Sources of humanoid models

• bioVirtual
  • a UK company, highly accurate humans available in reasonable polygon counts
  • 2000 quad mesh for an anatomically correct figure including toes and fully articulated fingers
  • the models appear well-designed for deformation, and are designed for smooth subdivision
• Viewpoint
  • from the Viewpoint "Platinum" CD, possibly useful models:
    • VP4201: Hand w/Jointed Fingers & Wrist
    • VP1254: Man 1 Jointed w/Jointed Hand, "6676 polys" (11,166 tri)
    • VP2141: Man Jointed w/Jointed Hand, "3579 polys" (5476 tri)
    • they don't have any polygonal jointed female hands, only NURBS & unjointed ones
    • when imported into MAX, they lack hierarchy and pivot point information ("transform centers")
  • VP2141 is a reasonable starting point
    • Set pivots and hierarchy with MAX, exported successfully
• Zygote
  • most of their human models are unjointed, many are NURBS, and most include hair
  • HC001 - man jointed - 11,882 polys
  • HC035 - woman jointed - 12,473 polys
  • web site and print catalog don't mention degree of segmentation
  • via phone, they claimed that their hands are segmented, and that their "Mix N' Match Collection" is also available in a segmented version
  • large assortment of heads
• Acuris
  • famous for "Perfect People" models
  • Acuris may or may not still be in business
• 3D Cafe Emporium
  • sells human models (from several vendors?)
  • Mix-n-Match, $240
    • 1 high-resolution male, 1 high-resolution female, assorted clothing
  • Heads & Hair, $200
    • 4 male and 4 female heads with hairstyles made to fit on the Mix N' Match bodies

• Freely available
  • Survey of 16 old human models available via the net
    • Man1.3ds is the only semi-usable model out there
    • an old but well-segmented model now in the public domain, 3012 tris
  • 3DCafe has a page of free anatomy models but the quality is dreadful (useless)
  • Quake2 Plugin Player Models (PPM)
    • almost all Q2 models are nonhuman or highly cartoonish, many don't have arms, let alone hands - partly due to the triangle count target of 600
    • PPMs are single continuous meshes, so they don't work for rigid-body animation
    • however, there is a large hobbyist modeling community, with a small number of somewhat-human-proportioned models
    • one decent humanoid model: Brian Collin's Sydney (735 polys)
    • how-to info is at Quake2 Modeling Studio
    • Quake has its own triangle format called .MD2, uses .PCX for textures ("skins")
    • id supplies a program QDATA, which compiles 3DS files into MD2
    • as the owners of the Q2PMP (Polycount) site say, "There is definitely a lack of realistic female humanoid models in the Quake 2 community"
  • Humanoid models from Matt Beitler (H-ANIM compliant VRML 2.0)
    • high-definition bodies include fingers and toes, but unclear degree of segmentation
    • HIRO_001 - male
      • ISB 2.1.2 reported 11882 polys / 45186 verts, suggesting worse than no vertex sharing! very strange.
      • Vorlon V1.11 reports 1 VRML2 error and 4304604 polys
      • 33 "sub-objects", some of which are just groups
      • No segmentation of hands
      • CosmoWorlds2.0 reports:
        • "Inventor read error: No nodes in prototype definition, line 150"
    • YT_001 - female
      • ISB 2.1.2 reported 12473 polys / 47136 verts
      • Vorlon V1.11 reports 1 VRML2 error and 4465264 polys
      • CosmoWorlds2.0 reports:
        • "Inventor read error: No nodes in prototype definition, line 142"
  • frank - frdemo.wrl (92k)
    • decent proportions, includes fingers and ears
    • missing hair, eyes, mouth, and feet (shoe only)
    • shoulders are strangely shaped, though the torso is nicely segmented
    • includes interpolators such that i couldn't get him to stand still - he's always running.
    • Vorlon V1.11 reports 709 polys
    • CosmoWorlds2.0 reports:
      • "Inventor read error: Problems found in nodes in input: different number of keys and key values, line 1853"
  • manya.wrl (415k)
    • yet another anorexic cartoon female
    • no fingers, strangely blank face, large modeled hair appears to have its own articulation
    • couldn't count the polygons or segments since there are no VRML2 tools that will both load the models and give statistics
    • Vorlon V1.11 reports 102 VRML2 errors and approx. 7146 polys
    • CosmoWorlds2.0 reports:
      • "Inventor read error: Problems found in nodes in input: keys are not non-decreasing"
  • nancy.wrl (250k)
    • fairly human proportions, female, no ears or fingers
    • according to ISB, 468 polys
    • CosmoWorlds 2.0 reports 1796 triangles
    • Cindy guesses actual poly count is between 1300 and 1600
    • Vorlon V1.11 reports 157596 polys
    • does load into V*Realm Builder
  • hi-res Baxter by Christian Babski
    • has good proportions, and a strange hair lump
    • Vorlon V1.11 reports 47 VRML errors
    • CosmoWorlds2.0 reports:
      • "Inventor read error: Invalid Inline children in Bob_right_foot.wrl, line 138"
      • 11014 tris (missing right foot)
  • lo-res Baxter
    • has a overstretched face textured
    • both have complete hands with very long fingers, long thumbs in particular
    • Vorlon V1.11 reports 47 VRML errors
    • CosmoWorlds2.0 reports: 1866 tris
  • Phil (phil_h_anim.wrl, 65k)
    • complete (though tiny) hands
    • cartoonish nonhuman proportions
    • part of the VRML Dream project
    • CosmoWorlds2.0 reports: 2974 tris
  • note on VRML2
    • it is very difficult to load VRML2 models into anything to get statistics on them
    • Home Space Designer 2.5 [discontinued]
      • loads: nancy, frank, hiro_001 and yt_001 (with badly scaled limbs)
      • doesn't load: manya, baxter, hiro_002 and yt_002
      • only reports polygon count of a single object, not an entire hierarchy or file
    • CosmoWorlds 2.0 [discontinued]
      • couldn't get it to run repeatedly on my machine
      • once ran, attempted hi-res Baxter: "Inventor error on line 138"

• Project RealWoman
  • $40/$65 from Martin Keitel, in Finland
  • only available in Impulse Imagine format, which could be converted to other formats by using Viewpoint Interchange
  • pro: efficient mesh, very realistic proportions, good texture map, cheap
  • con: odd spacing between the thighs
• Character Studio
  • would it produce useful segmented models?
• Poser
  • bought the Win95/NT version and wrote an evaluation of Poser 2
  • summary: very good proportions, few segments, and some quality issues
  • primary problem: exported geometry hierarchy has no end-caps on segments, so it breaks on movement - basically, Poser is not a model source
• Gwoman and Gman
  • in 3DS and ISM formats
  • Gman3-5 face counts: 600, 1008, 2006
  • Gwoman1-5 face counts: 102, 200, 594, 1002, 2008
  • cartoonish (esp. Gman), no fingers
• 3D CAFE
  • has a pictorial index of anatomical models, though none are appropriate for realtime simulation.
• Building Character
  • A tutorial on head modelling from accomplished 3D artist Jeremy Birn, though he assumes a regular grid of NURBS.
• Manga Babes
  • Somebody named "TomWoof" once created a project/product called the Manga Babes Toolkit. Unfortunately, artist Stefan Gagne reports: "Truth be told, the kit isn't very useful. Unless you're very good at making hair and clothes in 3-D... and good at putting in joints and links and splitting a solid chunk into body parts, since his port to 3DS didn't do any of that... and putting on the textures yourself... etc, etc."
  • the models are on the web now (name: babes3d) though they are blocky and, of course, cartoonish