Modelling My Face - The Ear

The first problem I came across when starting on the ear was my original reference image.

Original

New Photo

As you can see from the image majority of my ear is covered up by my hair. Having not known in advance I would be needing that part of the reference image it wasnt given any thought. I quickly took a new photo (making sure it was flat by using the lens distortion tool in Photoshop) and started adding the topology lines. Once complete I copied them to my original reference image.

With the reference image updated I reloaded the image in 3DS Max and started drawing the topology lines. I made sure before continuing that there were no triangles in the model. Just like with the beginning of the face I had to draw each polygon and then when finished attach them together. Then finish up by welding the vertices.

The next step involves adding depth to the model. I did this using both the front and left viewports and dragged out each vertices one by one to where it should rougly be represented by the reference image.

Once I had finished adding the depth and shape to the ear I selected the part of the ear which leads to the ear drum and used the champfer tool to get the extra lines seen below.

While useful this tool likes to add triangles to the topology and to counter that I had to select the offending edges and click collapse to collapse the edge down. This method is shown in the images below.
 



 Eventually I ended up with the model below:

The general shape is pretty good so far albeit not perfect. The next step will be to add the back of the ear and attach it to the head.

Modelling My Face - A Few Touch Ups

Before continuing with the model I have spent some time making small adjustments to the mesh. I noticed that when turbosmoothing the model I was getting a few artifacts such as pointy vertices which were caused by non quad polygons which I had not noticed before.

Using the cut and remove tools I added a lot of extra lines in the model but it seems to have paid off as the model now looks much smoother.

I have checked all over the model and I am now certain there are no triangles or five sided polygons anywhere. This has a very positive effect when using the turbosmooth modifier as from the screenshot you can see that all of the lines flow well.

Perhaps if I had been more vigilant in the topology creating steps I could have avoided having to do this but for now I am happy that the model meets good modelling practices.

Modelling My Face - Adding Head and Shoulders

Eyes:

Now that I have the face mostly done I can move on to adding the rest of the head and part of the shoulders. Before that however I have quickly added the eyes with a temporary texture to see how it looks.

I will probably come back to the eyes and create my own texture for better effect.

Head:

To save time modelling the head I can simply use the sphere shape tool to get a general smooth shape with equal spacing of polygons. To better line up the polygons with the existing face model I also reduced the number of segments in the sphere.

I then shaped the sphere to more like the width of my own head using the reference image and removed the uneeded polygons.

Because the model is using symmetry to create the second half of the face I removed the right side of the sphere so that I could use symmetry on that too. There is also lot of polygons in the sphere, too many to make it easy to work with.

Selecting every other edge on the curve of the remaining polygons and clicking the ring option highlights all of the edges seen in the above screen shot. Then using the collapse tool  removes these unnecessary polygons.

This is much easier to handle and turbosmooth can do most of the work anyway. The next step involves extruding out new polygons to shape the rest of the head, neck and shoulders.

After some trial and error I eventually had this which is rough but fairly representative of the human head. Applying symmettry and turbo smooth finally gives the look in the screenshot below.

Looking quite good at this stage. Next step; Ears.

Modelling My Face - Adding Detail

I now have a general model of my own face, but its not very detailed. The nose, lips, and eyes need work. Starting with the nose I used the connect and cut tools to add extra edges.

Using the reference image I shaped the nose to match my own. Having quite a distintive nose shape meant this was actually quite easy to figure out what parts to emphasise most. I also added the inside of the nostrils.

With the nose now more accurately resembling my own I started on the lips. To do this is selected the outer edges of the mouse and extruded them out by holding shift and moving them down and up respectively for each lip. Then using the connect tool I added some extra edges and added some extra detail.

The screenshot above shows how they look after using the turbosmooth modifier. While better looking im not one hundred percent happy with the result. I may come back to them and make adjustments later on.

Finally some adjustments to the eye sockets using a similar method to when making the lips. I also added a slight bump near the eye which look like the bags under my eyes.

There are still some issues with the model so far such as the sharpness of the nose which is quite noticable in the above screenshot and the design of the lips which i mentioned earlier. Otherwise the model is looking pretty good overall.

Modelling My Face - Adding Depth

Continuing with the flat model of my face I began adding depth by selecting each vertices of the model in the front viewport and dragging it across using the side viewport.

First I selected all of the vertices on the center of my face and used the 'Make Planer' tool and aligning them on the X axis. This made sure I had a point for symmetry later on. I then selected each of these vertices and moved them to the profile of my face. To make this easier I changed the object to have the see-through property.

The next step was very difficult even when following the video guide. Attempting to move each vertices to its respectable position on the Z-axis. Getting the right depth was a lot of trial and error and since I found it easier I used the perspective viewport to check the position of each vertices by eye after moving it.

Eventually I ended up with the result shown above. Now that one half of the face was complete I saved time having to model the second half by applying a symmetry modifier to the object with the reference property. This means that any changes made to the original half will be reflected in the new half. However changes made to the second half will not effect the original. Since most peoples faces are not perfectly symmetrical this is ideal.

The above screenshot shows the current model in front and perspective view with the NURMS smoothing effect applied.

So far I am quite happy with my progress and quality of the model. While not completely accurate I still have plenty of time to make adjustments so that it better represents my own facial structure.

Modelling My Face - Tracing My Reference

Setting up the reference planes:

With the reference image complete I created a plane in 3D Studio Max and add the image as a texture. However simply adding the image as a texture causes the image to stretch to fit the size of the plane meaning that the reference is not accurate in size and shape.

To fix this I added the UVW modifier to the object and selected bitmap fit to keep the original aspect ratio of the image. Once positioned correctly I created a new plane at a 90 degree angle to the original and placed the profile reference on that one.

 

To make sure the reference planes do not interfere with the modelling process and are not accidently selected I edited their properties so that they do no recieve shadows, cannot be rendered and are frozen from selection.

Tracing the reference lines:

Using the front view view-window I the began drawing out the lines of each polygon needed to form the face using my reference image as a guide.

It was at this point that I noticed some errors in the refence image. Not every polygon had been kept a quad and so I had to draw new lines to compensate. 

Converting to actual ploygons:

With the reference lines traced I then converted one square into an editable poly. Then, in the modify panel, selected the attach option to attach the rest of the lines to the polygon creating one large object of polygons. However at this point the object is still completly flat.

Modelling My Face - Reference Planes

Getting started with the first half of the Virtual Enviroments module I have followed a video tutorial detailing how to set up some reference planes. The reference planes can be used later on to help the modelling process and are extremely useful.

STEP 1:

The first step was to take two photos of my face, one face on and the other in profile. (I made sure to hold back my own hair so that the whole of my face could be seen).

Each photo was adjusted to remove any lens distortion created from the camera lens. This makes sure the photos are flat which makes it more accurate when lining up the features of my face in both images when put together.

To make sure each photo was correctly lined up I used the ruler tool as seen in the image above.

STEP 2:

The next step involves highlighting the key facial features. Nose lines, lips, brow and any wrinkles in the skin. Compared to the video tutorial this was actually much harder to accomplish due to the general lack of age lines considering my own age.

These lines are designed to help visualise the main facial areas created by the faces muscles and are great starting points for step 3.

STEP 3:


Following on from the facial features lines is arguably the most difficult step so far. Creating a polygon type reference mesh over one half of the face. Since polygon modelling works best when working with quads it was important to try and keep all lines square. Vertices with more than four lines attached are likely to create a pinching effect in the model and is best avoided.

This is the final reference plane image ready for use in 3D Studio Max.