Model: First Head =/

[treed]

Nice job man. Did you first draw image planes for references, and then modeled?



treed

[Xilica]

no i did not

i did it from looking at pictures of many people and then trying to come up with as generic a head as possible - > my goal was to create a male head btw

[Is-boset]

Isn't pefect but it is a very good approach to your new modelling, y hope when i start do things like yours

[LFShade]

Looks good for #1, Xilica!

As you launch into a second attempt, I'd like to offer you some suggestions; a roadmap that might help you build things better as you continue to practice. Some of it may take hold almost immediately, and some of it may take a dozen heads or more to really sink in. Much of it has been written before in a hundred different ways, too, but it is my feeling that you can never read enough good advice:)

First of all, if you haven't already then go round up some reference material. 'Nuff said about that; I think you can figure it out for yourself;)

You may want to set up front and side references in your viewports, but I personally can't stand that workflow. It's your choice, and one way or the other you're all set to begin step #1 - Roughing in the the overall volume. I always start with a cube and go from there. Try to do this step with as few polys as you can get away with, but don't be overly stingy. At this point, focus only on the really broad features of the head such as the placement of the brow and eyeline, cheeks, jawline, nose, and ears. You're not modeling the actual features yet, but this is the best time to lock down their locations and plan for the next level of detail. Don't even bother turning on smoothing yet, as it's likely to look pretty much like a blob and won't give useful feedback on your progress so far.

Note: it's important to always keep an eye on silhouette as you go. We read the form of objects in the real world by primarily two things: shading and silhouette. Shading is mostly automatic in 3D, but a model in the low-poly stages is deceptive in the way it displays shading; it's very unreliable. However, if you pay close attention to silhouette and the shape reads properly from all angles, the shading will usually fall into place nicely as the model progresses.

I try not to pay too much attention to edge flow in the first stage of a model. It's all about volume at that point, topology be damned! But moving into step #2 -- describing the medium detail -- planning your edge flow is crucial. Think about the concentrics - the eyes, the mouth, the ears, and to a lesser degree the nostrils. Force these areas into concentric loops regardless of how the radii flow together initially. Tris, pents, poles, etc. aren't a big deal yet, you'll deal with those later. For each new loop you cut, try to be decisive about the placement of each vertex. Don't leave a single one untouched; you don't want to let the connect tool do your modeling for you! Also try to keep in mind that you don't want to overpopulate the model with geometry, so stick with only using the minimum amount of polys needed to describe the features (again, medium detail here). As always, don't forget to orbit your model around as you go to check for a proper silhouette.

You're at the end of stage 2 when the model has a full complement of facial features, and holds up to viewing from all angles. The lips, eyes, and nose are clearly defined, and it really is best to go ahead and add ears. A lot of people leave ears until the end because they're so tricky to model, but this isn't smart because it's even harder to add the ears after you've already nailed down a good edge flow. It's best to include them in the flow now while you're in that "mode". At the end of stage 2 the model actually begins to look decent when subdivided, but I still wouldn't base any modeling decisions on that just yet. The model should be polygon-efficient and have the beginnings of a good topology, but needn't necessarily be technically perfect. Which brings you to the next step:

Step #3 - cleaning up the model. This is the one of the really tricky parts. Your goal is to keep the nice loops you planned out in step #2, while eliminating unwanted pents, tris, and poles. It's a bit like putting together a really complex puzzle, and often compromises must be made to get it all to fit together. Here's where it's good to have some foundational knowledge of sub-d's, so that you will know where you can get away with the occasional pole or tri.

Now you should have a model that looks pretty much like the reference material, except that it probably feels like it's missing something. Of course I'm talking about step #4 - adding the fine details. These are details such as wrinkles, blemishes, asymmetry - the stuff that gives a model that "personality"; that certain lifelike appearance that all of the most impressive 3D characters have. This is a fun step to do if you have an interesting character and a successfully executed model up to this point. There are some specific techniques that help with adding these local details without screwing up your overall edge flow. I'll not go into the techniques here, because I'd probably need to show pictures and start a whole new discussion, but the information is out there and readily available.

You're probably not going to pump out pro quality models instantly just by having read this, but hopefully it will give you some guidelines to practice along. Keep in mind that this also isn't the only way to do things - it's just the way that has come to work for me. Thanks for reading, and good luck in your learning. I'll shut up for now and leave you to your modeling:D


Good luck,
RH

[Xilica]

lol damn LFShade, i modeled this almost the way you wrote it, i read all you typed and i am feeling more confident on my next head than i felt before i modeled this head

thank you very much for the tips! :airguitar

[bene.b]

wow LFShade thanks for spending the time writing this.
I think I might start modeling my first head after reading this.
Still collecting the theory though.
After my glass it's time for something new...
I'll only post the head as soon as it looks as good as Xelica's.
I think it looks great for the first time! It's good to see that I'm not the only one here who starts modeling things for the first time (at least concerning heads)
Will you keep us updated on this Xelica?
:bounce:

[Xilica]

yes i will bene.b =)

however i'll make a new thread most likely later in the week for my next head

[Is-boset]

where is the wire?

[Is-boset]

sorry for the comments before, i miss the thread:shrug:

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