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3D graphics are often associated to a certain lack of "humanity" ; modelling realistic human beings is still a challenging task, even for high-end 3D packages. However, this is no longer an excuse good enough for not including realistic-looking people in POV-Ray scenes ! This text reviews some of the possibilities available to the POV-Ray hobbyist.
Character Studio is an add-on to 3D Studio Max, the well-known high-end 3D tool. Character Studio is a professional package dedicated to the creation and animation of characters. It has been used for instance to produce the dancing baby in "Ally McBeal". There’s little to say here POV-Ray-wise, since people who can afford these kind of tools are unlikely to use POV-Ray on a regular basis. Of course, anything that you can export as a mesh from 3D Studio can be imported to POV-Ray, using 3DWin or 3DS2POV, for instance.
Pros : High-end professional package (says it all)
Cons : expensive ; requires 3D Studio ; training necessary ; conversion to POV-Ray
necessary
Poser is a commercial tool that lets you "pose", i.e. arrange into a particular position, pre-made characters. They are made up of parts (head, feet etc.) that can be translated, rotated, scaled, altered and even replaced. They can be textured and animated.
Poser is bundled with a good number of models (humans, animals, robots etc.), and other models, free or commercial can be found on the Internet. Advanced users can also create their own characters. In fact, developing Poser models, props, motion files, textures or morph targets (parts of a model based on standard ones but altered in some way, like pointed ears) has turned into a small industry.
There has always been a mitigated feeling in the ray-tracing community about Poser models. One reason is that Poser models are "ready-made", as opposed to CSG or procedurally made objects. Obviously, if someone thinks that the only good way to do a 3D image is to hand-code all the objects, then Poser is out of the question for this person... Another argument is that Poser models often look bad. In fact, making a human shape takes a lot of work before it can be convincing, whatever the tool. Many Poser users tend to ignore a few simple facts about the human body, or prefer to rely on standard settings. As a result, we see a lot of badly posed, flat-looking and inexpressive Poser people (I’m guilty of this too). But with some work, and taking into account Poser’s limitations, it’s possible to do great things with it : just have a look at Martin Murphy’s "Automn flirts with Winter" image for a good example of what Poser can do when correctly used. In many cases, a little post-processing will be needed.
Anyway, if you plan to put realistic people in your scenes, don’t feel like modelling them yourself, and don’t have the budget for Character Studio + Max (or another high-end tool), Poser is certainly the best choice. For the record, the price range is 200-250$.
About exporting Poser characters to POV-Ray, you can read my uv-mapping tutorial here.
Pros : Dedicated package ; easy to use ; many models
available
Cons : Commercial ; conversion to POV-Ray necessary ; training necessary for
advanced features
Blob Man, developed by Peter Houston, is a set of POV-Ray macros to create humanoid figures (male or female). Almost every moving body part can be positioned and the figures can be clothed (a library of clothes is available and you can develop your own). Though Blob Man is more appropriate for scenes that do not require truly realistic characters, it can be used in a variety of situations. Of course, being written in the POV-Ray language, the macros can be changed to suit anyone’s needs.
Pros : Dedicated package ; free ; native to POV-Ray
Cons : Output more cartoonish than realistic
To quote Bruce Lamming, DMesh’ author: "DMesh is a mesh creation and deformation tool for use with 3D modelling, rendering and animation software. Its primary focus is the generation of smooth-surface mesh objects for use in humanoid and other organic modelling tasks. It uses a proprietary Musculature Definition Language designed specifically to assist in the creation of dynamic musculature systems."
Still a work in progress, DMesh looks promising, as can be seen in the examples provided. It exports to POV-Ray’s mesh and mesh2 formats, and to OBJ, RIB and RAW formats.
Pros and cons : too early to say
This is for those who can’t afford Poser, or for the hardcore types who like to do things themselves because it feels better that way. And for the brave, too... Modelling characters is sculpture in a 3D environment : you'll need a lot of free time and some artistic training will certainly help.
Any good modeller that manipulates surfaces should do (sPatch, Rhino, Amapi... and any high-end product). Look for instance at Gil Babin’s models and at his IRTC "Julia" picture (the girl was modelled in 3D Studio). Other examples of human modelling (done in sPatch) can be seen in works by Lorenzo Quintana Juez ("Mama") or Gena Obukhov ("Clowns"), .
A good place to start is Anto Matkovic’s page, which includes several pictures featuring human and animal models made with sPatch or Rhino, and a very comprehensive tutorial about modelling human heads in sPatch.
Pros : May be free or unexpensive ; the pleasure to do
things by yourself
Cons : Requires another software ; the models may not be posable or animation-ready
; takes a considerable amount of work and experience to get it right ; conversion to
POV-Ray necessary
Using Constructive Solid Geometry and primitives like spheres or quartics, the results are likely to look robotic (see my own "Mothers" image) or Lego-like. Note that Theresa Willis developed a walking animation system for this kind of character (Cf. http://www.jbarchuk.com/twillis/).
For smoother results, the best way is to use blobs. Again, the results can be impressive. Look at Lorenzo Quintana Juez "Witch" image or "Cinema", where all the characters are made with blobs.
Pros : Free ; native to POV-Ray ; the pleasure to do
things by yourself
Cons : The models may not be posable or animation-ready ; takes a considerable
amount of work and experience to get it right
There are many models available, free or commercial. You can visit for instance the 3DCafe or Zygote Media, or search for "human" in the POV-Ray links. These models will need to be converted to POV-Ray and properly textured. Note that because the commercial Poser models are copyrighted, it is very unlikely that you will find them in Povray or any other format on the net. The numerous free Poser models available cannot be translated to Povray unless you have Poser installed, usually because they are variations of a standard model and only contain the "difference" parts (the parts made by the author of the modified model).
Pros : May be free ; easy to use
Cons : Many models but few good ones unless you pay
This is an old trick, routinely used by people doing architectural renderings. The idea is to apply a photograph of a person on a surface (a rectangle) and to position the object so that it is not distorted by perspective. Also, the background of the image must be transparent. For instance, my own "Udders" scene is based on a cow picture, and not on a cow model as in the other pictures of this series. Some companies (like ImageCels) specialise in selling images specifically for this purpose : they provide pictures of people, trees, cars etc. Of course, you can also use your own photographs.
This technique is recommended when the characters are only small-size props. You can use a lot of them to populate a background, for instance. Because they are just 2D images, they won't interact with the lighting or other scene elements, so that they may look fake even when properly positionned. You must take care of blending them in their environment, for instance by making sure that their own lighting (direction, intensity, colour) is compatible with the global one.
Since finding the right position and orientation can be tricky, Rune S. Johansen created the illusion.inc macro, which will do the work for you. This macro can do other interesting effects too (hence its name).
Pros : Easy to use ; highly realistic in certain
situations ; little memory cost
Cons : May be commercial ; works only in certain situations
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