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This will guid you through how to create a 3d alien. I did this for my final in English for my freshmen year. This page will take about 4 min to load on a 56k, so if you have a 56k, buy dsl now... its time.
This is a tutorial on how to make a 3D alien on the computer. This will give you, the reader, an insight on how a 3D production is done. To understand in full what I am explaining, you should be relatively familiar with at least some of these programs since I am explaining how to make an alien, not how the programs work. The programs listed below are what I used to make the complete alien project:
The next step will bring your creation to 3D life. This step will take place in Rhino 3d. I will start with the head. Whenever I start something such as a head, I will make it simple, and slowly add to it. This can be related to sketching; when you draw a human figure, you don't want to draw in small details from the start, you start with the outline. The same is true when making a 3d model. I stated with a simple shape shown below. This is an out line from the side. This is about what my sketch looked like from the side. To make the shape below, I created 7 circles and 2 points, then lofted them together using the "loft" tool. Get familiar with this tool since it will be used throughout this tutorial. If you were to look at the same picture of the head above without the loft, and just the 7 circles and 2 points, you would see 7 lines and 2 points since it is from the side. If you were to look at it from the top, you would see the 7 circles and 2 points. You have to visualize every angle as a 3d shape. 
Rhino 3d has a real nice way of dealing with 3d objects. If you look at the alien head above once more, you see little white dots. These are called nerbs. They allow you to change the shape of the object in any way. To make the ears on the alien, I took a group of control points from each side of the face and brought them back. This gave the alien character and was also a part of my original sketch. Notice the indention on the right side on the alien's face in the picture below. 
The eyes are very simple. All you need to do is create one ellipsoid, and arrange it so it fits on either side of the head. When it looks good, you can mirror it with the "mirror" tool since the head is symmetrical to this point, and we want the eyes to be this way too. Now there are two eyes and a potato shaped head. 
The mouth is rather simple if you use the right tools. When you are looking at the front view of the alien, trace out a mouth that looks good. I chose not to make a symmetrical mouth to give the alien character. When you have the right shape, use the "project curve to surface" tool to project the mouth onto the head. Now, you have to use the "trim" tool to cut out what is inside the projected curve so the alien's mouth will be "open" (for lack of a better word). The mouth is open, indeed… but it is open to the entire head. Meaning you can look in the head from the mouth. This is bad. You want to give the inside of the mouth a shape a mouth would have. Here is what I did: I put a point in the center of the head, where the mouth goes down to the neck. Then, I used the trusty "loft" tool to loft the side of the mouth back to the point. Look at the picture below, ignoring the yet to be created teeth, at the yellow. This is the finished mouth of the alien (not rendered). 
The most intriguing characteristic of my alien is its teeth. This was also the most detailed and morally challenging part of the alien. Each tooth was created individually. From my drawings, I decided I would use the two large fangs. I wanted the teeth to look as asymmetric as possible. Again, I used the "loft" tool to create the teeth. Each tooth was constructed by making 2 2d circles (from the top view), 1 point, and then lofting those together. Then I arranged the teeth by rotating them and moving them on the x, y, and z-axis. Here are a few pictures. From left to right: non-rendered picture of teeth, rendered picture in Rhino, and below those a rendered picture in Bryce. 
The next step is the neck. I did not want to make the neck a perfect shaft, so I used the lofting technique again. I drew abstract circles, then lofted them down to form the head to the neck. Shown below is a perspective view of what the neck looks like. Notice that it is not a simple cylinder, but has a natural form. You want to make sure that the neck is nice and centered on the head. If the neck is too far forward, or towards the back, you will notice that it does not look realistic. I changed the neck several times before I got one that looked just right on the alien. 
The raincoat is a style that I wanted on the alien. In the sketch, There was a detective feel that I got. I wanted to keep that feeling in the 3d world. The raincoat was made, yet again, with the trusty lofting tool. To make the coat flow like a coat would, I drew 3 (including the bottom neckline) enclosed, out of shape lines. The red line in the picture below points to the three enclosed lines connected or "lofted" to make the coat. 
The arms on the coat were done is a similar way. I made one arm, and decided to make it symmetrical by using the "mirror" tool that was used before to make the eyes. I connected the two enclosed lines and one dot using the "loft" tool to make the coat arm. The arms where built by the lofting method I love so dear. Very similar to the construction of the teeth, I started with 3 circles and 1 point, then lofted them together. To make each arm different, I lofted the circles and point on different x-axis (side to side) and x-axis (back to front), while leaving the y-axis (up to down) the same. By doing this, I created 3 different arms. To make the three on the other side, I used the "Mirror" tool. I made them swing is a natural way, not to make them look fake in any way. The legs where created in the same way, with two facing forward and one back 
The two antennas where made to give the alien more character. I wanted them to move all over the place, not just to stick straight up. I accomplished this by drawing, by hand, with the "interpolate points tool" (shown at below). This is the same tool I used to draw the enclosed lines on the coat. With this tool, I created several abstract oval shapes, and moved them around on the axis' until they looked right. Then I lofted them together. As you can see from the picture below, the two antennas are very different from each other. The antennas go in different directions to give the alien more detail. You will notice this when viewing the 3d-animation file, viewable at the end of this tutorial. Spheres where added at the tips of the antennas to finish it off. 
The hat is the key feature to finishing off the alien. I have chosen to make a detective hat to match the raincoat. Below is a picture of the hat is Rhino 3d. To the left is the hat after lofting the lines created with the "interpolate points" tool, and to the right you see the lines that were created before the loft. If you look closely at the right picture, you can see how it goes down in the front, and up at the two sides. This gives the hat lots of character. Now look at the top view from the top (below). Notice how the top and front views go together to create a 3d hat. Also, notice how the lines are not straight but curved. This makes the hat look like it is really made out of fabric, and not solid shapes. 
Finally, we get to the last detail of the 3d creation. Up until this point, Rhino has been the only program used. Now, I introduce you to Elefont. Elefont is used to create the alien emblem on the hat and the one on the raincoat. As seen in the picture below, Elefont can turn any font into a 3d object. I found an alien font on the internet, and made a 3d file in Elefont. That alien is the letter P in the alienation font collection. I then exported the 3d file from Elefont and imported it into Rhino. This same 3d alien can be viewed on the cover page of this tutorial. 
By this time, what you see in the below is essentially what the alien looks like, with a few extra details. The iris's for the eyes where added with the same technique used to put the mouth on the head. If you look close, you can see a tongue was added as well. I also I have added colors. The colors and shades are very simple since I rendered it in Rhino through this point. The next step involves rendering the alien in Bryce, with sophisticated textures and reflections. 
At this point, I converted the nerb 3d file created in Rhino 3d into polygonal mesh, then saved it as .obj. This way, I will be able to import it in Bryce. Below is what the alien looks like in mesh form. This is the only way that Bryce will reed this file. 
In Bryce, I am able to change any texture I want to just about anything. It is also possible to create your own textures here. Below you can see a picture of the Bryce layout and a rendered picture of the alien. As you can see, the alien is styling in his new textures. 
For the face, I chose a chrome texture that reflects the sunlight. What you see on the last page as well as this page are rendered pictures, and are final pictures. From here, it will be saved as .psd and exported into PhotoShop for final editing. In PhotoShop the image will be altered to looks its best, and finally printed onto an 11x17 sheet of Epson glossy photo paper. Here is the final: 
The animation was created by rendering several images in Rhino, then putting them together in Paint Shop Pro Animation Studio to make the .gif. This is how the final 3d animation was created. Below in the animation on the 3d alien. 
Report By Evan Hall All Pictures By Evan Hall
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