Atmospheric Visuals & Prints
Human Mesh Booleans
Intro
In this very first article, I talk about my latest findings exploring the boolean modifier in Blender. I touch quite a bit of subjects on the surface (figuratively speaking) which will probably serve as inspiration for future articles. This can be a tad overwhelming though in case you’re unfamiliar with 3D software or my style in general, but I hope to deliver some value to you guys either way.
All in all, I’m mostly writing this to organize my own thoughts—to build structure and discipline through consistent output, documenting process, ideas and evolution over time. This way, in September, a Shopify is planned to host a selection of my best work.
Accompanying this little WordPress website and to practice my talking skills, I’ll post some content on Youtube as well. I installed a microphone and am figuring things out as we speak. Basically, my attempt at remaining a real human being during the AI revolution.
To Boolean or Not to Boolean
Simply put, a boolean operation is a technique to cut out meshes with other meshes (that’s what I’m targeting at least). Never took the time for this one, albeit looking so cool. Now, buckle up! It’s finally time to Boolean.
As you can imagine, the possibilities are endless using this technique, so limits are necessary. As for meshes, human body meshes will be used, simply because I’ve been doing this for such a long time. You guessed it, they will be delivered by Daz. (Tip: be inspired and spend your cash in their shop.)
As a side note, the official Daz exporter didn’t really click with me, but ever since I discovered the Diffeomorphic plugin, the materials really shine in Blender.
Earlier, my meshes were mostly manipulated by a special combination of skin, solidify, deform, displace and wireframe modifiers. By adding booleans to the sauce, it’s now possible to make holes.
The first renders were looking promising. The image above is the result of some basic tests on how to include the boolean modifier in my usual workflow. There were some issues with normals but I figured recalculating them makes artifacts disappear.
Of course, this all quickly evolves towards science fiction moods. Something that always stood out to me were the costumes of Padmé in Star Wars. Listening to Arcana (Sono la Salva is absolutely terrific) as I’m writing this, a lot of nostalgic feelings come up—I’m a nineties kid. (Tip #2: visit the official Star Wars databank.)
There’s so much interesting software besides Blender. Did you know there’s this amazing book on the costumes of Star Wars, Dressing a Galaxy? Good stuff for visual artists and the like (don’t look at the price). This would be the best resource with something like Marvelous Designer.
Now, because I tend to live in a world of abstract, unmanifested ideas, I’ll target just three techniques and outcomes to limit myself. Borders can truly serve inspiration in a way, when allowing enough room to play in the structure they create (this philosophy, I’ve been pondering a lot):
- Single body: specifically focusing on booleans on one head or one single body
- Connecting bodies: using skin modifiers and booleans to connect multiple bodies
- Bodies in environments: adding volumetrics, colors, mountains, water, foliage, biomes
Single Body
I’ll sketch out my thoughts as I go. The first single body render will be easily remembered as small tubes in a row. One will be orderly and another one will be distorted.
I don’t really sketch a lot like this, so proportions can be off, but this is all part of the me remaining a real human being thing and letting go of my inner perfectionist. I’m not against AI really, I just like the challenge of executing on ideas—going from 2D to 3D scratches this itch. I will share my 3D findings of the last years in about 8 articles before I explore other tools.
The skin modifier is kinda made for a different purpose (to create bases for sculpting), but you can experiment with this stuff. I like to create tubes with it and then Skin Resize (Ctrl+A) on random selections.
In Daz, Mira was chosen, with shock expression and dForce Tuba Hair.
The image above is the Daz viewport. As you can see, nothing spectacular yet. Daz is mainly used to add the general body poses, clothes, hair meshes, expressions and such. I’m much more fond of using Blender to make things pretty. Daz is really strong at simulating clothes though, but more on that later.
There’s a slight pivot from the original sketch but the concept remains the same. As you can see, the boolean is in effect on the cheeks, out of which the objects starts repeating themselves:
At first, I didn’t even know it was possible to export hair from Daz to Blender. It was only later that I discovered the “Make Hair” button (thanks so much Diffeomorphic). If you pair this with the amazing Principled Hair BSDF in Blender, you’ve got something.
However much I love the hair setup, in my eyes, it can obstruct the science fiction look. Also, using human skin materials can be limiting in the same manner.
When playing with the modifier parameters and using different materials, the feeling shifts. The mirror modifier in particular is always a good addition. It allows a kind of controlled chaos. At some point, when the foundation is good, better start turning up the experimentation. I personally struggle balancing all the possible effects and plugins at this phase.
You can get a glimpse of my workflow right here.
Let’s say this is enough for the left sketch for now. Time to add some circles on the head.