Vector and 3D Graphics

Software, among others:

I took some photographs of myself to get a model: head front view, side view, back view, perspective views as well as both hands front view, rear view, side view. I'm used to create sculptures using paper, pencil, clay and sculpting tools. I've never worked with 3D software before but I'm familar with DTP, image and video editing software.

Emma recommended Rhinoceros. I watched some video tutorials of Rhinoceros as well as 123D Design.

I made my very first 3D model using 123D Design. To start with a simple object, I drew our new kitchen dresser which we just built in real. As expected, the software is nice but I miss some features to exactly control alignment and position as well as animation and image export functions. I guess that’s why it’s free.

I opened the STL file in different 3D applications in order to test some software.

The sculpture—the eBuddha—would have flat hands with built-in LED lamps. Head and hands would be the most detailed body parts. Arms, legs, feet and torso would be much more simple. All elements would be highly stylized. First, I made a hand drawn sketch of my hand. I digitized, edited and traced it using Inkscape.

I imported and extruded the shape in 123D Desgin. Unfortunately, the fillet edges function didn't work well. The graphic got some faults. Besides, it was impossible to round the thumb. I was very disappointed.

I had to try another software to build my 3D hand. After watching some movies, I started with Rhinoceros (it was still free for Mac). I made a clean shape out of my vector graphic and imported it. Rhinoceros looked promising but unfortunately, the fillet edges function failed again—even worse.

I was disappointed and started with a new hand drawn and built with Rhinoceros from scratch.

I wasn't happy. Combing fingers and palm, some ugly spots were generated.

Finally, I built every finger and the palm as single objects. The junctions didn't look perfect. The palm and back of the hand didn't look as they should. The thumb turned out nice. I tried my best. It was a hard work!

I wanted to create a nice and highly stylized hand. The image above shows a Rhinoceros 2D drawing of a hand extruded. I like the look but I didn't find a way to round the hand’s edges without rendering errors and shape the surface and depth of the palm as I wanted to. Digitally creating a 3D hand was a lot of work and I didn’t have time to create some other elements.

Please download further original design files here.