Evaluation of project

This has been a pritty hectic project because of the time constraint but a very useful one. This is the first time i have ever modeled an organic subject in such detail and i have learnt so many new skills which will come in very handy in future projects in 3ds max and design in general. when i first started this module i was very conserned if the tutorials would be easy to follow and if they would cover it in enough detail. I was very impressed after the first few as it really started to click and the tutorials guided you thru the process smoothly and quickly but also letting you take your own approach to some problems at the same time.

I feel that my model as turned out very well but there is obvious improvments and changes i would have made if given more time. For instance i now realise the importance in getting the topology stages correct and neat. I did do the intial topology a few times to get it right but i should have taken a lil more time as some polygons are showing at the end which could have been dealt with in those stages, but ive learnt from it and i will know for next time. So to sum it up i am very happy with my model and although its not perfect im just pleased to have finished this project as i was cautious about it at first. i would definatly do something like this again and i have learnt valuable skills and techniques which will come in very useful in future uni projects and work.

Finished head model

Here is my finished head model with all the elements documented earlier in effect.

Finishing touches, cameras, lights, Enviroment

This is a simple gradient from light blue to white which i created in photoshop as a background for my 3d model. I fort it was alot nicer then leaving it in a single colour tone. This will be seen once the model has been render as a static fill background.

Now that i have completed my head i have been using a target camera to get some angled shots for finished model. i simply choose camera from the side panel and used the 4 view points to postion it and kept rendering quick images to see what the angle of the shot was like till i was happy. I did try applying a few lighting techniques but i ended up just using the sound preset in the enviroments and rendering panel which was enough.

Finishing touches (Hair using hair and fur modifier)

Here i have been playing about with the hair and fur modifier, its the first time ive used the modifier and it was an interesting tool to use. I simply selcted it from the modifiers panel and then with polygons selected clicked holding ctrl where i wanted the hair on the head. I then played around with the parameters such as hair length, root thickness ect till i was happy.

Eyes

On the top there is the eye material which i dowloaded from google image to use over my eye balls. this image, although looking very nice was a lil flat so i used a white gradient over it in photoshop to create a light reflection which works well and makes them look alot more life like and less flat. then the image below is once they have been assigned to the eye balls and placed inside my head model.

Bump map creation in photoshop/ Noise Distortion

After the original bump map was created i then used some noise distrotion to make the texture look a lil better which worked really well and gave a really good texture to the model.

This is my bump map that i made from the original txeture painting used to cover the uvw map. To do this we created a grey layer under the face texture original and then went onto adjustments on the face texture later and selected desaturate. we then added a high pass filter and then used the clone tool to take out any lines or embossing lines which will reflect on the skin texture (basically cleaning the bump map up a lil). after applying it to the skin material thru the bump map parameters box.

finished texture painting and application to model

Here is my finished texture painting of my face and it applied to my head. This has been another time consuming process peicing my face together in photoshop and belnding the variuos peices to get stubble and colour changes that natural occur. To do this i simply used the cut and clone tools to take and blend the variuos slices of my skin and put them over my uvw map then apply them to a material in max and place it on the model. Now on to create the bump map and finish my model for hand in. :)

Further along with texture painting

Slowly but surely the skin texture is coming together, some of it looks good and other parts where i have tried to blend it to much look a little bit weird but i just want to get onto the later parts of doing the bump map and try and get the model finished for hand in on friday. Above is a photo of how the texture is looking on my model head in max which i am pleased about so far.

Texture painting in photoshop

Here are the stages of putting the uvw map into photoshop and creating the skin texture for the 3d model. After loading the uvw map into photoshop i started using the laso tool to copy and paste parts of the face onto the guide image which will eventually be applied as a material to my head in 3d max. To create the guide we added a few layer mask to enable the application of skin on top with out altering the guide lines on the orignal. The idea is to take parts of the original jpeg image taken for reference and try and build up a good enough skin texture and covering using various photoshop tools such as, laso tool, clone stamp tool and blur tool to belnd the final skin texture for a material to be applied in 3ds max.

UVW map

Flat face!

UVW mapping complete ready for photoshop

This was definatly one of the most challenging parts of the project so far, im completly new to the technique of UVW mapping in max and ive learnt a hell of a lot just on this bit alone. Once i had got the map roughly right on the head i then had to unwrapp it in the Uvw modifier mode(face). The 2d map of my head had to be neated up using the vertex and edge tools and any quads that looked more like triangles had to be corrected and i had to keep checking for inverted or overlapping faces which were ok thankfuly.

Once this had been done i had to mirror the map for the other side of the face, this was done buy adding another Unwrap UVW modifier above the symetry one and then weld the sceme done the middle of both maps. Once this had been completed i then rendered the appropriate UVW map ready for use in photoshop.

Unwrap UVW modifier

Here i have began the process of the modifier UVW unwraping, this process is crutial in getting a good skin map on my face model. Buy simply choosing the unwrap uvw modifier in the modifier panel i have began to clean up the surface of my face in prep for photoshop and adding the finished skin texture.

Ear clean up and attaching

After flatening part of the ear to meet the side of the face i was happy with how it looked, i also created a few more polygons to link it with the face and make it flow when when i attached both the ear and the head to create one single object. The back under side of the ear isnt properly attached to the head but im not planning on doing any shots from that angle so it should be ok i guess. On too the UV mapping part which should be interesting as materials are something ive only really scratched the surface of and am very new to this technique we are going to use.

Ear creation nearly done

After making some mistakes when doing the topology lines of the face which are now starting to show in the final. I was determined to do the ear really well and make sure the topology lines where neat and all quads with no visible points. After taking alot of time in the planning stages i then began doing the same process of creating faces and pulling them out as in the first few tutorials, this was alot more difficult then the face because its so small and is incredibly hard to see where your pulling vertices out too. After pulling the faces out i had to go into edit poly mode and neaten up the ear alot which took alot of time. the nearly finished product i am very happy with it and i just wished i had taken this time over the face and maybe it would all look alot better then it is but im still pleased im learning new things and i now know if im goin to tackle a similar task again.

Topology of my ear

Here i have repeated the topology line process as earlier shown in the first tutorials. Hopefuly this will be ok and the ear will look okay after i have pulled and created the polygons for modelling.

Back of head and Neck completed

Progress on my head model is moving along nicely now, i have completed the back of the head and done the neck as far down as it is on the refernece photo. Touch ups are still needed but i wanted to get started on the ear as it looks quite difficult and i can see problems ahead. to complete the head and neck i just followed the tutorial and used the shift key with the neccesary edit poly modifiers to drag down and create new polygons whilst using the refernece lines to keep it as similar as possible possible to the orignal photo. i didnt want to model my shoulders as i am wearing a hoodie and it would complicate matters further and take up time from the rest of the face.

Project summary so far:

Over all the project is going well but i am not completly happy with the way my head has turned out, but due to the time scale im going to stick with it and get it completed as it is. I think if i would have made the first topology lines on the face a lil less cluttered it would have turned out better but i did redo them several times but im still happy enough with what i have so far. The next challenge is the ear and then trying to map skin to it which should prove to be interesting but will be informative to so looking forward to the end product.

Neary complete back of head and neck

Here i have been creating the rest of the head buy following tutorials 7, this has been a fairly difficult process for me as i had trouble with the reference images as the revised photoshop files which included the rest of the head topology to model on wouldnt be accepted buy max. I think this problem was just a glitch but it haulted me so i have had to create the side of head and neck with no help from topology lines which is difficult but i managed it in the end. Buy using the shift key on various poly modes and the create tool i have nearly completed this stage its then onto the ear.

Defining my nose

Here i am in the process of defining my nose and other characters on my face like mouth and eye lids. To do this process i shaped the nose a bit more in low poly modeling mode and then created a few more edges with the cut tool round the nose. I then used the create tool to put a polygon where the nostrel is and pull it up inside the head to create a void ( nassle passage). A few more tweaks and it will be there, just have to do the eye lids and mouth with a similar technique.

Symetry and sub division

Here i have done tutorial number five and began buy using the symetry modifier to duplicate the left side of the face to the right and completing the whole face sructure. This was done buy simply selcting and cloning the face and using the modiifer symetry to posiition it correctly. then i began to use the sub division methods NURMS and turbo smooth to correct some flaws in the model and make it look alot smoother and neater.

Making my face model 3d

Here i have finsihed tutorial 4 and started on tut 5, simply pulling out the topolgy lines to the left image to create my facial contours. This took a while and showed how i could have drawn the topology lines on the my 3d picture a bit better but i can always sort it out when the model takes on a 3d perspective. looks ok i guess time will tell how the final product will look. i also replace a few 3 and 5 pointed polygons with the cut and create tool to create quads which are alot easier to model with. These tools can be found in the modifier menu, edit geometry drop down.

Using the line tool to create polygons on face topology

Here i have been following the first part of the 4th tutorial about starting to create the polygons for my face. This process was fairly simple just using the line tool in the create panel to link up the qauds to eventually create a surface to build on. I have noticed from this process that my topology wasnt perfect even tho i re did it twice but im hoping it is good enought to do the other stages, we will have to wait and see.

Images loaded into max and ready to go

After following the straight forward tutorial about applying and editing the plane to take the face photos, it was time to start modeling. Was fairly straight forward just had to use the materials editor to apply the pics to the plane and scale and freeze then for modeling so they wouldnt go grey and unable to see. had to fidle with the gizmo setting on the uvw map drop down the position the face in the center but that didnt take very long.

Face topology continued

Here we have the finished topology divided up into quads with the red brush. Just simply used the blue guide lines to best plot the quads into the face, there is maybe 2 or 3 no quad patched but they are very small so i think it should be ok. Took ages and wasn't much fun but on to the next part putting it into max and beginning modelling.

Face topology for modelling (beginning)

Here is the initial stages of my face photo being prepared for 3d modelling. we simple took a front and side view photo of our faces at close range then uploaded them into photoshop and followed the online tutorial to straighten and align them as best possible for modelling in 3ds max. basically making sure that all the features lined up on both photos to make modelling as easy as possible. we then combined the two photos together for the reference image.

Reaction to intial brief

After hearing that we will be modeling our own heads for the first 6 weeks i am slightly worried as this is something i will have to put alot of effort into as organic modeling is not my strongest area. i am usually alot better at modeling non organic objects as they tend to be easier to manage. but it will no doubt give me better skills in 3ds max which is the main aim so looking forward to starting the project and using tuitorials to get there.