PART 1: MODELING THE HEART
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

STEP 1
This is the second heart that I have made with Lightwave. I was not very happy with the geometry of the first attempt. I began by printing out screen shots of the first heart. I then sketched on top of them to show how I should improve the geometry. I based these changes on illustrations in several medical books.

Once I was happy with the sketches I scanned them and then loaded them into Modeler as backdrops.

STEP 2
I thought carefully about how detailed the geometry should be. I wanted to make a heart with as few polygons as I could. Using the templates as a guide I began making the main shapes.

STEP 3 AND 4
This image shows the basic shapes that I made. Most of them began as simple tubes. At this point I did not worry too much how I would connect them.

STEP 5
Next I began joining the shapes. I began by connecting the pulmonary artery to the heart body by selecting four points at a time and creating connecting polygons.



STEP 6
I added the back pieces and deleted polygons that would overlap the heart body. I then added geometry a polygon at a time to connect the parts.



STEP 6
The finished model in sub patch mode.