EAR BUILD 30
A tutorial by Dennis Hlynsky
Also see Realistic Human Ear, Build 57 for refinements Between June 22, and July 23,2006 I embarked on a study of ears. This process involved building one or two ears each morning, recording the build process and criticizing the results for poly flow and ease of build. This tutorial is based on Ear Number 30. After a while later ear builds became streamlined and less about redirection edge loops. The build can be modified to shape many different ear types. I have not tried animal ears but I see no reason why one could not shape the helix and add loops to create tall pointy ears. The ear can be easily sewn onto a head right behind the jawbone where the ears commonly grow. The basic concept is to start with the nexus of skull, jaw, neck and ear hole as the topography out of which the ear is constructed. Make the topography, the cup, the outer ear, and finally the ear canal. Essentially build the ear from the inside out. Most of the tutorials I have seen start with the major shape of the ear and sub-divide to shape the detail. I found it much easier to understand the ear shape as an organic growth which grows out of the ear hole of the skull. The ear then becomes a convoluted funnel and the building becomes easier. The mid point of the funnel is the intersection where the ear joins the head.
This is the starting shape.
Add four edge loops and remove the edges of the center polygon.
Adjust the vertices along to flow along the shape and extrude the center poly.
By picking the end points one can use average vertes to create a nice sweep where the Helix rises out of the Concha.
At this point do a bit of sculpting of the inside of the cup and make certain the lobe is fleshy enough.Pull rather than extrude the top outer edge of "layer cake" quads.
The next step is to conform the ear shape to the desired ear. If you are sketching on top of an image plane then go back to the side view and make the refinements.
Rebuilding the Helix geometry is important to minimize new geometry for edge loops. I do this by Loop Flow Diverting. This is acomplished by Quad elimination. Simply merge two opposite points of a quad. Be carful where you do this because you can make triangles if you error.
Average the vertices around the perimeter of the lobe and the edges of the Helix facing the cheekbone. At this point a good look at the ear and a bunch of tweeking around the center polygon is helpful.
The lip of the Helix is extruded. There is a "rising" polygon that can be eliminated by deleting it's edge as it meets the center polygon.It is wise to point the normals of faces to be extruded in the direction you want the extrusion to travel. One can pull the top edge or the bottom edge out to shape the final form of the Helix. It depends upon how round you want the outer edge of the Helix. Some people have grown rolled ears. Some ears are twisty and sharp. Depending upon the type of ear you can add geometry by looping or extruding and thus preserve surface flow of the quads.
Make the ear canal by extruding the center shape from the back. This adds a lot of polygons. For low poly counts you can just paint it dark.
The ear is essentially done. Add some edge loops to shape the form. An extrusion in between the Superior and Inferior Crux is needed on some ears.The walls of the ear can be made very thin and I have been experimenting with ways to make them glow when light hit them.
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