mudbox head/face modeling

#1

Hey guys

I’m starting to learn to model heads and faces and i was wondering what is the common practice in the industry for heads and faces, if they are either created from scratch using a sphere and creating the jaw line and general shape of the face or do people use the pre-made basic human model that comes with mudbox? I’ve tried to look for tutorials creating heads from scratch i’ve attempted it my self but i learn better watching how people do it so i got a basic ground basic where to go.

Also if anyone has any good tutorials would be awesome i’ve looked at digital tutors as well but i like to learn from more than one place.

Cheers
Jacob

#2

Some AAA titles will use scan data and retopo it, moving slowly into movie quality assets.

Other studios it depends on the artist i guess, but most will start from a prebuilt base mesh, because of speed/time, it will drastically improve speed if you work from a common base mesh that has proper loops, uv’s and similar rigging setup.

Question is what are you looking for exactly? Sculpting heads or pure modeling for animation? there’s a big difference.

#3

hey thanks for your reply i’m guessing our university is making us do things the long way but currently i am looking to model faces for pure modeling and not for animation currently because i need to get the basics and fundamentals down first.

#4

Don’t misunderstand that pure modeling (no sculpting involved) requires you to model for animation. You want to do this for at least 3 reasons: efficiency, simulation of muscle movement and likeness.

Not a tutorial but very useful facts:
http://www.phungdinhdung.com/Studies_paper/Realistic_face_modeling.shtm

Some tutorials
http://www.cgarena.com/freestuff/tutorials/max/headmodeling/index.html

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc/head1.php

DVD’s that cost money:
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/189/Modeling-the-Human-Head#.UtGHI7S0ZS4

#5

thanks for the tutorials their great i had only ever seen the joan of arc floating around. By any chance do you know of any good sites for sculpting heads and faces?

#6

Sculpting heads is something that requires more than technical knowledge. If you are serious about it then you should step away from the computer and pick up a few anatomy books. Having the best technical knowledge in the world won’t mean a thing if you don’t know anatomy. Professional artists don’t create character art by accident, they have years of anatomy knowledge behind their work.

For something as specific as head sculpting i highly recommend Philippe Faraut’s work:
(Scroll down for DVD’s)
https://philippefaraut.com/books.html

He recently put them into streaming format too:
https://philippefaraut.com/store/videos.html

Check out a sample:
https://philippefaraut.com/store/downloadable/download/linkSample/link_id/4/

Other artists
http://www.scott-eaton.com/

http://www.zackpetroc.com/category/videos/

#7

I think things are getting specialized enough that one artist won’t do both tasks - like Psyk0 said, modeling is creating for animation, whereas sculpting is the visual aesthetic component.

Watching my students, I’ve found that artists struggle when trying to do both, at least until they are quite experienced. I would suggest starting with the sculpt, and then retopologizing to create an animateable mesh.

I created this workflow video for my students , where I create a head from the Mudbox base mesh. It should give you an idea how I work - sculpt first, not even thinking of the base mesh, that comes afterwards.

#8

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