For this tutorial we will be modeling a fish, or more specifically an object that has two symmetrical sides and no complex appendages. The nice thing about modeling a fish, you get a lot of information from just the side view. It would have been nice to also have had the front view, but sometimes you have to work with what you have.
Here are a couple general tips for setting up the application. Under the "Window" menu item, make sure "Show Viewport Caption" is checked. This will display drop-downs for each viewport, allowing for quick view changes. Also under the "Window" menu item, select "Viewports" then "4 Window". This allows for an extra viewport, which I usually find handy.
Pick one of the modeling viewports and change it's view to "Left". Right click in that viewport and select "Maximize". Right click two more times and uncheck both "Show Axis" and "Show Grid". This will make it easier to see what you're doing. Right click one last time in the viewport and select "Choose Background Image". Find your image in the directory and click "Open". In case you haven't figured it out, we chose the "Left" view because our image is the left side of the fish. Lastly, hold the "Shift" key and click and drag within the viewport to zoom your image to fit the viewport.
Hit the "F5" key to select "Vertex", this can also be found under your "Model" tab palette. Starting from the tail, work in a counter-clockwise motion in plotting your vertices around the fish. If you need to zoom in, hold down the "Shift" key and click and drag with the mouse. Also, by holding down the "Ctrl" key and clicking and dragging you can move the image around laterally. You'll need to do this when you get to the fishes head, or other areas of greater detail. One thing to note while plotting your vertices, if the shape is limited in detail and has no moving parts near it such as the area between the head and dorsal fin, use less vertices to describe it.
When you get to the small fin on the underbelly, you'll notice I plotted over that fin. That's because that fin is coming out of the side and there is actually two fins, one on the left side and one on the right. To economize on the amount of polys for your model, you could just make this one shape by modeling around the fin.
Next you will plot vertices just inside the body. Keep in mind that this second plotting of vertices is to help build out the model. Plot these new vertices about a quarter to a third into the body. Since our object is relatively flat, we won't need a lot of vertices to build out the body. I've selected the internal verties (red) to differentiate them from the outter ones. Note: When I reached the small bottom fin, I plotted 4 extra points. These extra points sort of form a slot where the fin will attach.
Hit the "F6" key to select "Face" which is found under the "Model" tab palette. Start at the tail, selecting three vertices in a clockwise fashion. Select one of the vertices from the newly created face, then select one clockwise to that one. The last one you click on will create another new face.
Repeat this procedure until you go all the way around the model. Note: Do not connect the vertices where the small bottom fin will project out. Instead just connect the ones around that area.
Right click in the viewport and select "Flat Shaded". Select all the faces (Ctrl + A). Under the "Face" menu select "Face To Front". At this point if you see any holes in your model other than the slot for the bottom fin, now is the time to use the "Face" tool and connect the vertices that make up the hole. If you do this and it doesn't fill, select all (Ctrl + A) and under the "Face" menu item select "Face To Front".
Right click in the viewport and select "Wireframe". Hit the "F1" key to select "Select" from the "Model" tab palette. Make sure "Vertex" is selected in the "Select Options" area of the "Model" tab palette. Hold down shift and either click and drag over each vertice or just click each vertice until all internal vertices are selected. You will also need to select some of the vertices that make up the corner of the mouth.
Switch the view to "Back" and hit the "F2" key to select "Move" from the "Model" tab palette. Click and drag the selected vertices to the right of center. Move them to what you think is about half the width of the fish from a frontal view. Keeping in mind that we are modeling one half and will mirror the other side later.
Right click on the viewport and select "Maximize", to uncheck it. This should bring you back to your original 4 port view. If not, you can just go to the "Window" menu select "Viewports" then select "4 Window". Make sure that three of your views are set to "Back", "Left" and "3D". You can right click on each viewport and switch them to "Frame All" if any viewport is zoomed in too much.
Since you're going to use the "3D" viewport as a guide, take some time to rotate your model so you can see what you're doing as you work.
Deselect all (Ctrl + Shift + A). Hit the "F1" key to select "Select" from the "Model" tab palette. Make sure "Vertex" is selected under the "Select Options" area. In the "Left" viewport, select any inner vertices that are lower than the widest point of the fish, if you were looking at it from either the front (head) or back (tail end). Hit the "F2" key to select "Move" from the "Model" tab palette. In the "Back" viewport, click and drag the selected vertices toward the center.
Repeat step 10, keeping in mind that parts like the back half of the fish is slimmer than towards the head. Also parts of the mouth should get pregressively closer toward the center. Repeating this step 2 or three more times should get you closer to how the fish looks like. Take some time to view your progress from the "3D" viewport.
Now, under the "Groups" tab palette, you should have only one item listed, if not, select all (Ctrl + A) and hit the "Regroup" button. In the field next to the "Rename" button, type "Left" and click the "Rename" button.
Select one of your viewports and set it to "Right" view and maximize it by right clicking on the viewport and selecting "Maximize". Zoom in on the mouth area by hitting the "F2" key to set the "Model" tab palette to "Move", then hold down the "Shift" key and click and drag in that viewport.
Once the mouth region is zoomed in. Hit the "F5" key to select "Vertex" from the "Model" tab palette. Plot some vertices that will create the inside of the mouth.
Hit the "F6" key to select "Face" from the "Model" palette. Starting with one of your top-most or bottom-most new vertices, and connect it to either the top-most or bottom-most vertice that makes up the mouth. Do not connect your vertices to those that make up the tips of the teeth. Each time a face is created, select "Face to Front" from the "Face" menu. I have selected the new faces so you can see how they should look.
Hit the "F1" key to select "Select" from the "Model" tab palette. Make sure "Ignore Backfaces" is checked. Now click and drag over your new faces that make up the inside of the mouth. Your selected faces should look like the screenshot. Go to the "Groups" tab palette and click the "Regroup" button. This will create a separate group just for the mouth faces. Type in the name "mouth" and click the "Rename" button to rename that group.
Choose "Select None" from the "Edit" menu (Ctrl + Shift + A). Choose the "left" group and hit the "Select" button from the "Groups" tab palette. Now click the "Hide" button to hide that grouping. You should now only see the mouth group. Choose the "mouth" group and hit the "Select" button. "Duplicate Selection" (Ctrl + D), then select "Mirror Left <-> Right" from the "Vertex" menu.
"Select None" from the "Edit" menu (Ctrl + Shift + A). Hit "F1" to select "Select" from the "Model" tab palette. From the "Select Options" area, make sure "Vertex" is selected and "Ignore Backfaces" is unchecked. Click and drag over each of the vertices that make up the inner part of the mouth and each time hit Ctrl + N to "Snap Together" then Ctrl + W to "Weld Together" those vertices. What you are actually doing is connecting to vertice you can see with the vertice underneath it. I have selected all of the vertices you need to snap together and weld together for reference, but you will have to do them one at a time.
"Select None" from the "Edit" menu (Ctrl + Shift + A). Then choose "Unhide All" from the "Edit" menu (Ctrl + U).
Under the "Groups" tab palette, you should have three items listed. "Select None" from the "Edit" menu (Ctrl + Shift + A). Select "left" from the list and click the "Select" button. Then select "mouth" from the list and click the "Select" button. You should have the faces that make up the left side including the inside of the mouth now selected.
Under the "Materials" tab palette, click the "New" button. Material01 should appear in the above listing. In the field next to "Rename", type "Piranha" and click the "Rename" button. The new material name should now be titled "Piranha". Now click the "<none>" top button. Find the piranha image/texture and click "Open". You should now see the piranah texture on the little "Material" sphere and that button now has been renamed with your texture name.
On the "Materials" tab palette and click the "Assign" button. Make sure your "3D" viewport is set to display textures by right clicking and selecting "Textured". Your texture should now be attached to your mesh.
Open the texture editing window (Ctrl + T). Make sure the first dropdown menu is set to "left", the second menu set to "Left" and "Clamp" and "Redraw" are both checked. Now click the "Remap" button. Both your texture and mesh should be facing the same direction. Type in 2 in the "Scale" field and click the "Scale" button so it's easier to see what you're doing. Click the above "Scale" button and click and drag from the center of your mesh so that your mesh overlaps the texture properly. You may also need to use the "Move" button and click and drag to better reposition your mesh over the texture. As you're doing all of this, notice in the "3D" viewport you can see how things are progressing.
Once you get things pretty much lined up, click the "Select" button then click just off of your mesh. This should deselect all. Now using both "Select" and "Move" buttons you can select and move individual vertices to get an even more accurate mapping. With the "Select" button activated click and drag over a vertice to select it, then click the "Move" button and click and drag where where you want that vertice mapped. Watch your 3D viewport to see how things look.
In your "Left" viewport, right click and select "Maximize". Hit the "F2" key to select "Move" and zoom in on the tiny bottom fin area by holding the "Shift" key and clicking and dragging. In your "Model" tab palette select "Vertex" (F5). Plot some vertices for that fin.
Hit the "F6" key to select "Face". Connect the vertices that make up the edge of the fin with those that make up the top of where the fin connects to the body. Each time you create a face select "Face To Front" from the "Face" menu. Notice the bottom vertice where the fin connects to the body isn't connected yet.
Right click on the viewport and select "Flat Shaded" to make sure that the faces that make up the fin are solid.
Right click and return to "Wireframe" mode. Change the "Select Options" setting to "Vertex" select the bottom portion of the fin or the tip that will protrude. Right click and uncheck "Maximize". Hit the "F2" key to select "Move" and in the back view, click and drag the selected vertices slightly away from the body. Just for appearance, in the "Left" viewport select only the vertices that make up the back part of the fin. Now back to the "Back" viewport, move those vertices closer toward the center.
Change one of the views to "Right" and right click in that viewport and "Maximize" it. Hit the "F6" key to select "Face". Now you will create the faces for the inner backside of that small fin. First start with the vertice(s) that you didn't plot when you did the other side. Important: After you create each face, select "Face To Front" under the "Face" menu. Now to check your work, right click and select "Flat Shaded".
Hit the "F1" key to select "Select" and set the "Select Options" to "Face" and make sure "Ignore Backfaces" is unchecked. Click and drag over the small bottom fin to select its faces. Under the "Groups" tab palette, click the "Regroup" button, type in "lfin" in the rename field and click "Rename". If you click on the hide button and you see some faces you missed, just select the face then Unhide All (Ctrl + U), click the "Select" button in the "Group" area and hit "Regroup" again. Of course it changes the name, so you will have to rename that group again. When you're satisfied that you have all the faces that make up that fin and they are grouped. "Select None" (Ctrl + Shift + A), then highlight the small fin group from the list and click the "Select" button. That should highlight the faces that make up the "lfin" group.
Under your "Materials" tab palette, click the "Assign" button. Then open your texture editor (Ctrl + T). Under the top dropdown menu select "lfin" and click the "Remap" button. Scale and move that mesh to fit over the texture as you did earlier.
Set one of the viewports to "Front", then right click and "Maximize" it. Right click again and select "Show Axis". If your mesh is away from the vertical axis, select all (Ctrl + A), select "Move" from the "Model" palette and move it so that the center part of the fish is flush with the vertical axis. If everything was already in the correct position, select all (Ctrl + A) anyway, Duplicate Selection (Ctrl + D), Under the "Vertex" menu select "Mirror Left <-> Right". While the new half is still selected to under the "Groups" tab palette and rename that side "right". Then go to the "Materials" tab palette and "Assign" the "Piranha" texture to it.
The texture should map the same as the left side for both the side and fin areas.
Right click on the viewport and uncheck "Maximize". Now you can review your model. If you see any areas that you're dissatisfied, I recommend selecting and deleting the "right" half via the "Groups" tab palette. Make all your corrections to the left side then redo this step.
Set one of the viewports to "Right", right click on it and "Maximize" it. Choose "Select" under the "Model" tab palette and make sure the "Select Options" are set to "Vertex" and "Ignor Backfaces" is unchecked. By unchecking "Ignor Backfaces" you'll be able to select the vertice that you see as well as the vertice underneath it. Click and drag over each outter edge vertice and join them by using the Snap Together command (Ctrl + N) then the Weld Together command (Ctrl + W). Important: For the mouth only join the very top and very bottom and not all of the teeth or corner of the mouth. Also be careful not to join the vertices for the bottom little fins, but instead join the vertices for the underbelly of the fish. I've selected the vertices to snap together and weld together to show which ones need to be connected. Remember you're going to be doing these one at a time. When you're done or as you're working you can switch the view to "3D" to see how things look.
If you want to know how many polys we end up using, select "Show Model Statistics" under the "Tools" menu. This model weighs in at 288 Triangles. Not too bad.
