Conclusion

Overall I as quite pleased with the outcome of my final model. It dose have a likeness to me but there are also a few faults. The hair on the model is very flat and I could of used some extra processes to maybe make it look more realistic. I also had a lot of issues with the skin map so the colour of my face was quite patchy. The final issue was with the eyes. The final shape of the sockets were not right which effected the the eye balls and thus making the gaps around the eyes look too big.

I have learnt a lot during this project and probably the biggest lesson I learnt was to make sure that my original reference photos were perfect, because mine wasn't! This caused a chain of problems through out the design process that wouldn't of happened if I knew then what I Know now.

Final Model

Animation

For my final animation I decided to move the eyes of my face model. This was done in 3ds max by simply using the 'Set key' button. I wasn't sure how to animate the mouth because the model was designed to be a static model and I didn't know how to make the lips move without disrupting the model.

9.2 Face Texture

Another way that I could use to create the effect of the bumps on the skin was to select 'Cellular' in the Bump map box. Here there was lots more parameters to play around with.

I found that the Cellular had a very grainy finish. It didn't matter how much I played with the different parameters it stayed quite grainy and the blacks showed up a lot. So I decided to make my own bump map using the flattened face image in Photoshop.

I started by adding a mid tone grey colour to a layer and then using the 'fill' to add it to the foreground. I then used the 'desaturat' in the 'Image' drop down. Then I adjusted the 'Levels' so that I got a nice representation of the colour values. Next I went into 'Filter','Other' and 'High Pass'. I then needed to next get rid of the embossing effect around the ears and chin with the 'Clone' tool.

Once this was done I went back into Max and in the bump section I selected 'Mix' which will allow me to have two maps for the bump. The first was the map I have just made and the second was the noise map I liked from before. Here I used the 'mix amount' button to blend the two maps together.

These maps compliment each other quite well they were nice and subtle from a distance but it looked quite realistic when looked at closely. This would be my finished face texture.

9.1 Face Texture/Eyes

Because I had to paint the face colour manually I lost alot of the miner details in the skin. There needed to be more imperfections and subtle details around the cheeks and neck. In Photoshop I chose the colour picker and clicked on a dark spot on the skin, then I chose a nice big messy brush and began to build up some colour around the areas that were needed. I did this on a new layer so I could lower the opacity level so the new effects were quite dim and natural looking.

Once I was happy with the the texture I imported it into Max to see what it would look like on my model. It didn't look to bad but it needed a fine bumpy texture for the skin cells.

There were lots of different ways to add this effect to my model. The first thing I tyred was to go to 'Bump' in the maps section of the material editor and select a 'Noise' map. Here I played around with the parameters until the bumps looked like a natural skin surface.

I decided to add the eyes to the model next. To do this I created a sphere and then added a UVW mapping modifier then an eye map through the material editor. The problem I had was that the shape of the eyes and eye lids from my model were not quite right, so the round eye balls didn't fit into them properly. As I couldn't go back into the stack and modify the eyes I was stuck with this problem. From certain angles there was big gaps in the corners of the eyes, but from the front it didn't look too bad.

9.0 Face Texture

I next had to create the actual face texture. I opened up Photoshop and then imported my flattered UVW image. Next I chose a bright colour and went into the edit panel and selected 'Fill' and chose the foreground colour. Then I selected the whole background image and copied it. I then selected the 'Quick mask mode' and the screen goes blue. Next I needed to select the background and then 'Add vector mask'. Now right click and 'Apply layer mask', this finalises the mask.

Then i needed to start building up the texture by taking bits and pieces from my photo reference. I had to also make sure the photo image is a higher resolution than the new image. In the reference photo I used the Lasso tool to cut parts of the photo and them to the texture.

As I only had a reference picture for one side of the head, so I had to copy and horizontally flip the image so it could be used on the other side of the face.

Once the main parts of the face were pasted on I then had to fill in all the missing gaps by using the 'Patch' and 'Clone' tools. Here I ran into a massive problem! When the photos were originally taken the camera must of produced two different shaded pictures. In the front picture I looked quite pale, but in the side picture I looked orange/brown. This may of had something to do with the flash or the lighting in the room. Because of this when I started to use the tools to copy colour the face started to look very patchy and odd.

In the end I had to use the colour I thought was the most realistic and paint most of the face with it so the colour looked constant and uniformed and not patchy and blotchy. I know now I would need to use some brushes give the skin a better effect.

8.1 Unwrapping UVs 2

Once all the stretching was sorted out I needed to have one last look over the geometry to make sure that all the segments were all nice quad shapes and not triangular looking. The ear was then scaled down a bit and placed neatly into the corner of the grid.

I then copied the left side to the right this was done by selecting the symmetry side of the actual model and the dragging the unwrapped geometry over to the right and then using the tools the flip the image.

Next I needed to weld all the verts down the middle together to make one big picture.

Finally I saved the image as a JPEG so it could be imported into Photoshop.

8.0 Unwrapping UVs 1

The next part of the project took me to the skin and hair of my 3D model. This was achieved by first selecting the head, but not the ear and then using the 'Unwrap UVW' modifier. Next I needed to choose how my skin map would wrap around my model. Here I chose the cylindrical wrap, I also hit the 'Fit' button to make the guide fit snugly round the head.

Next I went into the material editor and chose a checkered pattern and added it to the selected object. Once this was done I clicked 'Edit' in the modifier parameters. This brought up the 'Edit UVWs' window, which had the face models geometry flattened out.

Here I needed to try and shuffle the vertices's about a bit so the checkered pattern on the head didn't have any stretched parts. This was done by using a tool called 'Relax'. I found that this tool was a bit hit or miss with my model so I resorted in moving some verts manually. The main areas of concern was the top of the head, nose, lips and eye. For the eye I found that using the Relax tool with 'Relax by centers' worked the best.

For the ear I also used an 'Unwrap UVW' modifier but this time I used the Planer wrap. Next I clicked on 'Pelt', which brought up the Edit UVWs window plus the pelt map window. What I needed to do next was to scale up the red guides and then rotate them so they twisted round the model. This would hopefully make the ear map flow nicely around the ear.

7.0 Ear Model

The ear was created using the same techniques as the face. First I went back and drew some more topology over the ear in Photoshop.

Once this was done I imported the image into 'Max' and then used the line tool to make up the the model object.

Next I used the front guide to bring the ear out the match the depth. I came into another problem here because my guides didn't exactly match each other. In the side picture my head was slightly closer to the camera than in the front. This made my ear slightly bigger in the side view, so I used a bit of guess work when placing the vertices's to get the ear to match up.


The center of the ear had to be sunken down to make the 'Ear hole' this was done by using the bevel tool and moving the polygons towards the head.

The ear looked a difficult model to create, but with using the guides properly and also remembering the mistakes that were made when producing the face geometry, it was far more straight forward than I thought it would be. There was quite a lot of small details I didn't add because I they were very hard to get right so I left the model quite simple.

The last thing part of the ear stage was to connect the model to the head. This would prove quite difficult and with better preparation these problems probably could of been avoided. I needed to match the verts at the back of the ear to the verts on the side of the head. As there wasn't any corresponding verts on the side of the head I used the cut tool to cut out a rectangular shape so the ear had something to connect too.

The wasn't perfect and it got a bit messy under the ear when welding the verts together. I also had to add a bit more geometry around the front of the ear so that there were no gaps at the seems. Once the Turbo Smooth was added the ear looked flush and apart of the head.

6.1 Head Model Part 2

The head model now needed a neck. This was done by creating a cylinder object and resizing it using the reference photos. I also matched up the amount of segments in the object to match the geometry with the head. Next I created polygons to bridge the gap between the two models.

Once this was done I could see the first signs of my 3D face model coming to life. I had used a lot of geometry around the mouth and chin to get the lips right and this was now showing as prominent lines when I used the 'Turbo Smooth'. I needed to try and remove or space these lines out as I didn't want them to show on the final model.

I finally reduced the amount of lines on the face but there were a few more bumps around the chin I needed to iron out. There was a line down my neck but I thought this looked like a natural vein so I left it. Over all the model looked O.k and I would now have to create the tricky ear and attach it to the head.

6.0 Head Model Part 1

The back of the head was the next part of the model that needed to be created. I first loaded my PSD topology file back up into Photoshop and then added a few more reference lines to the back of the head. I then loaded it into the material editor in 3ds max.

Before I started on the back of the head I extended the side of the face out. Here I could see that I had three triangular polygons going down the side of the face. I looked for alternatives ways of getting around the problems but I needed to see the geometry for the head before I decided on anything.

The head was made from a sphere shape that I matched up with the side reference photo. I then needed to rotate the sphere so that the complicated geometry of the top of the sphere was at the side. This was because it would of been difficult to work with and the sides were going to be deleted. Using the front view I then squashed the object so it matched up in the front view.


I then used the editable poly modifier to delete the unwanted polygons around the face and side of the head, I went on to match the geometry from the head to the forehead. Here I had to count how many segments there were going across the head and then add or reduce the amount on the sphere by changing the the segment total in the objects parameters box. Once this was done I used the 'Snap' tool to join the two objects together.

Next I needed to simplify the amount of geometry in the head, so I selected the 'Line' tool and clicked on every other face around the bottom of the sphere. I then clicked the 'Ring' tool and then pressed 'Collapse'. This reduced the amount of polygons which made up the head thus making it easy to work with. I now had to use the 'Create' tool to add extra polygons around where the ear will go. Again I had created a three sided shape that I wasn't happy with but I would leave it to see if it effected the model when the turbo smooth was applied.

5.0 Lips & Eye Lids

The lips were the next part of the model I needed to construct. They were made by using the same techniques as the nostrils. Selecting the edges and then holding down the shift key to copy the polygon and then using the select and move tool create the top lip. The snap tool also came in handy to join the vertices's together.

This became quite tricky to use the geometry leading into the lips and not create any triangles. After a few attempts on the top lip I started on the bottom. Here I needed to add a couple of extra lines going down the chin so I had more geometry to work with.

I also had to make the bottom lip have three sections, this was necessary to make the lip fatter. Once the bottom lip was done I realised that it wasn't essential to have the geometry exactly matching up for both lips as the lips would be folded into the mouth and it wouldn't cause any pinching or problems.

The lips were practically the exact shape to my own but I would need to see them with skin on to get a better idea if they were the right size.

Overall they were hard to do but by using the guide properly I got there in the end.

The eyelids were made in the same way, but I didn't try to much with them because I hadn't created the eyeball yet and I was unsure on how much of the eye lid to have protruding. This is something I will correct later.

4.0 Nose Model

The next stage of the model was to shape the nose and add the nostrils. I first needed to select the inner nose edges and then drag them using the shift key, which copied the polygon. This started to create the nostrils but because I didn't anticipate the amount of splines I would need, I had to cut new lines and create new vertices's to give the nose shape.

There was also problems with the flow of the lines because they didn't compliment the structure a nose I was finding it very hard to make the model flow without having lots of triangular shapes in it.

After alot of 'cutting' and 'welding' I had made a flat mask of the nostrils. I then went into the left view and dragged some of the vert's out to give the nostrils some depth. The last part was to create two new polygons where the gaps for the nostrils were. Here I used the extrude tool to take the nostril cavity into the head.

Overall I was quite pleased with the nose because it was proving to be quite difficult to get the lines right, and I never thought I was going to get there. If I knew the problems I was going to encounter, I would of changed my original topology design drawings. The nose wasn't one hundred percent perfect but I will probably try and shape it better later.

3.0 Face Model

Once the initial face mask was made I next needed to use the side photo to extend the vertices's out to match the photo. I started by selecting the verts in a line down the center of the face on the front view and then dragging them to the right on the left view.

Here I had to use my judgment to place all the verts in the right places, I used the front view as a guide to see how close the verts should be to each other. In the more busy parts of the model I selected one vert at a time from the front and placed them in the right position using the left view.

Once this was done I selected all the verts down the center of the face and in 'Edit geometry' I clicked on the 'Maker planer' button and hit the x. This aligned all the verts up into a straight line. I then used a Symmetry Modifier to create the other side of the face. I had to flip the image and then align it (using the gizmo) so it matched up which my original model. Bellow is how the face looked.

The whole face gave me a better perspective of what I had done and I could now start to move the vertices's about abit to shape the face better. Trying to make the line flow from one side of the face was important to make the shape look real.

2.0 Reference Plates/Splines

Once the Topology was complete I opened up 3ds max and created a plane object. Next I needed to open up the material editor and import my PSD file that I had produced. I then added a UVW Map modifier to the plane, this made the photo retain it's original aspect ratio. I then clicked on Bitmap Fit which brought back the dimensions and it could also be adjusted to fit the plane. I also bumped the self illumination in the material editor up to 100 so the photo could seen at any angle.

I then needed to create another plane but with the side view of my face. I did this by coping the first plane and rotating it around to the correct position. The view ports were then set up to show the just the left and front views, as these were the only ones I would be using.

Now I needed to start the modeling process. I started with the Line tool to connect all of the quads of the Topology by making building up small quad shapes that would cover my whole face and make a mesh to work with. I used the snap tool with vertex checked to make this process simpler to complete.

Once the whole face was complete I selected one line shape and converted it to an editable poly. Here I used the attach tool to connect all the splines together to make one line object. I also used the Weld tool to reduce the amount of vertices's that were used in the model. This would over half the amount of verts thus making it less likely to make a mistake later on.