> I've been mesh modelling humans too, in Wings3d. Your post inspired me to
> post about my progress in p.b.images. I have found fiddling with the mesh
> quite enjoyable! I think rigging it for different poses will be a
> challenge, though. If you do go the mesh route I'd be curious to know how
> you do that.
>
> Good luck!
>
> -Stefan

I did have a (quick) look at Wings3D a few weeks back but with so many tools
to look at, it didn't get a fair chance.  It would be interesting to have
another look at Wings3D and compare the mesh modelling tool against the one
I'm using in AOI.  Manipulating meshes is fun, but it can be quite tedious
at times too.
As for manipulating, or "posing", the figures after the mesh is
created...this is something I'm just starting to look at.  I don't know
what Wings3D has but AOI lets you create a skeleton out of bones and then
bind the mesh to the skeleton.  As the bones are moved about, the points on
the mesh will move in relation to the bones. You can also attach weights to
the bindings as well to determine how closely the mesh points follow the
bone positions.

One final note: I have been playing with DAZ studio and using PoseRay to
create objs that AOI can read (it(AOI) doesn't seem to like the DAZ output,
but that could be the options I choose).  The meshes that define the human
figures are very, very detailed.  i.e.  There are more points in a
DAZ-person's leg than there are on an entire figure that I created myself.
I think that their meshes were created with 3D-scanners rather than
hand-manipulation.
It's nice to know that I'm not the only pov-person trying to create people
'by hand'.

BTW: To those that don't know AOI, it has its own built-in raytracer.  It's
quite interesting to generate an image in AOI - export it to POV and then
see the difference in the way lighting, textures, etc are rendered.
AOI is open source and lives at http://www.artofillusion.org/

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