| Cut-scenes can also involve conversation, so the inside of the mouth will need to be developed to include the teeth and a tongue. Let's begin with her teeth. The Teeth Most games just adopt a simple set of teeth consisting of a flat curve of polygons with a teeth texture on them. This is what we will use for Kilait's unlikely that she would benefit from a set of fully modeled teeth because we will never get close enough to see them in detail. Besides, a full set of teeth would increase the polygon count dramatically. 1. | In a new scene, create a new cylinder with the following configuration: Radius 1, Height 0.4, Subdivisions Around Axis 14, Subdivisions Along Height 1, and Subdivisions On Caps 1. Your cylinder should look like the one in the top panel of Figure 4.40.
Figure 4.40. Create and edit a basic cylinder. 
| 2. | Remove the top and bottom from the cylinder, as well as five quads from the back, giving you the shape in Figure 4.40 (bottom).
| 3. | Teeth are never perfectly round, but at the moment our mesh is (Figure 4.41, left). Switch to the top view and scale the geometry to match the shape illustrated on the right in Figure 4.41.
Figure 4.41. Scale the teeth geometry to achieve this shape. 
| 4. | We have our top teeth complete now. To create the bottom set, duplicate the upper set and position it below. Make sure you scale it in slightly along the X and Z axes, because a human's bottom teeth are positioned back a little from the top teeth (Figure 4.42).
Figure 4.42. Duplicate the top-teeth mesh and position it underneath and slightly back from the original set. 
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The Tongue Now that the teeth are done, let's create the tongue. 1. | First hide the teeth; we don't need them yet.
| 2. | Create a cube with the following configuration: Width 0.5, Height 0.2, Depth 1, Subdivisions Along Width 2, Subdivisions Along Height 2, and Subdivisions Along Depth 3.
| 3. | Following the progression in Figure 4.43, adjust the shape so it takes on the look of a tongue. Scale the upper and lower vertices in slightly in preparation for the next step, in which you will move the front-center ones out a little.
Figure 4.43. Edit the vertices to sculpt the shape of a tongue. 
| 4. | Select the vertices that lie down the center of the object and move them down a fraction, creating the crease in the tongue.
| 5. | Rotate the front and the back to curve the tongue.
| 6. | Make the teeth visible again and position the tongue inside them (Figure 4.44). You may need to scale the tongue further to make it fit properly. In addition, make sure you delete the faces at the rear of the tongue, as shown in Figure 4.44 on the right.
Figure 4.44. Position the tongue between the teeth. 
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The teeth and tongue elements are complete, so delete the history and save as Kila_InnerMouth.mb. Adding the Inner Mouth Elements We will next merge the inner mouth elements we created (teeth and tongue) into our character. 1. | Load in the last file you were working on (Kila_Hair.mb), and import the inner mouth elements into the scene.
| 2. | Scale the geometry down and position it inside her head as shown in Figure 4.45. The upper teeth should just dip down below the bottom lip.
Figure 4.45. Import the teeth and tongue into your latest scene and position them behind the lips. 
| 3. | Double-check the shape of the mouth. If you can see teeth popping through, then the mouth is not the correct shape. Kila's lips should lie on top of her teeth.
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The Inner Cheeks Before we finish the mouth area, we need to do one last thing. If Kila were to open her mouth in its current state, we would see not only her teeth and tongue but also the back of her head. On some platforms, we would not even see thatwe would see straight through the back of her head. What's needed now is to create the inside of the mouth, consisting of the top of the throat (upper palette) and inner cheeks. 1. | At present, Kila's lips are sealed shut, so to start you need to cut them open. As shown in Figure 4.46 (top), focus in on her lips and select the vertices that run along the opening between the lips.
Figure 4.46. Split the vertices to create an opening between the lips. 
TIP When you're zooming into your geometry, it may happen that the camera cuts into the mesh before you get close enough. To fix this, open up the attributes for the camera by going to View > Camera Attribute Editor, and reduce the value for Near Clip Plane. | 2. | With the vertices selected, go to Edit Polygons > Split Vertex. This will split up the vertices, "un-welding" them, so to speak. Now the svertices are all separate. Select each one in turn and move it up or down, creating a slight opening in the mouth as shown in Figure 4.46 (bottom). Just remember to weld them again when you are done.
| 3. | Hide the teeth and tongue for now. As illustrated in Figure 4.47, select the edges around the opening of the mouth.
Figure 4.47. Select the edges around the opening of the mouth. 
| 4. | Extrude the edges inward, adding two divisions to the extrusion (Figure 4.48a). Do this by setting Divisions to 3 for polyExtrudeEdge1 in the Channel Box.
Figure 4.48. Create the cavity of the mouth. 
| 5. | Weld together all the vertices at the very end to create a point (Figure 4.48b).
| 6. | Select the edges on both the top and the bottom of the extrusion, as highlighted in Figure 4.48c.
| 7. | Collapse these edges (Figure 4.48d).
| 8. | Bring the center points on the top upward, and the ones below downward, to create a hollow in the middle.
| 9. | Optimize the shape by welding the extra vertices to the top and bottom points (Figure 4.48e).
| 10. | Adjust the vertices to make the cavity larger. Aim for the results shown in Figure 4.49.
Figure 4.49. Enlarge the cavity to envelop the teeth and tongue. 
| 11. | Unhide the teeth and check to see that they fit inside the cavity.
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We are now finished with the head area and can move on and add some clothing. But first, clean up your scene and save your work as Kila_Head.mb. |
