A Method for Teaching the Modeling of Manikins Suitable for Third-Person 3-D Virtual Worlds and Games

Virtual Worlds have the potential to transform the way people learn, work, and play. With the emerging fields of service science and design science, professors and students at universities are in a unique position to lead the research and development of innovative and value-adding virtual worlds. However, a key barrier in the development of virtual worlds—especially for business, technical, and non-artistic students—is the ability to model human figures in 3-D for use as avatars and automated characters in virtual worlds. There are no articles in either research or teaching journals which describe methods that non-artists can use to create 3-D human figures. This paper presents a repeatable and flexible method I have taught successfully to both artists and business students, which allows them to quickly model human-like figures (manikins) that are sufficient for prototype purposes and that allows students and researchers alike to explore the development of new kinds of virtual worlds.


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The widespread incorporation of advanced graphics processors in cellphones, tablets, and other mobile devices-combined with the availability of portable fullbody motion capture controllers such as the Microsoft Kinect™-is creating a kind of digital ecosystem in which 3-D Virtual Worlds can operate.
A 3-D virtual world is a computer program that displays to users 3-D representations of people, places, and other things found in the "real world," and that allows users to flexibly interact with these representations via standard input devices like a keyboard and mouse, or more sophisticated input devices like accelerometers or motion capture controllers.*Corresponding author.Email: nickflor@unm.eduA third-person 3-D virtual world also contains an avatar-a character under a user's control that the user can see and that is central to the user's feeling of immersiveness in the virtual world (see Figure 1).Avatars do not have to look anything like a user, nor do they have to look human, but human-like figures are the most common type of avatars in virtual worlds.Similar to when the web first emerged as a technology, the most innovative uses of virtual worlds lie waiting to be discovered.If university researchers and students are to lead the discovery of innovations in virtual worlds it is necessary for them to have the ability to build and experiment with different kinds of virtual worlds, rather than work under the constraints of existing commercial virtual worlds.A key barrier to building virtual worlds is modeling avatars.
analyzing the difficulties in the space of existing modeling methods.
The seventh guideline is to communicate the results effectively to technical and managerial audiences, which is the goal of this paper.
Before discussing the method in this paper for modeling 3-D human figures, we will first review how professional modelers in the movie and gaming industries typically model characters.

3-D Tracing
The method most commonly used in industry to model human figures is commonly referred to as character modeling with reference pictures, although I use the term "3-D tracing" because it is analogous to the technique of placing see-through paper over a photograph and creating a drawing by tracing.The method can be seen in a variety of books including, Guindon (2007, pp. 15-83), Ingrassia (2009, pp. 269-288), Oliverio (2007, pp. 47-323), Patnode (2008, pp. 133-207), and Russo, (2006, pp. 83-152).The major steps are as follows (see Figure 2 for depictions of the steps): 1.
The modeler first obtains reference pictures.In the movie and videogaming industries, these reference pictures are typically drawn by a concept artist in the art department.However, if the 3-D model is intended to represent an actual person, then reference photographs of the actual person are used instead of drawings.The reference pictures depict front and side views of the character to be modeled, with features lined up in both photos including the top of the head, the waistline, and the bottom of the feet.

2.
The reference pictures are then imported into a modeling program.The pictures are placed at right angles to one another, and centered.

3.
The modeler adds a simple box to the workspace so that it overlaps the torso in both the front and the side reference-picture views.

4.
Finally, the modeler molds the box to the reference drawings-extruding limbs, adding edge loops, and moving vertices so that the edges of the model line up with the edges in the reference pictures.3-D tracing is by far the most common technique for modeling human figures.Yet another more advanced method for figure modeling is digital sculpting (de la Flor & Mongeon, 2010;Spencer, 2010), where the modeler creates an entire character without reference pictures.However, digital sculpting requires detailed knowledge of body proportions and surface anatomy.

Comparison of 3-D Tracing with my Manikin Modeling Method
Methods for modeling human figures in 3 not new.Moreover, there are an abundance of tuto on the "3-D tracing" method written by both professional modelers and by modeling enthusiasts, in trade books and in social-media video websites like YouTube.There are three main problems with 3method for non-artists.First, it requ pictures.If the modeler is not an artist, then development is hindered while the modeler either works with an artist, or finds pictures, or takes photographs.
Taking photographs can be non-trivial, as reference pictures may require actors, costumes, and props to be built.Second, it is time consuming to model using 3-D tracing as the modeler must constantly move vertices and edges to line them up with the reference pictures in both front and side , digital sculpting requires detailed knowledge of

D Tracing with my
Methods for modeling human figures in 3-D are certainly not new.Moreover, there are an abundance of tutorials D tracing" method written by both professional modelers and by modeling enthusiasts, in trade books and media video websites like YouTube.
-D tracing as a artists.First, it requires reference pictures.If the modeler is not an artist, then development is hindered while the modeler either works with an artist, or finds pictures, or takes photographs.
Taking trivial, as reference pictures may , costumes, and props to be built.Second, it D tracing as the modeler must constantly move vertices and edges to line them up with the reference pictures in both front and side views.In fact, one professional video ga reported taking on average one to three weeks to complete a figure (Olson, 2009), although it should be noted that these were detailed figures.Third, detailed human figures created via 3-D tracing are unnecessary for prototyping useful virtual worlds, which is the main goal of virtual world experimenters.The manikin method has the following benefits versus the 3-D tracing method.First, it is easy to teach to non artists.I have taught the method in a 1.5 hour lecture to business students, none of which were artists.Second, the method is easy to learn and its application produces repeatable results.Over ninety percent of business students who were taught the method, successfully modeled a 3-D manikin in under a week.Third, the method is flexible and extendable as different kinds of manikins can be created, and detailed can be added to these manikins at a later time if needed, using a variation of the 3-D tracing method.Finally, the method creates human figures that are good enough for purposes.In my courses, the usefulness of the virtual worlds that the students create takes precedence over aesthetics.By not having to spend so much time on modeling characters, students can focus on functionality and add aesthetics to their manikins at a later time.This is similar to the approach taken in figure drawing, where artists first draw a posed human figure using cylinders, cubes, spheres and other basic geometric primitives (Loomis, 1943).This allows the artist to focus on bo the action depicted and the meaning of the action like muscles, clothing, and shadow are added later.In the following sections, we examine the manikin method and the test of the method on both artistic and non-artistic students.views.In fact, one professional video game modeler reported taking on average one to three weeks to complete a figure (Olson, 2009), although it should be noted that these were detailed figures.Third, detailed human figures D tracing are unnecessary for prototyping worlds, which is the main goal of virtual

A REPEATABLE METHOD FOR MODELING HUMAN FIGURES IN 3-D: THE MANIKIN METHOD
The manikin method has the following benefits versus the D tracing method.First, it is easy to teach to nonartists.I have taught the method in a 1.5 hour lecture to one of which were artists.Second, the method is easy to learn and its application produces repeatable results.Over ninety percent of business students who were taught the method, successfully D manikin in under a week.Third, the flexible and extendable as different kinds of manikins can be created, and detailed can be added to these manikins at a later time if needed, using a variation D tracing method.Finally, the method creates human figures that are good enough for prototyping purposes.In my courses, the usefulness of the virtual worlds that the students create takes precedence over aesthetics.By not having to spend so much time on modeling characters, students can focus on functionality ir manikins at a later time.This is similar to the approach taken in figure drawing, where artists first draw a posed human figure using cylinders, cubes, spheres and other basic geometric primitives (Loomis, 1943).This allows the artist to focus on both the action depicted and the meaning of the action-details like muscles, clothing, and shadow are added later.In the following sections, we examine the manikin method and the test of the method on both artistic and

REPEATABLE AND FLEXIBLE METHOD FOR MODELING HUMAN D: THE MANIKIN METHOD
D modeling is an activity where an individual creates representations of real or imagined things-that appear to have width, height, and depth-using a special kind of uter program known as modeling software.The representations that one creates using modeling software are called models, and the person that creates them is a

Popular commercial modeling software packages include
Max, both by Autodesk Corporation, while source modeling software package is Blender.Both Maya and 3ds Max are expensive software packages, as they are used to create models for both Hollywood movies and videogames.However,

N. V. Flor
Autodesk makes them available freely, with full functionality; the only restriction is that anything created by the software is for academic-use only.Instructors and students can download these packages from students.autodesk.com,after registering with an e address from a recognized academic institution.Blender can be downloaded from www.blender.org.Most all 3-D modeling software packages are sufficient for modeling human figures using the manikin method.
The decision of what package to use in a course will depend largely on the computers available to the instructor and to the students-as not all modeling software will run on all operating systems.In particular, both Maya and Blender run on the Windows, the Mac, and the Linux operating systems.3ds Max runs only on the Windows operating system.At the University of New Mexico's Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media program, Maya is the preferred package since the students own both Macs and PCs, and it is the modeling software most commonly used by the movie industry, which is a target employer for the students.

Polygon Modeling
There are two basic ways to model, using polygons or using curves.This paper covers polygon modeling most popular kind of modeling for virtual worlds.The person that creates the 3-D models is known as a modeler.Using polygon modeling, the modeler starts with a basic object -e.g., a cube, sphere, or pyramid with a certain width x height x depth and with a certain number of faces -much like a sculptor starts with a lump of clay.The modeler then molds this source object into a target object using the operations of moving, cutting, extruding, wedging, merging, deleting, and mirroring, which are applied to the object's vertices, edges, and faces.
The following describes the general lecture script that I developed for teaching students how to model a 3 manikin.I have intentionally written the lecture script in general terms-without reference to any software operation-so that an instructor can adapt it easily to the specific modeling software that he or she uses.The script assumes the instructor and students have working knowledge of the basic modeling operations, which are listed in italics in the script.For those unfamiliar with basic modeling operations, Appendix A provides a tutorial of these operations specific to the Maya software package.

Part 1. Creating the Body
To create a body: (1) Create a cube that is 1x2.5x1 units with 2x5x2 faces; Autodesk makes them available freely, with full functionality; the only restriction is that anything created use only.Instructors and packages from students.autodesk.com,after registering with an e-mail address from a recognized academic institution.Blender can be downloaded from www.blender.org.D modeling software packages are sufficient g the manikin method.The decision of what package to use in a course will depend largely on the computers available to the as not all modeling software will run on all operating systems.In particular, r run on the Windows, the Mac, and the Linux operating systems.3ds Max runs only on the Windows operating system.At the University of New Mexico's Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media program, Maya is the preferred package since the students Macs and PCs, and it is the modeling software most commonly used by the movie industry, which is a There are two basic ways to model, using polygons or using curves.This paper covers polygon modeling-the most popular kind of modeling for virtual worlds.The D models is known as a modeler.Using polygon modeling, the modeler starts with a basic e.g., a cube, sphere, or pyramid with a certain with a certain number of faces much like a sculptor starts with a lump of clay.The modeler then molds this source object into a target object using the operations of moving, cutting, extruding, wedging, merging, deleting, and mirroring, which are ied to the object's vertices, edges, and faces.
The following describes the general lecture script that I developed for teaching students how to model a 3-D manikin.I have intentionally written the lecture script in ny software-specific so that an instructor can adapt it easily to the specific modeling software that he or she uses.The script assumes the instructor and students have working knowledge of the basic modeling operations, which are lics in the script.

Part 4. Creating the Head
To create a head, simply create a cube that is .7x1x1with 2x3x3 faces, then save the file as "head".The head can be shaped after it is attached to the body in part 5. To create a head, simply create a cube that is .7x1x1with then save the file as "head".The head can be shaped after it is attached to the body in part 5.

Modeling the Head (see text for
The final step is to merge all the pieces into one.After the separate body parts: (

Apparatus
For hardware, students used their personal laptops or desktop computers to run the 3 The software used was Maya 2010, which the students downloaded for free from the Autodesk.comwebsite (students.autodesk.com)as part of software program for students and faculty.The IFDM computer lab also had Maya 2010 loaded on 22 personal computers in case students were unable to load Maya onto their personal computers.However, all 67 students reported successfully loading Maya onto their personal computers.The University's online instructional system, WebCT, held a link to YouTube tutorial videos made by the instructor on the topic of modeling 3 this video was made available to all students.

Procedure
Students were given a lecture on how to model 3 figures based on the lecture script described previously.Instead of the term "manikin", I used the term "robot", which students are more familiar with.They were then given an assignment where they a personalized robot avatar and to animate a walk cycle for the robot avatar (see Figure 8 for the written instructions).For hardware, students used their personal laptops or desktop computers to run the 3-D modeling software.The software used was Maya 2010, which the students downloaded for free from the Autodesk.comwebsite (students.autodesk.com)as part of Autodesk's free software program for students and faculty.The IFDM computer lab also had Maya 2010 loaded on 22 personal computers in case students were unable to load Maya onto their personal computers.However, all 67 students ading Maya onto their personal computers.The University's online instructional system, WebCT, held a link to YouTube tutorial videos made by the instructor on the topic of modeling 3-D characters and this video was made available to all students.

ICST
Students were given a lecture on how to model 3-D figures based on the lecture script described previously.Instead of the term "manikin", I used the term "robot", which students are more familiar with.They were then given an assignment where they had a week both to create a personalized robot avatar and to animate a walk cycle for the robot avatar (see Figure 8 for the written

N. V. Flor
Based on Professor Flor's Robot as taught in class: 1. Model a robot body in Maya (filename: body.mb).2. Model a robot head in Maya (filename: head.mb).3. Model a robot hand in Maya (filename: hand.mb).4. Model a robot foot in Maya (filename: foot.mb). 5. Personalize your robot body parts.6. Merge all the body parts to yield a robot avatar.7. Animate a walk cycle for your robot avatar (filename: robot.mb).8. Export your walking robot avatar as an fbx file (filename: robot.fbx).

Results
There were 24 students in IFDM 205, 22 turned in a robot, and 2 did not turn in a robot.Of the 2 that did not turn in a robot, 1 did not turn in any assignments at all.Of the 22 that turned in a robot, one person saved the file incorrectly and turned in an animated skeleton without the robot-however, upon inspection, the student did have the robot modeled.If the person that did not turn in any assignments is removed from the total number of students, 22/23 or 95.6% of the students successfully turned in a robot.Based on Professor Flor's Robot as taught in class: 1. Model a robot body in Maya (filename: body.mb).
2. Model a robot head in Maya (filename: head.mb).
3. Model a robot hand in Maya (filename: hand.mb).4. Model a robot foot in Maya (filename: foot.mb).
6. Merge all the body parts to yield a robot avatar.walk cycle for your robot avatar (filename: 8. Export your walking robot avatar as an fbx file

Attaching the Body Parts (see text for
There were two instructional conditions based on the course.In condition 1, students received the lecture through YouTube videos that were embedded in the University's online instructional delivery system, WebCT.s approximately one hour.All the students in MGMT330 were in condition 1, as MGMT 330 was a purely online course face component.In condition 2, students face lecture on modeling a d also provided access to the video lectures on WebCT for reference purposes.All the students in IFDM 205 were in condition 2.
There were 24 students in IFDM 205, 22 turned in a robot, and 2 did not turn in a robot.Of the 2 that did not in a robot, 1 did not turn in any assignments at all.Of the 22 that turned in a robot, one person saved the file incorrectly and turned in an animated skeleton without the however, upon inspection, the student did have the erson that did not turn in any assignments is removed from the total number of students, 22/23 or 95.6% of the students successfully turned in a

Robot Manikins Created by the Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media (IFDM 205)
Students made the following customizations.For the head, students added horns (1 hair (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11).For the arms and legs, students added limb & muscle tapering (1-5, 1-10, 2 3).No hands were customized to any visually apparent degree.However, but two student substituted a feet with toes (2-6, 2-11) for the standard manikin feet.For the torso, students tapered the waist (1 added wings (2-5), sculpted female made chest depressions (1-10); and added shoulder and waist props (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10).Finally, two students used the automatic smoothing function in Maya to create a more rounded manikin (2-6, 2-11), and one student added clothes (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11).Note: Manikins 1 1-8-although highly customized manikin procedure.These manikins were created by students who came up with their own procedures (1 2, 1-4), or were created in another modeling class (1 2-8)-a fact that was only discovered several weeks after the assignment was due.There were 43 students in MGMT330.Of these 43 students, 33 turned in a manikin, while 10 students did not turn in a manikin.Of the 10 students that did not turn in a manikin, 7 did not turn in any assignments at all during the semester.Of the 33 students that turned in a manikin, 3 did not save their files properly and only turned in an animated skeleton.However, when their work was checked in person, they indeed modeled a maniki correctly.If you removed, the 7 students that did not show up to class, then 91.6% of the students successfully followed the procedure for modeling a manikin.Students made the following customizations.For the head, students added horns (1-6), hats (2-9, 2-10), and 11).For the arms and legs, students added limb & 10, 2-6, 2-7, 2-11) and props (2hands were customized to any visually apparent degree.However, but two student substituted a feet with 11) for the standard manikin feet.For the torso, students tapered the waist (1-5, 1-10, 2-6, 2-7), 5), sculpted female chests (2-6, 2-7), 10); and added shoulder and 10).Finally, two students used the automatic smoothing function in Maya to create a more 11), and one student added nikins 1-1, 1-2, 1-4, 1-11, and although highly customized-did not follow the manikin procedure.These manikins were created by students who came up with their own procedures (1-1, 1-4), or were created in another modeling class (1-11, t that was only discovered several weeks after There were 43 students in MGMT330.Of these 43 students, 33 turned in a manikin, while 10 students did not turn in a manikin.Of the 10 students that did not turn in a not turn in any assignments at all during the semester.Of the 33 students that turned in a manikin, 3 did not save their files properly and only turned in an animated skeleton.However, when their work was checked in person, they indeed modeled a manikin correctly.If you removed, the 7 students that did not show up to class, then 91.6% of the students successfully followed the procedure for modeling a manikin.

Robot Manikins Created by the Management (MGMT 330) Students
MGMT 330 students made the following customizations.For the head, students added hair (1-3), a hat (2-1), horns 5), and one substituted a pumpkin (3)(4)(5) for the manikin head from the procedure.For the arms and legs, one student added arm tapering (row 1-col 8), another student added multiple arms (4)(5).No hands were customized to any visually apparent degree.However, one student substituted feet with heels (1-3) and another substituted flatter feet for the standard manikin feet.There was only one torso customization, where a student sculpted a female chest (1)(2)(3).Finally, three students used the automatic smoothing function in Maya to create a more rounded manikin (1-4, 3-2, and 3-5), and one student used the coloring features of Maya to create a green and orange manikin (3)(4)(5).

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The ability to model human figures is a difficult skill for non-artists to acquire, using current methods like 3-D tracing or digital sculpting.The reason for the difficulty is that these methods are aimed at creating highly-detailed figures for movies and games and require either in-depth artistic knowledge or anatomical knowledge.Without this knowledge, one must collaborate with others that possess it.The inability to model human figures in 3-D is one key deterrent for non-artists that would like to experiment with new forms of virtual worlds.This paper presented a flexible and repeatable method that non-artists can master in a short amount of time, to quickly develop 3-D human figures that are suitable for virtual world prototyping.While these figures-manikins-are not as detailed as those created by 3-D tracing or digital sculpting, they do not have to be for the purpose of experimenting with virtual worlds.However, the method is flexible enough that once one settles on a virtual world design, the details can be added later using either 3-D tracing or digital sculpting.I presented a test of the method on two classes of students-both artists (film & digital media students) and non-artists (management students)-with over 90% of the students in both classes able to successfully model a 3-D figure in under a week.While this is a good result and shows the repeatability of the method, the amount of customization in the student manikins was minimal.Since the manikins of the artistic students also lacked extensive customizations, I attribute the minimal customizations to a lack of emphasis in the assignment instructions.One drawback of the manikins is that they are not detailed and do not look realistic.It is possible to layer detail and realism on the manikins (see Figure 7, last panel), but this is currently a tedious process that combines 3-D tracing with texture mapping, the latter of which can be thought of as a process of painting the body of the manikin.Yet detail and realism is desirable when moving from a virtual world prototype to a commercial virtual world product.Future research is needed to develop methods, similar to the manikin method, that allows non-artists to quickly transform manikins into more realistic-looking human figures.For those realistic figures that are not based on actual people, this will require discovering how to teach a streamlined form of human anatomy.For figures based on actual people, an alternative to importing pictures and tracing must be discovered.I believe a method similar to drawing caricatures might suffice, where prominent features in a person are emphasized but not duplicated.In closing, the most innovative and useful forms of virtual worlds have yet to be discovered.The manikin method, combined with knowledge of programming, animation, and terrain modeling, gives non-artists the ability to experiment with developing new forms of virtual worlds.This research is a step towards helping researchers, students, and entrepreneurs explore the space of possible virtual worlds.

A Brief Note on the Inset Operation
A face within a face is known as an "inset".You create an inset by doing the extrude operation with an offset (Figure 13, steps 1-4), but not pulling out an extrusion (viz., not doings steps 5-6 in Figure 13).

A Brief Note on Moving Elements in Absolute Mode
To move elements to absolute positions, in step 3 do a select Absolute transform instead of a Relative transform, all the other steps are the same.The merge operation takes two or more vertices either that are close to one another, or that overlap one another, and makes them into a single vertex.Merge is useful for connecting separate body parts, such as a hand to an arm, or a foot to a leg, or a head to a torso.Note: before merging separate models, they must be combined via the menu item Mesh > Combine.Moreover, when modeling a human figure using the Basic Manikin Method in this paper, there are situations where you will move and overlap vertices.Examples include creating a back wedge (see Figure 16), or making a box into a foot (see Figure 5, Step 2).By applying the merge operation to the overlapped vertices, you remove the extraneous points.

Mirror Operation
Modelers use the mirror operation to save time.Mirroring is appropriate whenever the object to be modeled is largely symmetrical, such as a body or a head.To mirror, a modeler creates half the object, and uses the mirror operation to create the other half automatically via the software.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Virtual UNM Campus Developed by the Author on a Mobile Device, Avatar in the Center

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. 3-D Tracing: A Modeler (1) Takes front and side pictures of a human figure; (2) Imports them into a 3-D modeling program; (3) Adds a basic box that covers the torso; (4) Mold the box to the pictures.

A 3 2
Transactions on July-September 2012 | Volume 12 | Issue 7 Method for Teaching the Modeling of Manikins Suitable for Third-Person 3 Pictures s not shown for clarity) D Tracing: A Modeler (1) Takes front and side pictures of a human figure; (2) Imports D modeling program; (3) Adds a basic box that covers the torso; (4) Mold the box to the the most common technique for modeling human figures.Yet another more advanced method for figure modeling is digital sculpting (de la Flor & Mongeon, 2010; Spencer, 2010), where the modeler creates an entire character without reference pictures.
(2) Wedge the top back face 45 degrees, yielding an arm face; (3) Move the outer bottommost edges +.1 units in the x direction yielding a ICST Transactions on July-September 2012 | Volume 12 | Issue 7 4

Figure 6 .Part 5 .Figure 7 . 7 A 5 4
Figure 6.Modeling the Head (see text for explanation) Transactions on e-Education and e-Learning September 2012 | Volume 12 | Issue 7-9 | e2 Person 3-D Virtual Worlds and Games MANIKIN METHOD TEST participated in this study.The students came from two different courses offered in the Fall of 2010: (1) MGMT 330-Fundamentals of Virtual Business Programming; and (2) IFDM 205-Activating Digital Space.There were 43 students in MGMT330, had any experience with figure drawing or D modeling prior to taking the course, which was a required course for junior and senior level students majoring in management of information systems.IFDM 205 is a required course in the University's plinary Film & Digital Media program for sophomore students.IFDM is a highly selective program where students are admitted based on their combined artistic and technical expertise.There were 24 students in IFDM 205, all of them had been introduced to basic 3-D modeling in a prior course where they modeled a chair.Four of the IFDM students had taken a prior 3-D modeling course either at the University or at a community college, and one of the four had extensive ut was self-taught.

Figure 8 .
Figure 8. Attaching the Body Parts (see text for explanation)

Figure 9 .
Figure 9. Robot Manikins Created by the Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media Students

Figure 13 .
Figure 13.Extrude operation Figure 14 depicts a close-up of the inset created by Steps 1-4.

Figure 14 .
Figure 14.A Close-Up of an Inset

Figure 15 .
Figure 15.Move Relative operation 1.If the user-interface Status Line is not displayed, display it by selecting the menu item Display > UI Elements > Shelf.a. Explanation: The Status Line is a toolbar that contains 3 textboxes known as the "Input Line", which allows you to type in X-Y-Z values for vertices.b.Response: The Status Line toolbar appears 2. Select a vertex or shift-select multiple vertices, which are to be moved.a. Note: I selected the lowermost three vertices on the right side of the torso.b.Response: The selected vertices are highlighted.3. Select Relative transform in the drop-down box to the left of the Input Line.a. Response: icon image changes to the relative indicator.4. Enter .1 into the X: textbox of the Input Line then press <Enter>.a. Response: the bottommost, right-side vertices move to the right .1 units.
Figure depicts the fourth row of back vertices moved to Z=0, to create a back wedge.

Figure 16 .
Figure 16.The Fourth Row of Back Vertices Moved Absolute to Z=0, to Create a Back Wedge

Figure 17 .
Figure 17.Merge Operation Applied to the Back Wedge Vertices

Figure 18 .
Figure 18.An Example of the Mirror Operation