Few .target

[Teto]

So as Manuel said, I open a topic to post few .target I made.

Few explanations : When I played with the Makehuman for the first time, I was amazed with the possibilities of this soft, how easy it's possible to create a believable character after few clicks. But aside some lacks in the soft itself (no offense staff ) I was surprised by physical details that can't be changed, especially for a soft so precise for face details.

So I wanted to make my own .target for those details. So you'll find here targets for navel, nipple and areola (thing around the nipple).
Their title talks about their function. The number after the name shows the using order, the last part explains shortly the function.

The reason for multi-parts is related to the "operating system" of the model. And I'll explain why in a little tutorial I'm writing.

Navel :

- Step 1 -> The shape of the navel goes deeper in the belly. Many girls have this type of belly button. This step is not necessary if you use the next steps.
- Step 2 -> The size. Sometimes the navel is "fat" and turgid, especially with fat persons.
- Step 3 -> the width. Change the width of the button.

I'm not very satisfied with that, because the model lacks of polygons, it's not very detailed, but I tried many things, it's the best I can do.

Button belly for a fat person

Nipple :

- Step 1 -> The roundness of the nipple. The basic model has a nipple very egg-shaped. This step fixes that. Go to the right every time.
- Step 2 -> The height of the nipple. Yeah, the extreme is very long, but well...
- Step 3 -> The diameter. Self-explanatory. This cursor changes the roundness, so you may adjust it with the roundness' cursor.
- Step 4 -> The base. Change the diameter of the base of the nipple. Useful for having a "straight" nipple.

Again, I was unable to have the precision I wanted because of the topology. And you can see that the nipple on extreme shapes is more a cylinder than a nipple. Well, "sculpt mode" in Blender ans it's fixed.

Areola :

- Step 1 -> Height. You get the idea. Extreme is very puffy, but realistic.
- Step 2 -> puffiness. If you want something more conical. Use it when the height is just average, this target makes a better shape.

Here few examples for nipple and areola :

Of course, comments are welcome.

Update v1.0 : Thanks to @Dustorm for the trick. I renamed files with better names and put them in sub-folder, for clarity. Looks better now. It's sadn thumbs don't work, an image with the function would be great.

Teto_custom 1.0.7z

Put all directories and their content in C:\Users\Whatever\Documents\makehuman\v1\data\custom (standard directory, maybe yours is different).

(1.88 KiB) Downloaded 558 times

[Manuel]

Very nice, compliments.
If you officially release these files under AGPL3, and you agree that the resulting character can be exported from MakeHuman under the CC0, we can evaluate to insert them in the official distribution.
There is an issue for missed targets here: http://bugtracker.makehuman.org/issues/430

If you notice more lacks, feel free to add them here, or to model them

[Teto]

Be my guest. Where do I sign ?

I think I'll have other ideas soon.
By the way, we can't change the size of the eye itself. It would be great to change it, in order to try having anime-cartoon-big-eyes. I'll ask this in the bugtracker.

[duststorm]

we can't change the size of the eye itself. It would be great to change it, in order to try having anime-cartoon-big-eyes

It's an idea that's on the shelve for a while but is not developed yet.
Such targets would be cool, if they are organized in a special category so that they are not mistaken for realistic modeling parameters.

[Teto]

It's an idea that's on the shelve for a while but is not developed yet.

Pity.

Such targets would be cool, if they are organized in a special category so that they are not mistaken for realistic modeling parameters.

I totally agree. By the way, there's just one tab for .target. Be able to have a list (of parts of the body) on the right of the screen, and corresponding targets on the left (even if to have that we have to write an handmade .xml) would be great.

[Manuel]

Yes..the custom target interface can be improved a lot...we need more programmers to do all these cool things.
About the fantasy/anime targets, it's something planned since a long time: http://bugtracker.makehuman.org/issues/66

The main technical problem is that this kind of targets usually don't work for human characters (except some minor deformations, like the elf ears, for example).
So in theory the pipeline should be something like:

1) Start MH.
2) Don't use human targets.
3) Use only fantasy targets (that will be designed to be compliant in a restricted range of characters).

For example, a tab for Seinen style, will include the main seinen body types, and the seinen targets for these bodies.
This kind of plugin would be relatively easy to do, but the user can make many errors mixing wrong categories of targets.

[Teto]

Totally agree.

And the other main problem is that the model would certainly be limited in a type of character. For example, for The Incredibles, aside the main characters, all other characters were a declination of 2 models (black and white people), exactly like Makehuman. But the problem is that with this model you can't make Elsa or my avatar (a character in the next Disney).

It would a LOT of work (too much, I think). Maybe a workaround could be to start a cartoon character by making its general shape (eyes like Anna, body like Wallace or other type, you get the idea), and after that using modifiers that can work for all models. Because anime or cartoon characters are not so well detailed like human characters. I tried to recreate Helen Parr, from The Incredibles, except for the eyes, too small, I was able to do something not so bad (forgot to save, sorry, made it just for testing). The main problem was, in deed, that the mouth was too realistic, like the ears, and so on.

That's sad, because I'm pretty sure that with more help, and time, your program could be a standard for creating characters, because the way you do is right.

Edit : I have knowledge in programing. Not for the core, obviously, but for GUI, yes. I developed things (a data base) on Java. And I know Python a little. Maybe ?

[Oscalon]

I'm glad to see discussion of non-realistic targets for anime style faces has come up again! Many of us are hoping that someone will make these.

There are many issues to consider when it comes to making anime faces. How to set up the eyes (flat vs round, general shape) and how best to shape the nose, are common topics of discussion (especially in the Blender NPR facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BNPRandFreestyle/). The geometry you need to get convincing styles varies greatly based on the type of shader used, and type of lights. It should be possible to make it work. If/when someone wants to take this project on, I'm sure that I and others in that group can help get references together, and identify the ideal shapes.

EDIT:

And the other main problem is that the model would certainly be limited in a type of character. For example, for The Incredibles, aside the main characters, all other characters were a declination of 2 models (black and white people), exactly like Makehuman. But the problem is that with this model you can't make Elsa or my avatar (a character in the next Disney).

It would a LOT of work (too much, I think). Maybe a workaround could be to start a cartoon character by making its general shape (eyes like Anna, body like Wallace or other type, you get the idea), and after that using modifiers that can work for all models. Because anime or cartoon characters are not so well detailed like human characters. I tried to recreate Helen Parr, from The Incredibles, except for the eyes, too small, I was able to do something not so bad (forgot to save, sorry, made it just for testing). The main problem was, in deed, that the mouth was too realistic, like the ears, and so on.

That's sad, because I'm pretty sure that with more help, and time, your program could be a standard for creating characters, because the way you do is right.

I actually think it's possible if we assume that some of the more specific work will need to be done in blender. We aren't going to get MakeHuman exporting every type of toon character without a huge amount of work, but we can get it exporting enough that you only need to do a minimal amount of work after to achieve your style.

The workflow should be to use makehuman to get the rough shape and size, and to get the rigged elements in the right places, and then take it into blender (just like now, if you are doing photorealism, you'll be doing sculpting in blender on the makehuman body.) So the goal should be a set of targets for changing eyes, nose and mouth into common shapes/sizes to allow faces to be made (hopefully compatible with the coming face rig) that can be turned into a variety of toon styles with the right editing and shading.

[Manuel]

I'm glad to see people interested to give a real help to the project. With someone that work on this task only, the thing is feasible.

The most simple way is what I described above. From programming point of view, it will be just a special/improved version of the custom target plugin, so ..Yes Teto, I think it's feasible for you
With this kind of plugin, the user will have the max freedom to mix targets. This is good under some points of view, but on other hand it will be easy to mix wrong, not compatible targets, and create ugly characters.
Anyway an user that reads the documentation and learns the rules to follow in mixing the morphs, can obtain great results, even creating half humans and half toons.

These should be steps:

- The first step is boring. It's about to decide the categories and the targets to develop and then create ORIGINAL blueprints.
- Then we need to design the GUI, using MH standard widgets and philosophy, with max usability.
- Finally the funny stuff, the modeling (Blender + maketarget) and the programming.

It's matter of motivation, resources, time and patience.

[duststorm]

(...) there's just one tab for .target. Be able to have a list (of parts of the body) on the right of the screen, and corresponding targets on the left (...) would be great.

As far as I remember, this is already possible. Just create subfolders in the custom/ folder with your targets in them, and they will show up on the right.

Developing the feature of anime/toon modeling parameters is mainly an artistic one, indeed. I requires planning which targets are needed, how they should be organized, and eventually modeling them. To put them in a GUI is not going to be that much work (and we can help with that).