In conclusion, this project has taught me several useul methods and tips about 3D Studio Max and Photoshop. Perhaps the biggest tip that I have learnt is the importance of using references and to take my time when modeling.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, before i started to work on this model, I hardly ever used a reference image when modeling. I would just play it by ear and hope for the best. Now I understand that reference images just make life so much easier when modeling. Not only does it help create accurate models, but they can also help plan the initial stages of the model creation. Without them, there is no way that my model would have turned out anything like it is today. I would have probably used box modeling had I not been following the tutorial, but now I believe that spline modeling is the way to go!
The model turned out so much better than I expected. While there are some things about my model that I am not too happy with (as described in the Photo and Model Comparison post), overall it grealtly resembles me. The one part about my model that I would like to change is the blend between the skin surrounding and attached to the front of the ear. I tried very hard to get the 2 parts to blend into each other, but because they were on seperate parts of the UVW unwrap, it was very difficult to accurately judge. In the end I had to give up. Its not too noticable on the model, its just something that bugs me...
Other changes that I would like to make would be to reduce the number of ploygons. The guy in the tutorial seemingly used the bare minimum amount of polygons, yet his model turned out more natural than mine. While it is true that this person is a more experienced modeler than myself, its still quite annoying to see. The larger amount of polygons that I had also meant that it was harder for me to connect all of the vertecies together when joining the ear to the head. I got there in the end, but I am sure that with a smaller amount of polygons, I could have done a better job.
When using 3D Studio Max in the future, I will be using as many of these techniques as possible where necessary. They have helped me in so many ways, and I believe they have improved my chances of getting into some kind of career in this area.
Overall, I believe that this project has turned out to be a great success and I am very proud of it. It has definately inspired me to do this again sometime in the future!
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Photo and Model Comparison
Here are some comparison shots of my reference photos and the model itself. I was quite happy with the model's resembelance to myself, but now that I have placed them side by side like this for the first time, I can see quite a few differences which have annoyed me slightly.
There were some unavoidable changes, such as the difference in the size of the ears and head. This was down to the the distance that I was standing from the camera when I was getting my photos taken. Apart from these, there are 3 other obvious differences that I can see that I am a little unhappy about - the hair, eyes and nose.
The hair couldnt really be helped. The way thst I chose to model the hair as to simply slap it on as part of the face material, meaning that it would appear to be flat. I could have either modeled the hair seperately by creating another shape and merging it with my head, or just used the hair modifier tool. However, I thought that I could get away with just keeping the hair as part of the face material as my hair is usually quite flat anyway. The model just makes it look like ive just come out of the shower. The hair modifier, as good as it is, take up a lot of memory so I would rather not spend hours trying to perfect my hair. Maybe if I had more time I would have given it a go.
The eyes turned out to be a little too small and not angled correctly. Not to mention the fact that they look a little odd due to the lack of eyelashes. I am a little annoyed about this because when I was following my reference photos, it looked as though I had matched the eyes up perfectly. I guess not!
The nose looks a little skinnier than it should be. This would have been an easy fix had I noticed this before, but now that the texture has been applied, if i edit the model it would mess up the texture. I would rather not have to re-do the UVW unwrap as it took such a long time.
I know that it was unlikely to get a perfect 3D depiction of my head, especially as it was my first go at doing something like this. Its just annoying thinking that it looks just like me, only to see that actually there are some noticable differences.... however, as negative as this all probably sounds, I am still very happy with the end results!
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Glasses
Well, I ended up doing my glasses after all. My model looks much more like me now! Heres how I made them:
First, I made a box and positioned it infront of my eye. I made it transparent in order to make it easier to see. In retrospect, I probably could have made a rectangle rather than a a box as I would have been able to manipulate it better. However, it still worked out in the end.
I then extruded the edges in order to create the frame of the glasses. Extruding the edges seperately meant that I had to then weld them together.
I did the same for the earpiece. I simply extruded it from the frame. I had to create a new polygon in order to do this.
I then did the same thing for the bridge. Once I had finished, I applied a turbosmooth to it.
Finally, I gave the lens and frame a different material ID, gave them their own colour and then reduced the opacity of the lens to 0 in order to make it transparent. While this isnt really a true glass effect, it does the same job. It just means that I was not able to add any detail to the lens. Overall though, I am happy with the result!
First, I made a box and positioned it infront of my eye. I made it transparent in order to make it easier to see. In retrospect, I probably could have made a rectangle rather than a a box as I would have been able to manipulate it better. However, it still worked out in the end.
I then extruded the edges in order to create the frame of the glasses. Extruding the edges seperately meant that I had to then weld them together.
I did the same for the earpiece. I simply extruded it from the frame. I had to create a new polygon in order to do this.
I then did the same thing for the bridge. Once I had finished, I applied a turbosmooth to it.
Finally, I gave the lens and frame a different material ID, gave them their own colour and then reduced the opacity of the lens to 0 in order to make it transparent. While this isnt really a true glass effect, it does the same job. It just means that I was not able to add any detail to the lens. Overall though, I am happy with the result!
Saturday, 16 October 2010
To Do List
Now that I have finished the model to a satisfactory degree, I would be happy to hand it in now as it is. However, I still have a little under a week until its due in. So I will be using this time to try and make some improvements.
The improvments that I aim to make are:
- Improve the blend between the skin surrounding the ear and the face.
- Improve the blend between the white parts of the eyes.
- Perhaps spend more time on the secondary layer in order to further improve the amount of detail.
- Perhaps improve the eyebrows as I have only just realised that they dont look quite right from the side views.
EDIT
The other day someone asked me if i was gonna model my glasses too. I said no, but thinking about it, I think i'll at least give it a go seeing as I am finished a week early.
Also, I realise that I could be spending my time animating my model instead of adding to it...but animating is a lengthy process. Plus I dont really have much experience with lip syncing, as my animation last year didnt require any. So for now, I'll just stick to modeling!
The improvments that I aim to make are:
- Improve the blend between the skin surrounding the ear and the face.
- Improve the blend between the white parts of the eyes.
- Perhaps spend more time on the secondary layer in order to further improve the amount of detail.
- Perhaps improve the eyebrows as I have only just realised that they dont look quite right from the side views.
EDIT
The other day someone asked me if i was gonna model my glasses too. I said no, but thinking about it, I think i'll at least give it a go seeing as I am finished a week early.
Also, I realise that I could be spending my time animating my model instead of adding to it...but animating is a lengthy process. Plus I dont really have much experience with lip syncing, as my animation last year didnt require any. So for now, I'll just stick to modeling!
My Head Creation Process
And now its time for a quick run down of how I created my model through a series of print screens and short descriptions!
First of all I took some reference photos of myself. I then used Photoshop to draw some topology lines across my face in order to make it easier to create the polygons which would build the face when brought into 3D Studio Max. Once they were loaded into Max, I alligned them together. I have used reference photos to create models before, but I have never drawn reference lines over them. I will definately do this in future as it makes the process so much easier.
I then created each polygon using the topology lines on the photos.
In the left viewpoint, I started to drag out each vertex to roughly their correct positions. This was a little tricky, especially around the eye area as most of the vertecies overlap. I just had to estimate where they would be placed and then move them around later.
Here are the results of the vertecies being dragged out, along with a few tweaks to some of their positions to match the proportions of my face. Over the course of the modeling, I would continue to move around the vertecies to get a closer representation of my head.
I then began to fill in the hole for the nostrils. I did this by extruding the surrounding polygons outwards and inwards, and creating new polygons where necessary.
I did the same process for the lips. Extruding polygons for the bottom lip for some reason would not work as well as it did for the top lip. I tried to play around with them but I could not get it to a satisfactory level. So in the end, I left them and came back to them at a later stage.
And once again for the eyelids.
Once again, a few minor tweaks were made to the face, such as the bags under the eyes and various lines around the face. At this stage I was very happy with how the model looked from the side, but not so much from the front. I found it very difficult to get the model to look right from all angles. However, looking back on it now, this was probably down to the lack of texturing which obviously made it look more like myself.
Once the face had been completed, it was time to move onto the head. I started off by creating a sphere and moving it to the correct position.
I then deleted most of the sphere, leaving behind just the ones along the top. Using this as a reference, I started to create the rest of the head.
This is the result of the head and neck completed, but not welded to the face. I ended up creating a 10 sided polygon around the ear area. However this was done on purpose, as I knew that this section would be re-done later when the ear had been completed and needed to be welded to the head.
Here, the face has been welded to the head so it is now one complete model. Two spheres have also been placed in the eye sockets as eyes. It was quite difficult getting the eyelids to fit around the eye. A lot of vertex tweaking was necessary.
Once the head had been completed, it was time to move onto the ear. The exact same process for the face was carried out. Using the photos as a reference, I drew each poylgon and welded them together.
Here is the result of the ear being extruded and played around with. Creating ths ear was a very lengthy task, but I eventually got there and I am very pleased with the end result.
And here is the ear once it had been welded to the head. Before I moved onto the texturing, I took the chance to make some final tweaks to the model, as once I started the next process, it would be very difficult to make any changes to the model without it effecting the texture.
I applied a checkered texture to the model and used this as a guide when creating the UVW map. The idea was to make the pattern as equal as possible along the entire model. This would then mean that once I applied the skin texture to the face, it would not stretch. This required a lot of moving the UVW map around.
Here is the final UVW map.
I then cut and pasted my reference photos over my map. Again, this was a very lengthy process. Thanks to the patch and clone tools in Photoshop, I managed to complete this without too many problems.
I also used the same process for the eyes. Unfortunately I had some trouble getting the eye to perfectly blend together. This was due to the fact that the eye had to be split up over 4 sections of the UVW map, and as a result, it became harder to get the exact blend.
And here is the result of the UVW maps applied to the model.
I then used Photoshop to create another layer to my face UVW map. This would be used to add another layer of detail to the model.
Here are the results of the new layer being applied to the model. It has given the model a slightly more realistic look.
However, in order to get a much better effect, I also added a Noise sub-material layer to the model in order to add more randomly spaced out bumps. This has a much more pleasing effect.
And here is the final render of my model!
First of all I took some reference photos of myself. I then used Photoshop to draw some topology lines across my face in order to make it easier to create the polygons which would build the face when brought into 3D Studio Max. Once they were loaded into Max, I alligned them together. I have used reference photos to create models before, but I have never drawn reference lines over them. I will definately do this in future as it makes the process so much easier.
I then created each polygon using the topology lines on the photos.
In the left viewpoint, I started to drag out each vertex to roughly their correct positions. This was a little tricky, especially around the eye area as most of the vertecies overlap. I just had to estimate where they would be placed and then move them around later.
Here are the results of the vertecies being dragged out, along with a few tweaks to some of their positions to match the proportions of my face. Over the course of the modeling, I would continue to move around the vertecies to get a closer representation of my head.
I then began to fill in the hole for the nostrils. I did this by extruding the surrounding polygons outwards and inwards, and creating new polygons where necessary.
I did the same process for the lips. Extruding polygons for the bottom lip for some reason would not work as well as it did for the top lip. I tried to play around with them but I could not get it to a satisfactory level. So in the end, I left them and came back to them at a later stage.
And once again for the eyelids.
Once again, a few minor tweaks were made to the face, such as the bags under the eyes and various lines around the face. At this stage I was very happy with how the model looked from the side, but not so much from the front. I found it very difficult to get the model to look right from all angles. However, looking back on it now, this was probably down to the lack of texturing which obviously made it look more like myself.
Once the face had been completed, it was time to move onto the head. I started off by creating a sphere and moving it to the correct position.
I then deleted most of the sphere, leaving behind just the ones along the top. Using this as a reference, I started to create the rest of the head.
This is the result of the head and neck completed, but not welded to the face. I ended up creating a 10 sided polygon around the ear area. However this was done on purpose, as I knew that this section would be re-done later when the ear had been completed and needed to be welded to the head.
Here, the face has been welded to the head so it is now one complete model. Two spheres have also been placed in the eye sockets as eyes. It was quite difficult getting the eyelids to fit around the eye. A lot of vertex tweaking was necessary.
Once the head had been completed, it was time to move onto the ear. The exact same process for the face was carried out. Using the photos as a reference, I drew each poylgon and welded them together.
Here is the result of the ear being extruded and played around with. Creating ths ear was a very lengthy task, but I eventually got there and I am very pleased with the end result.
And here is the ear once it had been welded to the head. Before I moved onto the texturing, I took the chance to make some final tweaks to the model, as once I started the next process, it would be very difficult to make any changes to the model without it effecting the texture.
I applied a checkered texture to the model and used this as a guide when creating the UVW map. The idea was to make the pattern as equal as possible along the entire model. This would then mean that once I applied the skin texture to the face, it would not stretch. This required a lot of moving the UVW map around.
Here is the final UVW map.
I then cut and pasted my reference photos over my map. Again, this was a very lengthy process. Thanks to the patch and clone tools in Photoshop, I managed to complete this without too many problems.
I also used the same process for the eyes. Unfortunately I had some trouble getting the eye to perfectly blend together. This was due to the fact that the eye had to be split up over 4 sections of the UVW map, and as a result, it became harder to get the exact blend.
And here is the result of the UVW maps applied to the model.
I then used Photoshop to create another layer to my face UVW map. This would be used to add another layer of detail to the model.
Here are the results of the new layer being applied to the model. It has given the model a slightly more realistic look.
However, in order to get a much better effect, I also added a Noise sub-material layer to the model in order to add more randomly spaced out bumps. This has a much more pleasing effect.
And here is the final render of my model!
Week 4 Update 3
Finally, all I had to do left was add an extra level of detail to the texture. This was accomplished by using several functions of the ever-useful Photoshop.
First I used the Desaturate function on my finished UVW map to make it all grey. I then used the Levels function to focus the colours a little more. Then for the main part, I used the High Pass function. This basically gets rid of most of the texture, leaving behind only shadows and very small bumps all over the face. I then used this new map as a sub-material for my model. This then applied the map to the face, giving it an extra level of detail.
The desaturated image map is shown below. For the results of the material, check out the next blog post.
First I used the Desaturate function on my finished UVW map to make it all grey. I then used the Levels function to focus the colours a little more. Then for the main part, I used the High Pass function. This basically gets rid of most of the texture, leaving behind only shadows and very small bumps all over the face. I then used this new map as a sub-material for my model. This then applied the map to the face, giving it an extra level of detail.
The desaturated image map is shown below. For the results of the material, check out the next blog post.
Week 4 Update 2
I seriously underestimated how difficult and time consuming the texturing would be!
I thought it would be a simple case of just copying parts from my reference photos and pasting them over the UVW map. While this was indeed the case for most of it, filling in those inevitable gaps was very difficult for me as I was mainly relying on the Clone Tool, which I just couldnt get the hang of....until I found out about the Patch Tool.
The Patch Tool made everything so much easier than the experience could have been. Its great because if you get certain pieces of the face overlapping and you want to get a seemless blend between the 2, all you do is draw over the seam, drag the selected area over another part of the face that has a colour tone in between the 2 overlapping ones, and then it blends the newly selected part of the face with the seam. This usually creates a realistic, successful blend. Then if any small part of the face was left out, I used the Clone Tool to fill it in.
Thankfully, for the most part I could do one side of the face, then reflect it for the other side. This saved quite a bit of time for an already lengthy process.
The Ear, once again, was a real problem for me. It turned out that only a very small part of the UVW map for the ear was actually the ear itself. Most of it was the surrounding skin or the back of the ear. I really didnt want to resort to using other skin patches for the ear, at least not for the parts that were easily visible. So I copied and pasted very small sections of the ear and the used the Transform and Warp Tools to a great degree to get the parts to fit onto the map as best a possible. It was hard, but I think that it payed off in the end.
Unfortunately it was quite difficult to get the skin on the ear UVW map to match up with the surrounding skin on the face UVW map. As a result, it is quite obvious where the 2 maps have been joined together. I am a little annoyed over this. I will definately attempt to fix this, but for now I will carry on with the model as I am almost done!
I thought it would be a simple case of just copying parts from my reference photos and pasting them over the UVW map. While this was indeed the case for most of it, filling in those inevitable gaps was very difficult for me as I was mainly relying on the Clone Tool, which I just couldnt get the hang of....until I found out about the Patch Tool.
The Patch Tool made everything so much easier than the experience could have been. Its great because if you get certain pieces of the face overlapping and you want to get a seemless blend between the 2, all you do is draw over the seam, drag the selected area over another part of the face that has a colour tone in between the 2 overlapping ones, and then it blends the newly selected part of the face with the seam. This usually creates a realistic, successful blend. Then if any small part of the face was left out, I used the Clone Tool to fill it in.
Thankfully, for the most part I could do one side of the face, then reflect it for the other side. This saved quite a bit of time for an already lengthy process.
The Ear, once again, was a real problem for me. It turned out that only a very small part of the UVW map for the ear was actually the ear itself. Most of it was the surrounding skin or the back of the ear. I really didnt want to resort to using other skin patches for the ear, at least not for the parts that were easily visible. So I copied and pasted very small sections of the ear and the used the Transform and Warp Tools to a great degree to get the parts to fit onto the map as best a possible. It was hard, but I think that it payed off in the end.
Unfortunately it was quite difficult to get the skin on the ear UVW map to match up with the surrounding skin on the face UVW map. As a result, it is quite obvious where the 2 maps have been joined together. I am a little annoyed over this. I will definately attempt to fix this, but for now I will carry on with the model as I am almost done!
Monday, 11 October 2010
Week 4 Update
UVW unwrapping is horrible.
Ive done this before, but for a much smaller model. This time I had to unwrap my whole face, and with so many overlapping polygons it was a real nightmare to get it to the below image.
The tutorials showed that thankfully 3D Studio Max comes with certain options which makes the whole process of laying each of the polygons out flat much easier than it could be. The tutorial suggested to use the Pelt option to flatten out the ear. This essentially takes a couple of the corners and pulls them all out until everything is completely flat. However, despite following the tutorials instructions closely, I could not seem to use the Pelt option effectively. When I clicked the apply button, it would pull it, but not enough to seperate all of the overlapping polygons.
I believe this is down to 2 reasons. One being that I am using the latest version of 3D S Max - version 10, while the person in tutorials uses version 8. Version 10 handles the Pelt option slightly differently so despite being a newer version, it seemed to lack as much control as version 8. The second reason being that as I am not an expert 3D modeler, my ear has significantly more polygons than the one in the tutorials, making it that much harder for Max to seperate them all.
So in the end, I used the Pelt option and then just moved the remaining overlapping polygons myself. It took some time, but i got there in the end.
Ive done this before, but for a much smaller model. This time I had to unwrap my whole face, and with so many overlapping polygons it was a real nightmare to get it to the below image.
The tutorials showed that thankfully 3D Studio Max comes with certain options which makes the whole process of laying each of the polygons out flat much easier than it could be. The tutorial suggested to use the Pelt option to flatten out the ear. This essentially takes a couple of the corners and pulls them all out until everything is completely flat. However, despite following the tutorials instructions closely, I could not seem to use the Pelt option effectively. When I clicked the apply button, it would pull it, but not enough to seperate all of the overlapping polygons.
I believe this is down to 2 reasons. One being that I am using the latest version of 3D S Max - version 10, while the person in tutorials uses version 8. Version 10 handles the Pelt option slightly differently so despite being a newer version, it seemed to lack as much control as version 8. The second reason being that as I am not an expert 3D modeler, my ear has significantly more polygons than the one in the tutorials, making it that much harder for Max to seperate them all.
So in the end, I used the Pelt option and then just moved the remaining overlapping polygons myself. It took some time, but i got there in the end.
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Week 3 Update 2
All of a sudden, my model is starting to get there.
After several long and painful hours, I have finally managed to finish the rest of the head and weld the whole thing together. I have to say, I am quite proud of it!
Not too much to say about modeling the head itself. The only technique that I used that I havnt really used much of in the past is the weld tool which simply merges verticies together.
Moving onto the ear...this was a real headache. Or should I say earache? :D ....no? Ok fine.
The way I made the ear was exactly the same as how I modeled my face. I simply drew the polygons one by one using my photos as a guide. Then I moveed each vertex individually until I ended up with a basic outline of my ear. I then played around with the verticies in order to make the ear more realistic. This included using the Chamfer technique to add another layer to the inside of the ear, making it easier to model the parts where the ear moves inwards.
Welding the ear to the head was also a much more difficult task than welding my face to my head. I had to delete the polygons around the ear area on the head and either attach existing verticies to others, or create new polygons and attach them to those.
Once I had welded the ear to my head, I went around making a few more slight changes to my head, such as re-doing the upper lip by creating my own polygons rather than coppying existing ones, and messing around with the bone structure.
I personally think that from the side it looks just like me. However the front could still do with some tweaking to get a few more key details. Also, Im not sure if its just me, but from the front perspective I seem to have a very large head...I think this is partially down to the 2 photos not matching up 100% perfectly. Or it could just be that I indeed have a large head. I'll see what it looks like when Ive applied the skin and then decide if i should decrease the size a bit.
After several long and painful hours, I have finally managed to finish the rest of the head and weld the whole thing together. I have to say, I am quite proud of it!
Not too much to say about modeling the head itself. The only technique that I used that I havnt really used much of in the past is the weld tool which simply merges verticies together.
Moving onto the ear...this was a real headache. Or should I say earache? :D ....no? Ok fine.
The way I made the ear was exactly the same as how I modeled my face. I simply drew the polygons one by one using my photos as a guide. Then I moveed each vertex individually until I ended up with a basic outline of my ear. I then played around with the verticies in order to make the ear more realistic. This included using the Chamfer technique to add another layer to the inside of the ear, making it easier to model the parts where the ear moves inwards.
Welding the ear to the head was also a much more difficult task than welding my face to my head. I had to delete the polygons around the ear area on the head and either attach existing verticies to others, or create new polygons and attach them to those.
Once I had welded the ear to my head, I went around making a few more slight changes to my head, such as re-doing the upper lip by creating my own polygons rather than coppying existing ones, and messing around with the bone structure.
I personally think that from the side it looks just like me. However the front could still do with some tweaking to get a few more key details. Also, Im not sure if its just me, but from the front perspective I seem to have a very large head...I think this is partially down to the 2 photos not matching up 100% perfectly. Or it could just be that I indeed have a large head. I'll see what it looks like when Ive applied the skin and then decide if i should decrease the size a bit.
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Week 3 Update
Since the last update, I have started and almost completed the rest of the head. It still needs some work, especially as right now it looks as though I'm wearing chainmail.
In order get this far I had to create a new sphere shape and then edit it to fit the shape of my head. All that i ended up using of the sphere was the top bit. I then used this as a guide to create the rest of the polygons myself. This method was very useful. Creating a perfectly spherical head from scratch would have been very difficult. Not only did this way save a lot of time, but also provided a guide for me to finsih the rest of the head.
I found it quite difficult to model the shoulders, as they are a funny shape. Not to mention that in the photo I am wearing a jacket, making it slightly more difficult to picture the shape correctly. In the end, I decided to just model the neck as its 100% visible and easier to do. I may decide to model the shoulders as well depending on how far I get in the time that I have....
Once I have completed the neck, I plan on welding the face and head together and playing around with the verticies to get a much more natural look. My main concern at the moment is the ear. As of right now, I have a 9 or 10 sided polygon on my head in the area that the ear will be placed. I did this because when the time comes to create the ear, I will model it seperately and weld it to the head. The idea will be that I will be able to form quaded polygons once the ear is attached. If not, then at least the ear will do a good job of covering up the evidece!
In order get this far I had to create a new sphere shape and then edit it to fit the shape of my head. All that i ended up using of the sphere was the top bit. I then used this as a guide to create the rest of the polygons myself. This method was very useful. Creating a perfectly spherical head from scratch would have been very difficult. Not only did this way save a lot of time, but also provided a guide for me to finsih the rest of the head.
I found it quite difficult to model the shoulders, as they are a funny shape. Not to mention that in the photo I am wearing a jacket, making it slightly more difficult to picture the shape correctly. In the end, I decided to just model the neck as its 100% visible and easier to do. I may decide to model the shoulders as well depending on how far I get in the time that I have....
Once I have completed the neck, I plan on welding the face and head together and playing around with the verticies to get a much more natural look. My main concern at the moment is the ear. As of right now, I have a 9 or 10 sided polygon on my head in the area that the ear will be placed. I did this because when the time comes to create the ear, I will model it seperately and weld it to the head. The idea will be that I will be able to form quaded polygons once the ear is attached. If not, then at least the ear will do a good job of covering up the evidece!
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Week 2 Update
I was right about the head. It can be extremely difficult at times. Well, more fustrating than difficult...
As I mentioned last week, I have never done Spline modeling before. However, after following this tutorial I can say that I will definately use this method of modeling in the future. Before this, my preferred method of choice was Block modeling. However, although Spline modeling takes longer, it is a much more effective method as creating each and every polygon yourself allows for greater accuracy and detail, making it perfect for creating something as complex as a human head.
Attached to the bottom of this post is my current progression with my head. I have managed to get the basic shape of my face. There is still room for improvment in certain areas suc as the eyes. However, as I continue to add to the head, I will also continue to edit the model and hopefully achieve a more accurate finish.
As I mentioned last week, I have never done Spline modeling before. However, after following this tutorial I can say that I will definately use this method of modeling in the future. Before this, my preferred method of choice was Block modeling. However, although Spline modeling takes longer, it is a much more effective method as creating each and every polygon yourself allows for greater accuracy and detail, making it perfect for creating something as complex as a human head.
Attached to the bottom of this post is my current progression with my head. I have managed to get the basic shape of my face. There is still room for improvment in certain areas suc as the eyes. However, as I continue to add to the head, I will also continue to edit the model and hopefully achieve a more accurate finish.
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Week 1 Update
For now, I wont bother going through how I created my head as I am following a tutorial which can be found here.
http://cg-india.com/tutorials/3dsmax_tutorials_organic_modeling.html
Instead, I will go over any new techniques that I have come across and give my thoughts on them. Then at the end, I will briefly go over how I created the model, showing images of my progression.
When I created models in the past, very rarely did I use a reference image. This was partially due to the fact that most of my previous models have been quite cartoonish, so realism was not of importance, but it was also down to the fact that I had not been using 3D Studio Max for very long, and I didnt realise the importance of using references.
The first thing that we had to do when modeling our head was to take photos of ourselves from the front and left point of views. I can safely say that without these refernces, there would be no way that id be happy modeling my own face.
In order to make the model as accurate as possible, I had to edit the 2 reference photos so that they were roughly the same size. I did this by distorting the photos and using the ruler tool which lined up important features of my face together. I got most of it to allign up almost perfectly with the exception of the ears and the oveall size of the head. This was most likely due to the slight change in distance to when I was standing infront the camera for both photos.
Once I had done this, I had to draw the topolgy over the photos. I followed the natural shapes of my face when drawing these. This will then act as a map for when I bring this into Max. I will simply be able to draw the polygons in roughly the same areas as the topolgy.
EDIT
At this stage in the modeling process, I was only expected to draw the topolgy lines for just the front of the face, and a little of the side. The ear and neck where done at a later time, but I have uploaded the final image now just to make it clear how the final reference images looked.
http://cg-india.com/tutorials/3dsmax_tutorials_organic_modeling.html
Instead, I will go over any new techniques that I have come across and give my thoughts on them. Then at the end, I will briefly go over how I created the model, showing images of my progression.
When I created models in the past, very rarely did I use a reference image. This was partially due to the fact that most of my previous models have been quite cartoonish, so realism was not of importance, but it was also down to the fact that I had not been using 3D Studio Max for very long, and I didnt realise the importance of using references.
The first thing that we had to do when modeling our head was to take photos of ourselves from the front and left point of views. I can safely say that without these refernces, there would be no way that id be happy modeling my own face.
In order to make the model as accurate as possible, I had to edit the 2 reference photos so that they were roughly the same size. I did this by distorting the photos and using the ruler tool which lined up important features of my face together. I got most of it to allign up almost perfectly with the exception of the ears and the oveall size of the head. This was most likely due to the slight change in distance to when I was standing infront the camera for both photos.
Once I had done this, I had to draw the topolgy over the photos. I followed the natural shapes of my face when drawing these. This will then act as a map for when I bring this into Max. I will simply be able to draw the polygons in roughly the same areas as the topolgy.
EDIT
At this stage in the modeling process, I was only expected to draw the topolgy lines for just the front of the face, and a little of the side. The ear and neck where done at a later time, but I have uploaded the final image now just to make it clear how the final reference images looked.
Sunday, 26 September 2010
First Impressions
This module is 12 weeks. In the first 5 weeks we have to create a 3D model of our own head, and in the following 7 weeks we have to create a 3D environment of somewhere in Essex.
Having really enjoyed 3D modeling last year, I was very much looking forward to doing it all again this year. However going straight into having to model a human head, and only have 5 weeks to do so seems a bit daunting. Still, I need to learn how to do it at some point so it may as well be now! We will be using a new technique called Spline Modeling which is meant to be a very effective way of creating realistic models.
My main concern with the project is time. 5 weeks doesnt seem like a long time, and will no doubt shoot by. I will just have to make sure to get stuck into my work whenever I get the chance.
Having really enjoyed 3D modeling last year, I was very much looking forward to doing it all again this year. However going straight into having to model a human head, and only have 5 weeks to do so seems a bit daunting. Still, I need to learn how to do it at some point so it may as well be now! We will be using a new technique called Spline Modeling which is meant to be a very effective way of creating realistic models.
My main concern with the project is time. 5 weeks doesnt seem like a long time, and will no doubt shoot by. I will just have to make sure to get stuck into my work whenever I get the chance.
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