thanks again SHANNON.
The thing is, you’re trying to teach people how to do something, but you’re not actually doing it well in the video. Don’t put a tutorial online for something you can’t do. Learn how to model a dog before trying to teach people how to model one. I believe your mistake (I may be wrong though) is seeing it as a purely technical project- click here, here, here, drag your mouse and you have a dog!… When modelling is really about observing, interpreting and applying. Take pictures of dogs online and look at your dog (or neighbours dog) moving.. Look at the many pictures as you’re modelling and sculpting. Your tutorial should really be “look at this image, you see the ear, it’s in this shape and it attaches to the head exactly here, and this is how we do it in 3D” or “look at this video, the muscles move like this, so we’re going to pose the dog like this”. The modelling isn’t very consistent either, you really need to work on actually having the skills before trying to teach them.
Blender Nation needs to be a little more discerning as well. This simply isn’t the quality we’ve come to expect from this website
Thanks for taking the time to to reply Daniel. This tutorial was requested from one of my viewers.
I think the best way that I could understand what you are saying is for you to point me a dog tutorial explained in a similar manner to what describing.Please point to a free dog tutorial that is done in the way that you suggest. I would really like to learn from it.
I will be anxiously awaiting for your example link.
Thanks Daniel.
Hey dude, bit late to the party. Thanks a ton for the tutorial! Your narration is exactly what I was after. I have just started using blender and needed help on the basics. Just getting a first project under my belt is a big deal and confidence builder, it does not have to be perfect, it just has to be completed. Looking around for beginners tutorials and the only ones out their are either out dated or badly narrated and even worse cut to ribbons skipping steps. I found yours inspiring and useful.
Critique seems a bit harsh round here? Is this the general atmosphere?
Thank you very much for this comment. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave this message. Blender nation is a great place to learn amazing things about Blender. This website has helped my learning of concepts and techniques in Blender that it is incredible. I have even learned from some of the comments here.
I consider PIERRICK a friend of mine now. Pierrick has amazing knowledge and is a good guy. So please don’t i feel the need to hesitate from commenting. Again Blender Nation is a great place to meet other Blender users and Bart who runs the site is just spectacular guy who I go the change to meet in person.
Thanks again for this comment Callum.
Hi,
That’s great you share your knowledge and try to make nice tutorial and I feel you put effort in editing.
But frankly speaking, the result is really bad, the method is not good…
Box modeling a character that is supposed to be rigged is not my favourite and I believe not the best way.
– Your topology is really not good, with uneven faces, no supporting loop.
– The anatomy is not good at all and the sculpting has no directing but giving some surface noise.
-You seem to only check your model in orthographic view and this is not a good method to have a good feeling about your character.
I do agree with you, making tutorial also allow me to learn a lot, but I don’t publish what I don’t manage with a descent level. I think this tutorial is not good because you won’t teach your followers good method and good observation.
I’m sorry if it sounds rude but you have a lot of followers, a nice channel and this very tutorial may not have been released.
Thanks for being respectable Peirrick. Thank you for also acknowledging the effort I try to put in to editing. Normally when I make a tutorial its about 3- 6 hours of work for each hour of video is that is shown.
Thank you for acknowledging my followers as well.
I can honestly say that I searched for weeks trying to find a through and explained tutorial describing how to box model a dog. The only thing that I can think of was David Wards tutorial which I believe is excellent however it is on a cartoon dog. I was searching for a dog tutorial at the time for reasons other than making a tutorial myself. I wanted to experiment with doing animal faces. So I tried making a tutorial on a cat. Then someone requested a dog tutorial. So here it goes.
My tutorials cover modeling humanoid characters, modeling environments, modeling hard surface vehicles, rigging characters, texturing, animating characters,composting VFX effects as well as creature tutorials covering on the beginner level.
Should this tutorial have been made as it seems like you have asked?
Your statements
– Your topology is really not good, with uneven faces, no supporting loop.
– The anatomy is not good at all and the sculpting has no directing but giving some surface noise.
-You seem to only check your model in orthographic view and this is not a good method to have a good feeling about your character.
Sounds logical makes sense to me with the exception of me only checking the character in orthographic view. It sounds like you know more about creature modeling then me. However I do not specialize in making creatures or in modeling. Why would I make a tutorial that on something that I don’t specialize in? Because I was asked to. Multiple times.
Do I think that this is a good tutorial in general? Yes.
Am I disagreeing with what you said. No. How can that be?
The tutorials that I make are designed for beginners. I make tutorials so that someone who is brand new to Blender can watch the tutorial with no or little 3D and experience and then come out the other side with a decent of knowledge of Blender gained and in this case something that resembles a dog in the sense of when someone looks at it would they say that it is a cat a horse or a dog.
People say that they watch my videos because I go out of my way to attempt to explain just about every thing that I’m doing. Key board short cuts keys, why I’m doing what I’m doing at the time which is very tedious.
Here are some quotes from viewers
“I can’t say I’ve seen a tutorial that is as straight forward as this one. Very simple explanations that anyone could understand. Extremely fast for how much work is done. I even learned new techniques to help smooth my work more. Thanks for the uploads. Your work is greatly appreciated.”
not commented in a while, have less time to 3D model now days
But yet again another brilliant tutorial. I’ve spoke to a couple of professional-ish modellers since I started and all say that blender is very “overly complicated”, but you make it easy with you tutorials that take you through every button press and every mouse movement. It may be irritating to experienced modellers, but too an amateur like me its completely indispensable.
I think that BlenderNation is one of the best Blender sites on the entire internet and is by far my personal favorite. I happily promote BlenderNation as it gives information to absolute beginners who want to learn more about Blender as well as experts. Its the beginners that tend to be most interested in tutorials by the way.
I would love you to show me in all honesty how to model a box model a dog with the good topology, even faces and a supporting loop so that I could learn from it. I say this not as some kind of insult but as an honest desire. It sounds like you could do this. However I realize most people don’t have the time or desire to work for about 12 hours on a tutorial and release it online for free.
As far as box modeling is not the best for rigging, I find that by box modeling mainly and then using sculpting mainly for the purpose of Normal maps allows me to model, rig, texture, and weight paint a character in about 6- 8 hours. I would really like to hear a technique that would allow me to have a model rigged,weight painted, and textured in a faster time span that would be acceptable to clients.
These comments while mostly in the negative have already taught me some of the things for the future such as the need for supporting loops, more attention to creature anatomy reference as well as better creature topology.
NO Pain No Gain right :)
Thanks for replying Perrick.
First, please be insured I don’t juged your teaching abilities and the fact that you make quality tutorials.
I do produce tutorials also and I do know it’s a lot of work to make 2 hours of tutorial.
I do believe dyntopo sculpt and then retopology offers a better opportunity for good topology building and analysis.
You can then project your details with shrink wrapp modifier.
It won’t affect UV mapping and texture baking so I don’t think it’s a better or worst method.
I do have made a big piece of tutorial on how to create a dog wich was featured here and I also get 99% postive feedback and some very very rude ones… So again this is not my goal to be insulting or discouraging…. Sharing your knowledge is a great thing.
I believe David ward used to make characters with less polygons allowing him to have a better control on his topology.