HMC#20: Expressions - Young Bale

#1

Good challenge :slight_smile:

I’ve been wanting to do a project based around Christian Bale’s head for a while. I think it’s a sweet opportunity to be able to study someone as a child and as an adult. And also emaciated, like he was in the machinist.

So anyway this challenge seems like a good excuse to get cracking with that. I’m doing him as a child for this, as that’s something I’ve never tried before. I went through Empire of the Sun and took a looot of pictures (over 100) as reference. Seems a little excessive to post them all up here, so I just banged a few together so you get the idea. I’ll post more as and when they become relevant to the work.

Just throwing my hat in for now, I’ll start modelling at the weekend.

Now I want you off my thread you ****in prick.

#2

Nice! I would have never known that was Bale. Damn he looks different now.
Good luck for the challenge…

#3

He was a great actor even back then! Good luck!

#4

Ok I’ve made a start on this. Since the basemesh has to be built from scratch, I thought I’d try a new pipeline, which I like to call “make it up as I go along”. It goes something like this:

  1. Put together some zspheres. I’m not good enough with them to even think of making a nice basemesh, so I’m just using them so I have some polys roughly the right shape to sculpt from -

  1. Sculpt that very roughly. I know it’s an eyesore :slight_smile: All I want is to make a basemesh that I can create a final sculpt from, so I’m only interested in a basic shape, with sticky out lumps for the nose and ears -


  1. Retopologise that. This isn’t for animation or anything, it’s just a mesh I can take closer to a finish without fighting against the edge flow or needing to subdivide a million times to get detail where I want it -


  1. Base mesh created, just start sculpting that -

  1. Even though I’m still searching for a likeness at this point, I think there shape of the face and features is close enough to build a final topology off. Since I’m going to need an open mouth for some of the expressions, I force open the mouth. The eyes stay closed because that’s the point where they’re at full stretch -

  1. Create the final topology. I sort of rushed this, so there are a couple of things I would change if I went back to it, but it will do for this, especially since there won’t be any animation -

  1. Close the mouth using the transpose tools, carry on sculpting. Here’s where I’m at now -

In most of the reference shots he has his eyes open, and his mouth naturally hangs open a bit, so that makes comparisons a bit tricky. The next stage will be to open the eyes and mouth on a seperate layer - not as an expression, but just to help me spot errors and push the sculpt further. Plus the lack of hair changes things too, obviously, so I’ll whack some of that on. If I can get a close likeness by the end of the weekend, hopefully I’m on track.

#5

Interesting. I don’t really use Zbrush, I’m a mudbox guy because that’s what my company had, so that’s what I learned. So I’m not at all accustomed to this type of workflow for building a character. Then again, it sounds like this isn’t the usual way Zbrushers do it. Regardless it’s really taking shape. Starting to look like him, and it just looks good too so well done.

#6

I like your approach and style on this! Great!

#7

Wow it’s looking great. thanks for telling us all your steps very informative.

#8

Nicly done mate…

#9

Looking great, interesting to see your workflow.

Cheers.

#10

hey chris!

looks like you are really getting there. i think you could work a little more on his cheekbones. they look a tad more pronounced (especially clse to the eye). judgeing from the third pict in the top row and second in the next. but i’m sure you already know this…
i love this way of working. i often use it myself. think it gives alot more freedom, somehow.

well, keep up the good work.
ohh! btw. just visited your site. great stuff.

-r

#11

Thanks for the kind words everyone :slight_smile: Really helps keep motivation going.

rasmus - That’s a good spot, thanks. The cheekbones get revisited all the time, I think part of the problem is that they change shape so much with a quick smooth, I keep accidentally messing them up.

TimRozek - The wierdest part of the workflow is the 2 topology part I think. Starting with a basemesh modelled outside of ZBrush, sculpting that to a finish, then retopologising is fairly common though.

Been plugging away at him today. It’s hard. Haaaard. Still chasing the likeness, hoping I can sign it off tomorrow, too frazzled to work any more now, I can’t see anything anymore.

Put a skull in his head. I figured it would help me keep my expressions under control when I start working on them, but it’s actually being quite useful in helping me spot anatomical inconsistancies in my model. Made the skull from his head, and retopologised that into 2 seperate parts (so I can move the jaw). I’ll post up a better explanation of that with some pictures tomorrow, incase anyone’s interested

#12

Oh wow, that’s really cool. I would definitely like to know what method you used to retopologize into 2 parts.

#13

Wow, It looks great!!:thumbsup:

#14

I love it! He’s so alive. Definitely another favourite of mine as well as JBoskma.

#15

Thanks again for the feedback. Here’s the workflow for the skull -

1. Sculpted the basic shape from the existing head. Since the bone dictates the shape of the face to such a large degree, it seems to make sense this way, since a lot of the skull is already modelled.

2. To topologise this into 2 parts, I needed to seperate the mandible from the main skull. I masked the jaw, and cloned the model. One each version of the model, I smoothed, moved, and flattened away the part I didnt want to retopologise.

2.5 This step isn’t in the picture, but now having 2 seperate models, i hid away the rest of the mesh, and then closed up the hole where it attached.

3. Topologised those 2 parts seperately. I did it in all in zbrush, but certain things would be easier in maya or an external package. For example, if I’d wanted the zygomatic arch (cheekbone going back to the ear) to be seperate from the rest of the skull, like it is in reality (ie you can stick your finger through the hole it creates), there’s no way I could do that from that mesh in zbrush.

4. Sculptsculptsculptsculptsculptsculptsculptsculpt

There are pretty big issues with this method, though. At least there are if the topology is of any real importance. For example, the inside of the jaw was reaaally messy, making it difficult to retopologise. Again, if I’d been particularly bothered by that, I’d probably take it out and finish the topology in maya, or maybe do a basic topology, sculpt it into shape, then refine the topology in zbrush.

Another side effect of the jaw being so messy was that projection didn’t work (which worked well on the main skull). That wasn’t a problem, since the details were so rough to begin with. If I’d wanted to keep the details, I would’ve done the topology as normal (maya or zbrush) and later used the “project all” button in the subtool menu to get my details back. I love that button, and I think in it’s own cold, quiet little way, it loves me too.

#16

looking awesome man. Love the edge flow for the ribcage:buttrock:

#17

Very great work :thumbsup:

I was first thinking about his cheek-bone if it wasn’t a bit too big. Checking the references, it does look like he has very pronounced ones, but not too obvious.

Also love the sculpting technique. Will you keep it looking more like a bronze statue? I love that style.

cheers

#18

An amazing thread. Thanks for sharing and i’ll be bookmarking your blog lol.

#19

Great progress so far! really happy to see another Bale thread =)
like your research and attention to base anatomy!
Sure i’ll watch this thread!

#20

Hey, nice see the work of the skull also, sure that help you a lot. waiting for more! keep the excellent work!