The Seven Folds

Drapery worn has distinct architecture to it sue to it's continuous or tubular nature. The seams are caused where the folds occur and depending upon the thread size and number of stitch lines, the seems will have more or less of an influence on the folds.

There are seven folds types.

1. Pipe Fold

All folds are more or less a pipe of some kind, flattened or heightened depending on  the material you are drawing. The name is the visual reminder of how they should be drawn. 

2. Diaper Fold

Diaper folds occur because of two tension points that are closer together that the cloth is wide. The folds alternate and if you can imagine a sleeve is a complex series of diaper folds traversing from one side of the arm to the other it makes drawing this often complex piece of clothing easier and more accessible

3. Zig-Zag Fold

These diamond or triangular looking-like folds can create what looks like a serrated edge to the material and are often seen in crumpled sleeves or at the back of heavy trousers and jeans, just behind the knee.

4. Spiral Fold

A bunch of drop folds, pipes or zig-zags all spun or wrapped around the form create these spiral folds. This fold is dominated by a series of S-curve rhythms as the material falls.

5. Inert Fold

Inert folds are folds that have no activity underneath them. Usually the material is the architecture for the material we see in a jumbled mess, such as a messy clothes pile, a scrunched scarf or a crumpled handkerchief.

6. Half-Lock Fold

This is seen in material that turns back on itself. Half-Locks occur in the elbows, knees and the hips. When these parts of the body are bent and tension forms at the joint.

7. Drop Fold

This can look pretty much like a pipe fold, but this is vertical by nature, dropping with gravity towards the floor. It's found in heavy fabrics, such as formal dresses and curtains. 

Material Properties

There are different types of materials, therefore we want to be able to recognise the special properties material has on it's surface to generate stronger illusions in our art. Highlights on different types of material are tircky, especially when it comes to differentiating velvet from silk. Imagine a light source directly facing a model wearing a silk shirt and velvet pants. Because velvet is made up of thousands of hairs facing upward, the ones facing directly towards the light absorb the light, while the once facing away act like mirrors reflecting the same light. So the centre where the light should be is now dark, while the sides of the figure look lit.

Silk is the opposite, the centre will shine brightly and depending upon the thread count, the silk will have more or less reflective surface to it emulating a metallic surface. Cotton is the least reflective and more or less absorbs the light.  This material gives us very dull highlighted edges.

Cotton

This is a soft, brushed material with a traditional woof and warp weave perpendicular to the light source. It has no reflective properties, as the matte surface absorbs light and can also be influenced by the colour of the light source.

Silk

This has a glossy surface appearance and a woof and warp weave perpendicular to the 'common' light source. This is highly reflective, but means the shadow spaces absorb more light so when painting darken down it's shadowed surface like a metallic material.

Velvet

This has a traditional base weave but the material is woven into the mesh perpendicular to it, so the fibres all face upwards at a height. These are semi-transparent fibres that absorb the light at their ends and reflect light at the edges. Reflections are controlled by the fibres direction. This is similar to silk but softer.

Drawing Clothing

Here I am looking at how clothes behave when folding so I can get a strong understanding when it comes to sketching my characters, who will be wearing thick heavy clothing to some extent, and this way I shall also be learning about how I could use these skill when modelling.

What makes a fold?

Material is made up of fibers travelling in two directions, laterally called the weft, and longitudinally called the warp. These two directions help influence the architecture of the fold. The bridge or the link that connects one fold to another is influenced by the warp threads. Folds are a pipe shape by nature although the ones that spread out wide, and the ones formed by a tight thread count will not appear like a pipe fold, but by nature they are rolling pipe forms much like a wave in the ocean that has not yet curled.

When folds switch back, or half lock on themselves, this is when then material traverse back and is called the eye of the fold, it has it's own billow shape to it. This is caused by the warp and weft creasing in three spots causing the end to open up like a letter T. The spaces between the pipes are polygon or triangular shaped and can be mechanical and rigid or organic and curvilinear. The flats and the pipes are connected together by a transition or a ramp that varies based upon whether it is topside or on the bottom, what type of material and how loose or tight the fit of the clothing.

ZBrush

ZBrush was created by the company Pixologic Inc, founded by Ofer Alon and Jack Rimokh. Zbrush combines 3D/2.5D modelling, texturing and painting. It uses a proprietary "pixol" technology, which stores lighting, colour, material, and depth information for all objects on the screen. The main difference between ZBrush and more traditional modelling packages is that it is more akin to sculpting.

ZBrush is used as a digital sculpting tool to create high-resolution models (up to ten million polygons) for use in movies, games, and animations. It is used by companies ranging from ILM to Electronic Arts. ZBrush uses dynamic levels of resolution to allow sculptors to make global or local changes to their models. ZBrush is most known for being able to sculpt medium to high frequency details that were traditionally painted in bump maps. The resulting mesh details can then be exported as normal maps to be used on a low poly version of that same model. They can also be exported as a displacement map, although in that case the lower poly version generally requires more resolution. Or, once completed, the 3D model can be projected to the background, becoming a 2.5D image. Work can then begin on another 3D model which can be used in the same scene. This feature lets users work with extremely complicated scenes without heavy processor overhead.

Uses of Digital Sculpting

Digital sculpting is still a very new method, but it has become very popular in the few short years it has been around. Sculpting can often introduce details to meshes that would otherwise have been difficult or impossible to create using traditional 3D modelling techniques. This makes it preferable for achieving photorealistic and hyperrealistic results.

Sculpting is primarily used in high poly organic modelling , the creation of 3D models which consist mainly of curves or irregular surfaces, as opposed to hard surface modelling.

It can create the source meshes for low poly game models used in video games. In conjunction with other 3D modelling and texturing techniques and Displacement and Normal mapping, it can greatly enhance the appearance of game meshes often to the point of photorealism. Some sculpting programs like 3D-Coat, Zbrush, and Mudbox offer ways to integrate their workflows with traditional 3D modelling and rendering programs.

High poly sculpts are also extensively used in CG artwork for movies, industrial design, art, photorealistic illustrations, and for prototyping in 3D printing.

Digital Sculpting

Since I have set the task of modelling a character I will need to do research on the program that I shall be using and then go forth and practise what I have learned about the program. I will begin by looking into what is digital sculpting and looking at tutorials by Pixologic.

Digital sculpting, also known as Sculpt Modelling or 3D Sculpting, is the use of software that offers tools to push, pull, smooth, grab, pinch or otherwise manipulate a digital object as if it were made of a real-life substance such as clay.

Digital Technology

The geometry used in digital sculpting programs to represent the model can vary; each offers different benefits and limitations. The majority of digital sculpting tools on the market use mesh-based geometry, in which an object is represented by an interconnected surface mesh of polygons that can be pushed and pulled around. This is somewhat similar to the physical process of beating copper plates to sculpt a scene in relief. Other digital sculpting tools use voxel-based geometry, in which the volume of the object is the basic element. Material can be added and removed, much like sculpting in clay. Still other tools make use of more than one basic geometry representation.

A benefit of mesh-based programs is that they support sculpting at multiple resolutions on a single model. Areas of the model that are finely detailed can have very small polygons while other areas can have larger polygons. In many mesh-based programs, the mesh can be edited at different levels of detail, and the changes at one level will propagate to higher and lower levels of model detail. A limitation of mesh-based sculpting is the fixed topology of the mesh; the specific arrangement of the polygons can limit the ways in which detail can be added or manipulated.

A benefit of voxel based sculpting is that voxels allow complete freedom over form. The topology of a model can be altered continually during the sculpting process as material is added and subtracted, which frees the sculptor from considering the layout of polygons on the model's surface. Voxels, however, are more limited in handling multiple levels of detail. Unlike mesh-based modelling, broad changes made to voxels at a low level of detail may completely destroy finer details.

Interaction with digital sculpting tools can vary from the standard computer mouse to a digital pen tablet that provides pressure sensitivity, which can provide added functionality for most sculpting software. Some tools even support sculpting with haptic input devices, which allow the sculptor to feel the digital object while sculpting.

Industrial Design Method

The second method of drawing the figure is the industrial method. Its origins are age-old, but it was perfected at the Art Center of Pasadena in the 1950’s. This method has been known to be the far more practical method when creating a figure for any given purpose. As it makes it easy to control the pose and achieve convincing foreshortening painlessly.

First, you sort out the head, neck and the shoulders. These will provide a good starting point to build the figure gesture from. Viewed from the front the head is shaped like an oval, while in a side view it is a bloated triangular form. The corners of the triangle depict the tilt of the head.

Cylinder Figures

When using the cylinder figures you should begin with two curvy lines that show the grace and ideally established form. Add to your first line a second line that describes the width of the pose. This will help establish the overall volume of the figure. These two lines should mirror each other, moving in relationship to one another. Line three is the centre line of the pose, attached to the pit of the neck.

With a centre line drawn, you can now draw an ellipse or oval. This describes the depth of the form. The centre line gives you another point you can now convincingly attach the oval to, this turns your three lines into an active cylinder form.

Cylinders are easier to draw than for instance a cube form, as you need to know perspective to make the cubes look convincing. Cylinders can give the viewer a better understanding of the composition in space if drawn with correct perspective.

The shoulders are the top point of the cylinder, the pelvis is the bottom. The pelvis varies in shape depending on what character you are drawing. It can be drawn as a soft sphere like shape or can be more defined. The gender of the character also determines the pelvis shape. Female pelvises are more bell or skirt shaped as the males are box shaped. The front of the pelvis terminates in a bullet like shape. This is drawn inside the body cylinder shape, cutting in on either side to show the hip bones.

Afterwards an egg shape should be placed attaching it to the shoulder line to represent the ribcage, this should only be leaving the cylinder is the form is twisted or compressed. The rest of the torso

Drawing Anatomy; An artists guide to the human figure, Barrington Barber

Digital Sculpting; Human Anatomy, Scott Spencer

Drawing Workshops; Anatomy Essentials, Imagine FX

 

 

The Reilly Method

There are many ways to construct a human figure, but two systems in particular are used by many different artists and help form the basis of the human form.

The first method looked at is the Reilly method. Frank Reilly used to be an illustrator and instructor in the 20^th century. He created a system of teaching that enabled students to quickly digest the problems of drawing and painting by giving an abstract view into concepts and defining schematics, building a noteworthy step-by-step course of action to figure drawings.

This system came from several sources, starting with Dean Cornwell and Frank Brangwyn and Frank Vincent DuMond. Reilly’s system became a fashionable method in most of his American art schools. His figure drawing approach is a linear one, starting with the structure of the figure before advancing on to the anatomy, then shading and finally detailing. He started this approach with the core of the figure: The Torso. Capturing the action of the pose is probably the most important concern. The actions begin with the head and then radiates through the spine into the limbs. To begin the drawing you need to make six lines; the head, the centre of the head, the shoulder line, the spine, the line relating the shoulders to the base of the pelvis and finally the line showing the neck and hip relationship. These lines design and define the core pose.

Arms and Legs

Once the core of the pose is established, the arms and legs are attached to complete the action. This simple construction creates the structure of the pose. The anatomy tis the depicted within the structure you have created.

Muscles are woven like a fabric to the skeleton, connected to the bones with tendons. The point when the tendon attaches to the bone is defined as the insertion point. The figure abstraction helps place the major muscle groups into an organised and fluid pattern, making it look relatively simple to invent complex, realistic figures.

Further Fundamentals   

Once you properly understand the figure those 6 basic lines will constantly change and be rearranged to suit every pose and every different situation. The standard set of lines that an artist can start with are just one set of possibilities, a stock that will constantly flex or grow as a new image is created.

All the systems used for drawing are designed for teaching and should be left once the basics are mastered. However too many followed rules can lead to pictorial sterility. It’s important to train and practise as much as possible until the basics become background noise, that way when you draw you can focus fully on the more important aspects of the image.