Ankheg Head Seams and Antenna

I had a bit of time today to work on my Ankheg model. I decided that, before things get too complex, I should start to consider how I will be creating the UV map when the model is done. I zoomed in on where the maxilla connects to the head, when into edge select mode and select one of the edges from the original ring that I “grew” the maxilla from. I then tried to use the Edge Loop Select feature to select the whole ring, but it didn’t work. All of those subdivided edges that I used to attach the head messed it up. Instead I selected the vertex at the very tip then used the ctrl+ trick to highlight the whole maxilla. Then I just unselected all of the vertices except those on the base ring. Then I used the Mark Seam feature to mark it with that orangish line.




I then manually selected a line of edges on the underside that when from the base to the tip and also made that a seam.



I used Edge Loop Select and a little bit of manual selection to mark a line that divided the top of the head from the bottom, including the mandible. I only did the left side as the right will get deleted later. In order to do the inside of the left mandible, I deleted the right mandible. Again it will be recreated later when I do a mirror of the left side towards the end.



The eye was kind of a pain in the ass. I moved it out first then had to manually select a ring around it, mark the seam, and then move it back.



So now, it’s time for the antenna. I started by created a cylendar with 8 vertices, no caps and a radius of 0.1. I then moved it to roughly where I wanted it to be on the head and scaled it into about the length, and width I wanted. I kept it aligned along the z-axis to make it scale without distorting it.




I then rotated it to more the angle it would make when I join it to the head. I selected all of the long edges and did a subdivide multi, making five cuts. I selected all of the rings except the one closest to the head. Then I used rotate to give the antenna a gentle curve as I unselected one ring at a time. The picture below shows me about half way through.



To finish it off, I merged all of the vertices at the tip to give it a point. I then selected the whole thing and rotated it around the z-axis a bit to make it angle out a bit. That was all I had time for. Next time I need to remember to attach the antenna and put a seam on the underside.