Introduction Case Study: Jack Nichoolas 5 What's A character sheet? Deconstructing the body Creating the Pelvis The Spine The Shoulders The Elbows The Knee As Tools Evolve, Concepts Remain Valid

The character sheet was born in the 2D animation industry as a reference document to help animators draw characters. A character sheet is a guide to human proportions, and it can save 3D modelers a lot of time in creating characters. You've probably seen a character sheet before; it usually shows at least the front- and side-views of the character as well as any number of expressions and costume details that the designer wants to note. I scan my character sheets, and then map the scanned images onto polygons in my 3D package and work directly over that texture in the orthographic viewports.

This is the beauty of digital technology: if you're just working from a pinned up character sheet next to your computer, you're essentially redrawing the character as you build it. With the sheet displayed in your viewport, you can place the geometry quickly and reduce the time spent tweaking your character model's position and scale. Mapping a scanned image to a set of polygons is much more effective than simply displaying the image as a viewport backdrop. If you apply an image to an object in the world, you can zoom in on details of the map and your geometry will scale up along with it. Finally, after you've used the sheet to position and build the skeletal structure for the character, it will be an aid in the construction of the final surfaces.

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Figure 7: The Anahani character sheet mapped to rectangular polygons in MAX