Makehuman and Blender using Ubuntu Hardy

Makehuman Wikipedia article:

MakeHuman is a software application that generates 3D humanoids; similar to Poser or DAZ Studio. It is written in C++ and Aqsis is necessary to produce a render. The MakeHuman team work towards correctness both in programming (using common file formats) and anatomy. MakeHuman makes extensive use of university research in accurately modelling the human form.

I’ve been learning character animation with Blender and found Makehuman. Here’s the MakeHuman to Blender Part I tutorial on Blender Underground, follow the links to part 2 and 3. Also check out the Blender Underground video tutorials. The videos and tutorials are awesome.

There was one problem I had installing Makehuman and that was with Aqsis.

The MakeHuman project uses Aqsis to produce realistic renderings of the human body.

I stuffed around trying to compile from source then found that the problem was a bug with Ubuntu Hardy, Aqsis fix on Ubuntu Hardy.

It is a lot of fun playing with settings. Watch this makehuman video on youtube.

What I found really interesting was when you import your model to blender, I did this using the collada import plugin. I’ll try to explain a little using the screenshot below.

By default the skeleton and armature are placed inside the body, I moved them out of the body to show you. Im sure having the armature already set up will save a lot of time, armature is kind of skeletal structure used for animation. Watch Super3boy’s 20th Blender Tutorial(Using Armatures) on youtube for a good introduction to armatures. The other at the back is the human skeleton. The other thing you can’t see here is the skin, I still have a lot to learn and texturing/skinning the meshes looks difficult. On top of all the 3d stuff theres so much I’m learning about the human body.

The other thing I’m enjoying about learning Blender this time around is the community at blenderartists.org.  The way the more experienced guys explain things, the terminology they use is really helping me along and of course being able to use some of their source files is incredibly useful.

Checkout this forum post “Skin with multilayered sss experiments” by Pixelvore, he’s 16 and been using blender for around 3 years, look at all the things he knows and what he can do.

Another gem I found in the forums was “2008 Adelaide Uni Short Film Festival Entry *Winner*“.

I use Blender for making sculpties for secondlife, mainly my gnu head and horns and a few other things. Useful links:

• Blender Sculptie Import & Export Scripts
• Texturing sculpties in Blender

I recently noticed Blender to SL BVH Animation Exporter. Looks really good. Read the tutorial, here’s the update.

I almost forgot, hopefully I can get one of my mates over so we can strap bra’s to our heads and create our perfect woman.