What this book covers
Chapter 1, Modeling the Character's Base Mesh, explains the different methods to set reference templates in Blender and the use of the Skin modifier to model the character's base mesh.
Chapter 2, Sculpting the Character's Base Mesh, explains how to prepare and sculpt the base mesh.
Chapter 3, Polygonal Modeling of the Character's Accessories, explains the polygonal modeling of the character's accessories and the use of Curves to add detailing.
Chapter 4, Re-topology of the High Resolution Sculpted Character's Mesh, explains how to plan the re-topology through the Grease Pencil and how to use the tools to re-topologize the sculpted mesh.
Chapter 5, Unwrapping the Low Resolution Mesh, explains how to UDIM unwrap the re-topologized mesh.
Chapter 6, Rigging the Low Resolution Mesh, explains the different methods to build the rig in Blender.
Chapter 7, Skinning the Low Resolution Mesh, explains the different methods and tools to skin the character's mesh to the rig.
Chapter 8, Finalizing the Model, explains how to create shape keys, the drivers, the use of the bone's constraints, and the finalizing of the model.
Chapter 9, Animating the Character, explains how to link the asset to be animated from a library, how to proxify it, how to animate a simple walkcycle, and the use of Non Linear Animation.
Chapter 10, Creating the Textures, explains how to paint textures both in Blender Internal and in Cycles, how to make them tileable, and how to bake them.
Chapter 11, Refining the Textures, explains how to bake the details of the sculpted mesh to a normal map, how to create a Vertex Colors map, and the possible use of the Quick Edit tool to paint directly onto the model through an external 2D image editor application.
Chapter 12, Creating the Materials in Cycles, explains the creation of the shaders in Cycles.
Chapter 13, Creating the Materials in Blender Internal, explains the creations of similar shaders in Blender Internal.
Chapter 14, Lighting, Rendering, and a Little Bit of Compositing, explains the setup of the lighting, image based lighting both in Blender Internal and in Cycles, how to render a preview OpenGL playblast, some suggestions to try to avoid fireflies and noise in Cycles, and the compositing of the rendered passes of both the render engines into one single final image.
