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Subject: Modeling a Lady's Shoe


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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:12 AM · edited Thu, 28 March 2024 at 3:12 AM
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Chris had asked me for a tutorial on how I'd modeled the shoes for a recent modeling project of mine.  I'm sure there are many ways to do this task, but this is one that works and results in geometry that is decently-suited for animation.  While this tutorial is written within the context of modeling a conforming shoe for a Poser figure (SP3 in this example), the basic technique can be applied to any shoe model for any purpose.  Note that this technique is not intended for hyper-efficient polygon density, but it will leave you with a model that is within the bounds of typical medium-to-high polygon count and will support much detail.  Since we are only going to be doing extrusions and bevels and a couple of loop cuts, the final geometry is all quads, very "clean" topology, and will be simple to UVmap and texture.

This will be a long series of posts with an image for each, illustrating the step I'm talking about.  If you happen to start reading this before I finish, please hold off on any questions or comments until the end of the tutorial.  Thanks in advance!

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:12 AM
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file_425274.jpg

Since our model is intended to conform closely to an already-completed model, it makes sense to actually load the base character model into the scene and use it as a reference, rather than loading some blueprint planes with front/side/top views - that can be done also, but the priority of this tutorial is to have the result fit the character's foot, first and foremost.  I'll be modeling a fairly simple heeled pump, so I won't bother with reference planes.  I've just loaded DAZ SP3 into a blank scene, along with the bits of junk I like to have handy, like extra cameras and work lights and a polygonal environment when doing a high-quality render. 

I've also adjusted the pose of the feet to a moderate heel pose - normally, when modeling conforming clothing, it is very important to start from a zero-pose figure; hard-soled shoes are an exception, because I don't think there is any other way to predict exactly how the final model will look once it is rigged and conformed to feet that are posed as one would expect.  This means some extra care is necessary when rigging the shoes - of course, the shoes don't actually have to be rigged at all, they can just be treated as static props that do not bend, but it can be done this way and leave the user with a conforming shoe that behaves much like one would expect a real shoe to behave!

The exact pose is:
Both Feet: Bend 22
Both Toe: Bend -16

The exact numbers can be played with to obtain a different heel height, and may vary when working with different reference figures.

One thing I also like to do is to add a Display tag to the reference character, and set the tag to use the Gouraud Shading (Lines) mode, to force the preview display to draw the character's geometry.  Not essential, because we won't be following the character's geometry very closely anyway, but it can be useful at times. 

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:12 AM
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file_425275.jpg

I've also added a Construction Plane, to give us a "floor" to snap points to when building the model.  The construction plane has to be moved down on the Y axis so that it is a little bit below the lowest part of the character's foot (about the ball of the foot).  This happens to be -20m in my case.  Note exactly what the Y value of the construction plane is, because we'll be referring to it later.  Be aware that a construction plane isn't strictly necessary, it's just a convenient reference point.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:14 AM
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file_425276.jpg

This approach starts from the ground - the construction plane, actually - and builds up.  Let's first set some snapping options, in preparation for using the Create Polygon tool.  With the Create Polygon tool active (Structure -> Create Polygon), change the Create option to Quadrangle Strip in Attributes Manager; and on the Snap Settings tab, check Enable Snapping, Construction Plane, and Point under the Snapping section; and change Type to Snap 3D.  Other options may work fine also, this is just what I use.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:14 AM
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file_425277.jpg

For the reference character, hide everything but the feet and toes.  Switch to the Top Camera view.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:15 AM
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file_425278.jpg

Draw a single quad polygon that roughly covers the area of one of the toes.  This automatically creates a new Polygon object, with its origin set to 0/0/0 (exactly where we want it).  The points actually snapped to the character's polygons, but that's okay, we're going to fix that with Set Point Value in a bit.  We'll only be modeling one shoe, and using the Symmetry generator to mirror the geometry and create the other.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:17 AM
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file_425279.jpg

Name the new Polygon object something like "Shoe", and place it within a Symmetry generator.  The default options for the Symmetry generator should be fine (ZY mirror plane).  You may also want to rename the Symmetry generator to something meaningful like "Shoe Sym" depending on how complex your model is going to get.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:17 AM
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file_425280.jpg

Select the "Shoe" polygon object and draw a second quad that spans the middle part of the foot.  Draw a third quad that covers the heel.  Don't worry if the points snapped to slightly unexpected places, all we're doing at this point is defining some simple base geometry that we'll add complexity to later.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:19 AM
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file_425281.jpg

Let's zero all the points of the sole.  Select all the points (Selection -> Select All) and activate the Set Point Value tool (Structure -> Set Point Value).  Make the Y mode "Set", and mak the Val. -20, where our "floor" is.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:19 AM
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file_425282.jpg

Switch to the Move tool and uncheck Enable Snapping.  In the Side camera view, select the four points of the heel area, and move them upwards so that they are a bit under the reference character's heel.  In this case the rear-most points need to go a little higher than the forward ones.  That's the basic outline of the sole of the shoe.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:20 AM
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file_425283.jpg

Select the three polygons we've built so far, and subdivide them once.  Functions -> Subdivide and set the options as shown.  Now is also a good time to add a Phong tag to our Shoe polygon object, to make it appear more rounded in preview.  Probably also a good idea to apply some material that will stand out better from the gray background.  Depending on how defined you want the flatness of the toe area to be, you may wish to move a few of the points at the border between the toe and the middle part of the shoe down to the "floor" (-20 in this example).

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:21 AM
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file_425284.jpg

If your goal is to build and extremely low-polygon model, you probably do not want to make use of a HyperNURBS generator at all, but we'll be doing so for this example.  Make the Symmetry generator a child of a new HyperNURBS generator, and set the HN's subdivision levels as shown.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:21 AM
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file_425285.jpg

In Points mode, from the top camera view, let's move the points of the sole of the shoe to match the outline of the foot better.  It helps a great deal to set the reference character's X-ray property, so we can see through it.  Most of the attention needs to be paid to the corner points of the structure, since they were pulled inwards a larger distance than the others when we subdivided earlier.

For best results when rigging, you'll want the toe-area points selected in the image here to line up with the toe polygons of the character.  This is not too bad.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:22 AM
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file_425286.jpg

In a perspective camera view, let's bring the points of the arch of the foot upwards a bit to match the arch of the reference character's foot.  Don't worry about the center line points yet if you don't want to, we'll just smooth them with the Brush tool in a bit.  Note this is only two points that need adjustment here!

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:22 AM
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file_425287.jpg

Now select the center points shown, and activate the Brush tool (Structure -> Brush).  Set the Brush tool's Mode to Smooth in the attributes manager.  Go over the center points until they are relaxed and don't smooth any more.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:22 AM
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file_425288.jpg

... leaving us with something like this.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:23 AM
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file_425289.jpg

I don't like where the center point at the ball of the foot ended up, so I'll manually shift it down a little bit. This is a pretty solid base to build our shoe from!  Now's probably a good time to start saving incrementally.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:23 AM
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file_425290.jpg

Now switch to Edge mode, and select the loop of edges that defines the outline of the sole of the shoe:

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:23 AM
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file_425291.jpg

Turn off the HyperNURBS generator.  Activate the Extrude tool, type in a value of 0m for Offset, and hit Apply, and then manually drag the newly-created edges up along the Y axis.  It may help to switch to a side camera to get the height where it should be.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:24 AM
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file_425292.jpg

Switch to a perspective camera view again.  Since the Extrude tool is still active, type in a value of 90 degrees in the Edge Angle value field in Attributes Manager, and drag a new set of edges inwards a bit as shown.  We now have a "hard" sole that has thickness!

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:24 AM
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file_425293.jpg

Change the Edge Angle value of the Extrude tool to -90 degrees, and drag another new loop of edges upward a bit.  This is the crease between the sole of the shoe and the part that covers the sides and top of the character's foot.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:25 AM
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file_425294.jpg

Change the Edge Angle value of the Extrude tool to about -45, and extrude another new loop.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:26 AM
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file_425295.jpg

... and again, with some manual dragging of the new edges upwards along the Y axis ...

... modifying the Edge angle to +30 degrees, extrude again ...

... and once more.  This is a bit messy now, but there are relatively few points so it's not too much trouble to fix.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:26 AM
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file_425296.jpg

Turn the HyperNURBS generator back on, and adjust the points of the shoe's upper part that are incorrectly placed.  This is easier to do when the Modeling Axis of the Move tool (or Live Select) is set to Normal, so the point will be oriented against its surrounding polygon normals, instead of World or Object.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:26 AM
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file_425297.jpg

Notice how the shoe is intersecting the character's toe.  Let's fix that!

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:27 AM
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file_425298.jpg

Since we've added a lot of geometry, it is now important to move several points together when adjusting the points in the sole of the shoe!  Turn off the Hypernurbs generator again, and select all the points in the line that is intersecting the character:

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:27 AM
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file_425299.jpg

Turn the HyperNURBS generator back on.  Set the Move (or Live Select) tool's Orientation back to Axis, so we can avoid moving the points on the world space's Y axis and keep the toe from "curling" up or down.  Drag the intersecting points outside of the reference character's mesh.  This example happens to be at the toe, but the same would be true anywhere else for the sole.  Take the same steps wherever the sole is intersecting the reference character's foot.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:27 AM
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file_425300.jpg

Right now the model has a rather "clown shoe" appearance.  Let's sharpen the point of the toe of the shoe a bit by repeating the step above on the adjacent set of points.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:28 AM
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file_425301.jpg

Switch the HyperNURBS generator off again and try to even out some of the points a bit.  Change the move tool's axis back to Normal if it helps keep the points from going too haywire.  Turn the HN off and on frequently to make sure that the smoothed version still looks accurate.  Problematic areas of the mesh will be most obvious when the HN is turned off, any place where a single point sticks out sharply.  Catmull-Clark subdivision will tend to smooth these points after the HN is switched back on, but we'd like to have a fairly clean control cage before going too much past this point.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:28 AM
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file_425302.jpg

And this is what I have when the HN is turned back on (subdivided and smoothed).

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:28 AM
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file_425303.jpg

The crease at the sole is not as sharp as I'd like it to be.  Let's turn off the HN again and select the loop of edges as shown.  Since our model is very straightforward edge looped topology, because we've been extruding, this is a simple matter of Select -> Loop:

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:29 AM
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file_425304.jpg

Turn the HN on again, and with the Move tool's orientation set to Axis, drag these edges down on the Y axis a small amount, and the crease will become very sharp:

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:29 AM
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file_425305.jpg

The span between the heel and toe is looking a little stretched to me!  Let's bevel the line of edges shown, to add a single loop of new polygons.  You could simply use the knife tool and shift edges around also if you prefer.  A lot of bending is going to be happening right here when the shoe is rigged, and if there are too few polygons, the rig will give us problems here.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:29 AM · edited Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:30 AM
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file_425306.jpg

Bevel the edges...

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:30 AM
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file_425307.jpg

Adjust the edges and points a bit more and try to get a fairly even distribution.  Switch the HN on again as required to get the new geometry outside the mesh of the reference character.  This isn't too bad I think!

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:31 AM
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file_425308.jpg

Let's make the sole more defined.  Turn the HN off again and select these two loops of polys as shown.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:31 AM
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Bevel them slightly...

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:32 AM
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file_425311.jpg

Leaving us with this.  By the way if you notice that the normals are going the wrong way at this point, and if you followed this process exactly, then yours probably are, now is a good time to correct that - select all the polygons and Functions -> Align Normals, and then Functions -> Reverse Normals.  All the "outside" polygon faces should show orange, with the little white tail indicator pointing outwards.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:32 AM
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file_425312.jpg

Now let's add a heel.  Turn off the HN again and select these four polys on the sole, at the heel.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:32 AM
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file_425313.jpg

Activate the Extrude Inner tool, and drag a new set of polys inwards a small amount as shown.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:33 AM
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file_425314.jpg

Activate the Extrude tool and drag a new set of polys downward a small amount.  Much like the crease between the sole and the shoe upper, we'd like a tight crease here as well.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:33 AM
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file_425315.jpg

Activate the Extrude Inner tool again, and drag some new polys outward about where the original set of polys of the heel came from, as shown.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:34 AM
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file_425316.jpg

Finally, activate the Extrude tool and drag some new polys out again.  This will be the body of the heel.  If you don't feel the crease we created is sharp enough, it is pretty easy to undo a couple of steps and try again - we're only working with four polys after all!

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:34 AM
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file_425317.jpg

Transfer the selection of polygons to its coresponding points by holding CTRL and clicking the Points Mode button.  You should end up with these points selected.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:34 AM
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file_425318.jpg

Activate the Set Point Value tool and set these points' value to the "floor" (-20m in my case).

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:35 AM
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file_425319.jpg

This leaves us with a very fat and round heel.  Let's scale the points inwards (make sure that the tool axis orientation is set to Axis) on the X/Z axis.  Also let's drag them forward on the Z axis a small amount.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:35 AM
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file_425320.jpg

The heel point still looks pretty strange with the HN turned on, so let's fix that.  Activate the Knife tool, and set the Mode to Loop.  Add a loop of cuts very close to the bottom of the heel, as close as you can get it.  There are other ways to address this, I just happened to do it this way.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:37 AM
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file_425321.jpg

Select the new loop of points we just created (Selection -> Loop).  Balance out their Y axis values by activating the Set Point Value tool, and changing the Y option to Center, and hit Apply.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:37 AM
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file_425322.jpg

Activate the Move tool and drag these points upwards a bit, to give some taper to the heel and prevent it from being so sharply conical.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:37 AM
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file_425323.jpg

Once again the bottom of the heel is no longer flat.  Make another line of cuts with the Knife tool, very close to the base of the heel.

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pjz99 ( ) posted Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:38 AM · edited Tue, 03 March 2009 at 12:49 AM
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file_425324.jpg

From this stage it's pretty much a matter of finish.  I've decided to broaden the base of the heel a small amount (scale the bottom loops of points out on x/z).  If you think the curve of the heel is too obviously polygonal, feel free to add a loop of cuts where appopriate, or bevel the loop of edges at the middle.  An advantage to using Bevel instead of adding loops of cuts is that, in a case like this, you will end up with a much nicer curve to the geometry that can save you both additional work and polygon count.

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