Hi,
It’s time to enter in.
I was not sure if I was able to do this challenge but I have to try it. It will be really interesting.
I choose to do a native american, and it's quite hard to represent them without falling in a too carricatural style.
Here are the references I am using
[img]http://mantis.folio.free.fr/wip/expression/Indien.jpg[/img]
I'll use this book for the facial expression,
[[img]http://www.funnytoons.tv/expression.jpg[/img]](http://www.amazon.com/Facial-Expressions-Visual-Reference-Artists/dp/0823016714)
But for the moment I'm trying to get the base head as good as I can.
And here is my process:
-I started from a very base mesh done in Max, and sculpt it in Zbrush.
here is the 40 min progress done in Zbrush.
[img]http://mantis.folio.free.fr/wip/expression/40Min_progress01.jpg[/img]
-Next I push the form a bit further.
But my mesh became really heavy, around 5M polys, and I haven't enough details for the face, and too much polys for the neck area.
[img]http://mantis.folio.free.fr/wip/expression/Wip01.jpg[/img]
-So I decided to take the base mesh back to 3DS and add a few edgeloops on the face, project that in zbrush and continue to sculpt it.
[img]http://mantis.folio.free.fr/wip/expression/Wip02.jpg[/img]
-But now the eyes, mouth and ears area became too difficult to work on without increasing the polycount drastically.
So I wanted to do a temporary new topology but I've opted to use an existing face topology to speed up the process and free me from doing a retopology that I will use temporary.
[img]http://mantis.folio.free.fr/wip/expression/Wip03.jpg[/img]
-Then when I was close to the final form I did the final topology.
[img]http://mantis.folio.free.fr/wip/expression/Wip04.jpg[/img]
And here is where I am for the moment, still tweaking it to get a realistic feel.

I think this challenge will be really fun, that’s the first time I’m entering in a Cgtalk challenge plus in Hardcore mode.
But there are so many part that I want to learn that I was oblige to jump in.
I already learned a lot by looking at other threads, so I have to thank you all.

