The History of the Ideal Male Body

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3D human characters development according to several historical stages:

1850s...

Millionares were depicted with bulging waistcoats, gold watch chains stretched across their ample midriffs, their size reflecting their power. There was even a Fat Man's Club founded in 1866. Each member had to weigh at least 200 lbs to qualify for membership.

1930s to 1950s...

Hollywood's most masculine men of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, John Wayne, Clark Gable, Gregory Peck - look like wimps in comparison to modern cinema's muscular action heros (Arnold Schwarzenneger, Stallone, Jean-Claude van Damme).

1960s...

In the 1960s, long messy hair and not exercising was seen as ideal as hippy culture gained populairty. Beautiful bodies hadn't been very important. Young Americans, and some not-so-young ones, relied on dramatic clothing and masses of hair more than perfect measurements to express individuality and sexuality.

1980s...

In the 1980s Schwarzenegger and Stallone exemplified the ideal amongst men. They had chiseled muscles and veins, unlike earlier body builders. The 80s face for men was described as having "a little heavier eyebrow, a little stronger nose with a little higher bridge, and a more natural looking tip, higher cheekbones, stronger chin."

1990s...

Jane Ogden (1992) reports interviews in which she asked men to talk about their bodies. The results were interesting. She found that the men she interviewed were clear on how the ideal man should look. He should be tall and well-built, with wide shoulders, V-shaped back, firm buttoks, and a flat stomach. Muscular actors such as Dolph Lundgreen, Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis exemplified the well-muscled male idea as portrayed in the popular media in the 1990s.

From left to right: 1850s ideal, 1930s ideal, 1960s ideal, 1980s ideal, 1990s ideal

"The History of the Ideal Male Body"
Commissioned work for Nickolay Lamm.
All image displayed by permission of "Lammily LLC". © 2016 All rights reserved.

February 2016 - Marco Romero
www.marcoromero.net

3D Production Pipeline of Photorealistic Human Characters.
By: Marco Romero

The process of character development is primarily focused on three softwares: Autodesk 3Ds Max, Smith Micro Poser Pro and Adobe Photoshop.

The development begins depending on the kind of character want to work, I have developed several 3D base mesh (man, woman, child) with 3DS Max software whose topology (distribution, shape and amount of polygons that make geometry) allows me to altering the body surfaces in a personalized way.

This 3d model base is imported into Poser Pro software to be modified parametrically, so it requires to optimize different body parts and "inject" the system "morph dials" customized for different deformations as well as to work with the magnets techniques to achieve the necessary deformation. For this I use different tools mainly the "Autogroup Editor" or "QuickConform" among others.

It is important to clarify that I don't work with "stock characters" because in my experience are often unsuitable for such extreme deformations that need to be developed; this is why my 3D base models has the design and amount of polygons that allow me to make a great job; so I found this way of optimizing to making my own characters for Poser Pro. I've tried using other software as the "Pixologic Zbrush" but definitely I have much better control over the mesh geometry using 3Ds Max.

On several occasions it is necessary to reverse the export process (from Poser Pro to 3Ds Max) in order to achieve the measure that I am looking for, add more resolution to the zone to be deformed or modified, as well as other variants to be corrected; to be exported back to Pose Pro.

An important part of character development is the Body Rigging, depending upon the final software with which the posture will be; I like working with the biped system (3ds Max) but honestly the bones system integrated on Poser Pro is much more powerful, despite being more complex, the results are excellent.

The texturing is fully developed with texture maps developed with Photoshop to be mapped onto the character in 3Ds Max. In most cases I use photographs to make photo-montages for different skin types. Usually I work with large format textures 2K up to 4K pixels depending on the area of the body to render. The material setup is personalized, and the SSS properties (Subsurface scattering) and other kind of materials will depend on the final render engine to be used, mainly I work with two: Mental Ray (3Ds Max) and Render Studio (Poser).

Marco Romero