HARDCORE MODELING!: 15 Expressions ONE Model: Rowan Atkinson

#22

Thanks for your comments!

@ Rage & Intervain: On the subject of the base mesh - I probably should work on it some more, but I wanted to makes sure that the overall topology was ok by at least doing a couple of expressions before finally settling for it. I’ve always struggled getting the finer details on my sculpts though - guess I’ll have to stop shying away from it and put some work in.

WRT the morph target issue, I’m not having any problems in zbrush really, more in blender. What I want to be able to do is:

[ul]
[li]Pose and get the rough shape of the expression in blender.[/li][li]Import that into zbrush and sculpt on it.[/li][li]Export back to blender, and have the sculpted mesh as a new morph target for the head model.[/li][/ul]It’s this last part I dont seem to be able to accomplish. To be honest it isn’t strictly neccessary for the purposes of the challenge - I could just export a hi-res mesh from zbrush and render that, but it would be educational/fun if I could figure out how to do the above, as that way I coud do an animation of the model morphing between the expressions.

#23

Woo! Got it! A bit of confusion in my question had arisen due to the differences in terminology between the two programs. What Zbrush calls morph targets, blender calls shape keys, and what I wanted to do was use a sculpted mesh from zbrush as a shape key in blender.

Worked out how to do what I wanted in the end though. I’ll have to re-do the first couple of expressions probably, but seeing as the base mesh still needed work that’s not a major issue. Here’s an outline of the workflow.

  1. Create base mesh in blender, pose and tweak shape to give the rough shape of the expression.
  2. Export meshes as obj. This is the tricky part as blenders .obj exporting leaves a little to be desired. What you need is:
    [ul]
    [li]An obj of the basemesh, exported with the “morph target” option checked.[/li][li]An obj of the mesh in the expression you are working on, again with the morph target option switched on. This is where problems arise. The “morph target” option disables applying modifiers on export, meaning that if you used an armature or any other modifier to pose your mesh you’re .obj is going to look weird - shape keys will be applied, but modifiers wont.[/li][li]Thus you need to create another version of the mesh with all modifiers and shapekeys already applied so it can be exported correctly. Blender wont let you apply modifiers to a mesh with shapekeys, but there is a script called “apply deformation” in the object scripts menu that will create a new mesh with the same affect, and vertex order conserved, so use this.[/li][li]Export the new mesh as above.[/li][/ul]3. Import the un-posed base mesh into ZB, and sculpt away!
  3. When the time comes to work on a specific expression, import the posed obj as the new level 1 subdiv and work on that - thus conserving the nice fine detail you already put in on the basemesh. You can then refine the expression.
  4. Huzzah! Because all of your sculpted meshes have the same vertex order data, you can export any level you choose back to blender as objs and know that you can use them as morph targets (shape keys) there too!
    6.To do so, export the meshes back to blender as .obj’s. They will be separate objects, but this can be rectified using the “Rvk1 to Rvk 2 script” found in the mesh scripts dialogue. This transfers the shape of one mesh to another as a shape key - exactly what I wanted.

I’ll try and put up some video later to show the results - hopefully that ought to explain it a bit better.

Limitations: I currently cant get the system to play nice with the armature that was originally there, as the armature displacement gets baked into the mesh on export. This means that animation is done purely by interpolating between shapekeys which obviously isn’t quite correct for thigs such as the jaw which moves in an arc - this really wouldnt be suitable for animating limbs for example. However it is sufficient for working on the face as the difference is only slight.

Bah, learning workflows is a pain in the arse. Back to more interesting things.

#24

Thanks for that detailed workflow. Even though I don’t use Blender (I use Modo), I can definitely see the value of these features. It seems that it can be, as you said, a pain in the ass, and imperfect, but IMO if you find a workflow that you like, and practice it, it will be faster than if you would have racked your brain trying to figure something else out. Good luck and I can’t wait to see your video/tut.

On a side note, I understand where the confusion comes from different terminology. What you are describing (shape keys) is called morphmapping in Modo. Something I avoided at all cost when I was learning the app because I didn’t have a clue what it meant. Once I realized they were blendshapes, I was like “Ohhhhh”. Then I realized that there was a whole load of functionality all rolled into one menu, called vertex maps. Essentially, anything that uses vertex information and point order (such as UV’s, morphmaps, weightmaps, etc) falls into this category, and now I can’t live without it :smiley:

-Rage

#25

Hey I understand why you would use ZB instead of blenders sculpting tools - just curious if you knew you could shapekeys on highres meshes?

looking good - I’ll be keep ing an eye out

just thought I’d mention it -

kk

#26

Decided to go back to the drawing board with the likeness. I think it’s a good deal closer now, though it still needs a bit of work. I found the rasp brush very useful doing this - not used it much before, but it’s highly preferable to the smooth brush for rounding out smooth forms.

#27

Hey there!

I think you got a good base mesh and over all look on this one. One of the main problems is that your seems a bit wider than him. I also think the noserils tops is a bit to bulky compared to him. I’ll def. keep an eye on this thread because I really like the actor and I’m sure you can get a lot of cool expressions out of him :slight_smile:

Erik

#28

@ ErikSvensson: Thankyou! Your comment about the head width helped a lot!

#29

hey looking really good His ear lobes look a bit boxy at the moment also he as a fleshy jaw line in your ref pic but in your model it much crisper. Like the expressions so far and you have the eyes done wonderfully.

Luck

#30

yeah looks much more like him now… I’d suggest going into the small things like the eyes and refining the edges - the face has a lot of hard edges as well as the soft ones - define the edges of the eyelids, thus giving it a visible structure and thickness :slight_smile: Same goes for the mouth - it’ll give him a lot of life. Also remember that the upper lid wraps around the lower one in the outer corners of the eye - look at any eye for reference. The same thing happens in the corners of the mouth - the upper one goes over the lower one.

These subtleties do add a lot of reality to a cg character! Keep going for sure :thumbsup:

#31

Looking good. You can see its ol Rowan.

If thats the ref your using for front view keep in mind its not neutral. His neck could be a bit slimmer and his nose too:). His cheek bones also need to go closer towards the eye. At the moment they are near the jaw.

Good luck!

#32

Grr, had a fair bit of computer trouble this week, which set me back a little. Still, I’ve got four mostly done now and I’m getting into the swing of it, so I should still finish on time.

Tired: (had to re-do it, but it looks better now)

Surprised:

Disgusted:

Confused: (not sure about this one yet, tongue looks a bit lame…)

I also had pride re-done, but somehow the file got corrupted and lost all the subdiv data above level 3, and the mesh data no longer matches up with the other ones. Weird and annoying…

#33

actor is not so similar to itself, but expressions excellent!

#34

I agree… the likeness is off. The second to last one looks the most like him.

Really nice sculpting, and the expressions are really good.

#35

Happy: The refs for this one aren’t quite what I’m aiming for. But I’ve put them up anyway.


Thanks for your comments people.

#36

Some more work:

Scared:

More work on the confused expression:

Flirting: Did something odd to the eyes here in aid of seeing where they were pointing better.

And one of ym favourite Blackadder moments - Wibble.
"…Inside the dugout. Blackadder has pants on his head and a pencil up each nostril. Baldrick is in attendance.
Blackadder: Now, Baldrick, this is an old trick that I picked up in the sudan. We tell HQ that I have gone insane and I will be invalided back to Blighty before you can say “wibble”, a poor gormless idiot.

Baldrick: I’m a poor gormless idiot, sir, and I’ve never been invalided back to blighty.

Blackadder: Yes Baldrick - but you never said ‘wibble’…"

Falls under the silly expression category. No pants on the head yeat, but they’ll be there in the end if I have time.

#37

Haha ****ing awesome idea for “silly” :slight_smile: Without wanted to be seen as giving you bad advice, I would recommend sacrificing all your future expressions to get a pair of pants modelled on that head in time for the deadline.

I really like “confused” aswell. I actually read it as concentration though, but it’s a fun expression either way.

I’m all for the idea of putting something in for the iris too, I think that works well. I could swear it helps with the likeness too. Should help with expressions like scared (although that one is very readable at the moment, in my opinion), as it’ll show the whites of the eyes up more.

#38

Nice work. The silly expression is great and pants would be hilarious. i agree that the confused looks more like attentive or concentration. idk about the scared face, maybe move the brows inward a bit?

#39

Rage:

Courageous:

Worried: (Not going exactly with the ref on this one).

Went back to adding the refs I used for those expressions that do have reference images.

#40

hahaha I love that episode with trying to avoid his duty :wink: - in fact I simply adore all of Blackadder… I think the first series had a lot of very silly expressions too since he was stupid in the Middle Ages :wink: Keep’em up!

#41

Pride: (Re-done after the file got corrupted).

Drunk: (another excuse to do a Mr. Bean Expression)

Envy:

Sadness:

And that brings me up to 15! The plan now is to keep refining them as much as possible for the next couple of days, maybe put together and animation and get my renders done!