Check Out This Sketch Based Deformation System in Maya

Working from some great references often presents a long road from drawing to finished model. That’s because in 3D, the creative process often gets mired in topology and creating a good base mesh. More and more these days, technology can help with the creative process through some pretty sophisticated algorithms and the use of Ai to create user driven, but technology assisted tools. The last few years have seen a sharp increase in the amount of tools that work this way. Especially sketch based tools.

Impressive displays of tech such as Google’s AutoDraw, to Moka Studio’s MoSketch, a few simple lines can be used to drive some pretty complex things behind the scenes. Chun You Sim is a student at the NCCA, Bournemouth University BA(Hons) Computer Visualization and Animation program, who has been “dabbling” with sketch based systems within Autodesk Maya.

Called TubxFace, it is an experimental tools for sketch based interface for modeling system (SBIM) that could potentially allow artists to skip the topology and technical bits altogether. The tool takes front and side view 2d sketches, and can apply a chosen library base mesh to the defined drawing by deformations.

The tool is still experimental, and there are still many limitations. However, it is pretty impressive to imagine what a workflow that was based more on the creative process could look like in 3D, by watching the video.

To check out Chun You Sim’s report, you can refer to his GitHub page.