Trying to achieve likeness

#1

Hi,

I’m trying to do a 3d version of a famous actress.

I know i’m not too close yet, i thought it would be a little easier! I think that her eyes are the less similar part yet ( my own critique ).

I think my workflow wasn’t the best, i used viewport reference at the blocking stage, then i just referenced her by watching a selection of 20 pictures of her in my second monitor.

Basic colors are applied in skin, lips and eyes as to get a general feel of those. So there is no texture work here yet.

Eventually, i’d like to get it as close as possible with just a grey shader. And then just add textures, shaders and lighting.

The model of the hair is just for reference, i have to work with that later.

Any feedback/comments/thoughts about the model or the workflow to achieve better results for this model or for future works are in demand.
Disclaimer: harsh critiques are not a problem at all.

Btw, can you tell who she is so far? if just one person recognize her it will make my day :wink:

#2

I know many actress… but don’t know who she is… Whats her name?

#3

If you want likeness, share grey renders of her. If people don’t see the likeness in grey shade, you fail the likeness.

Statues in Stone have likeness and they are grey. Textures complete the piece.

#4

Rachel McAdams? Try adding some wireframes, will probably be easier to comment on regarding workflow etc. :slight_smile:

#5

Yes Duck-! Is good to know that something of her is getting across my model.

I’m not uploading wireframes because is a dynamesh (started from dynamesh sphere), i’m not worrying about topology for this practice.,just likeness.

So, yesterday i replied to Scote via PM and reveled him the name of this misterious actress (he was asking so no point of not tell) and he sent me a retouched image that was very helpful to detect some problematic areas.

Thanks again Scote!

Btw yes i agree about the grey shader thing, at the momment is not looking too good that way, but my goal, eventually, is to make a good sculpture without having to rely on textures etc. I have to work with other things this days, but i’ll keep updating soon.

CHeers.

#6

I don’t really have much to add to what Scote has already said, but I did want to say that I immediately recognised this as Rachel McAdams, so at least you’re on the right path! Curious as to how well the likeness is with just grey shading though.

#7

Hi thanks Leigh for passing by and leave me a comment! and sorry for the late response.

Today i had time (and inspiration) to keep working with this sculpture. I used the advice of the grey shader and here it is…i’m showing the previous version in grey too for comparison (and maybe and hopefully to show an improvement).

I know i’m not making her justice yet , but i feel i’m getting closer.

New:

Previous:

Some things i’ve learned so far based on comments and experience:

  • The grey shader is the way to go (unless you want to fool yourself!)
  • Is good to leave projects “incubating” (not working actively on them) for a period that can go from days to months.
  • When trying to achieve likeness, is better to use only reference of the person at certain age, or in this case, just from one serie or movie ( true detectective 2 in this case). You can get mad if not and what is worst, never acomplish “a real portrait” of the subject since no one gets old randomly right?

As always c&c are most welcome.

#8

Along the same advice as using a grey shader I would advise using the basic material. This will give you the best approximation of what the sculpture will look like under true 3D lighting. You can move ZB’s psuedo-light around to evaluate your forms. Often times the matcap materials can be misleading as to what your sculpt actually looks like. Your forms look quite lumpy even with the matcap applied and this will really show up under the aforementioned true 3D lighting.

Did you start the sculpt from a high-res dynamesh or did you work the forms up through multiple sub-d levels?

#9

Hi musashidan, thanks for the comments!

What you say about the matcaps is true, though i didn’t realized until now that you say it!

So i’ll be working with the grey, basic material from now on (i’ve already started).I’m also checking the model under diferent light angles as you suggested and that is great to do too, i knew about this but somehow i never got used to it.

And about the lumpy model, i’ll work on that :thumbsup:

At some point i will have to decide if i want to put all the effort and time to make her look almost perfect (or very close and supposing i’m able to)…or leave it and start with another scupting project just to keep the flowing without too much pain. But some long hours will still be devoted to this model.

Thanks to all, feedback is great so far :wink:

#10

Here we go with a new, fresh update (as if that means something positive right?)

Looking better?

Btw, anytime i see the previous versions i uploaded i can’t believe how terrible they are. And i can’t believe that i thought i was “getting there”.

so one quetion…what would you say is the percentage of likeness of this last one?

That, and any other suggestion and critiques of course.

Thanks.

#11

I can recognize her, so that’s good!

:beer:

#12

Thanks JD.

Well about this girl Rachel, is proving to be a lot more difficult than i thought would be. I just can’t get the shapes to make the model look like her. I’ll let her incubating and later i may try again.

But here i started a new one, and i’ll just be uploading here every sculpture that fits the “trying to achieve likeness” moto.

This is a version of Donald Sutherland i’m working on now, it has a percentage of stylization that wasn’t my first intention, but hey i have to have a little fun after the nightmare that was the Rachel project…

#13

I’ll be doing/posting various exercises here:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=200&t=1308037

thanks.