Character: First Head Attempt

[bobtronic]

Hi vector,

You are definitaly on the right way - really cool

Beam me up, Bob

[Vektor]

Here are those wireframes:

http://www.vektorsdomain.com/images/CGKirk/wip_005a.jpg
http://www.vektorsdomain.com/images/CGKirk/wip_005b.jpg

The front of the head is in pretty good shape, although there are quite a few 5+ sided faces I still have to clean up and not all of the edgeloops are flowing quite the way they should. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it so far.

[Spindle]

This is your first head you say? I must say I'm really impressed youve really captured his look, you can really recognise who it is.
If your producing good stuff like this while your still learning, I cant wait to see what your stuff will be like when your more experienced.
What software are u using for this?

[Vektor]

Originally posted by Media Munky
This is your first head you say?

Well, to be fair, this is probably my fifth or sixth attempt at modeling a head if you count the tutorials I worked through, but this is the first one I've taken all the way to the finishing stage. Also, I used my own modeling technique on this one, which I felt I had to do to represent Kirk's features accurately.

What software are u using for this?

3ds Max 4.3. I'm a lighting designer by trade and I got my start with 3ds Viz at work where I do a fair amount of architectural lighting visualization. That was good for a start, but I rarely have the time or budget to do much more than basic visualizations and I started branching out on other projects (like starships and kitchen remodels) on my own time. Eventually I was able to buy my own copy of Max and have been working to improve my skills ever since. Character modeling is just the latest category I decided to try my hand at.

Thanks for the reply.

[Vektor]

By the way, eventually I'm going to need to put my own textures and some hair on this guy. Anybody care to recommend some appropriate software/plugins/utilities for that sort of thing? I have PhotoShop and I'm fairly adept at it, but there's more to texturing than just being able to create the images.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Vektor]

I think this will about do it for his face.

http://www.vektorsdomain.com/images/CGKirk/wip_006.jpg

Now to add his ears, some decent eyes, teeth and gums, and then figure out a way to do his hair properly.

[Spindle]

You might want to try the "Texporter" plugin for unwrapping the mesh to paint on. I've used ShagHair, the dynamics could be better, but you could definately sculpt it to old kirks style. (if you want to use dynamics SimCloth works well on ShagHair).
I must say this is where maya is alot better than max, everything built in --and painting on the hair, and direction etc-gotta love that. Man I really need to get better in maya.

would you mind sharing your own secret modeling method u use? let me guess -is it starting out with splines- then turning that into an editable mesh, instead of just starting by extruding from a box???

(Ears?)

[Vektor]

Originally posted by Media Munky
Would you mind sharing your own secret modeling method u use? let me guess -is it starting out with splines- then turning that into an editable mesh, instead of just starting by extruding from a box???

Nothing really secret about it. I did indeed start with a simple box with two segments on each side. Then I spherified it and started working from there. The most unique thing I did was base the initial modeling stages on a technique often used for figure drawing, which had its pluses and minuses but generally worked out okay.

(Ears?)

I'm workin' on 'em. ;)

[Vektor]

And by the way, the texturing so far is just a generic, procedural texture. When I get around to doing something more detailed, I more than likely will use TextPorter.

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