Thursday, October 21, 2010

Conclusion & Final Thoughts

In conclusion, I feel that I have learnt a great deal of new skills in this project, and have completed a lifelike head, even if it did not resemble the reference image entirely. I feel I have developed a range of new skills, a few of these include topology, spline modelling and bump map creating.

I can see that from this project, that using accurate reference imaging is one of, if not the most important aspects of modelling something as delicate as a human head. In times past, I had just used my minds eye and occasional glances at images from google to create my models, but then, none of them had the amount of detail which is present on this model.

As for the resemblance to the reference image, I find that it looks closer to the image depending on which angle and view you are in. Whilst you are in perspective mode, the head seems much more round and bulbuss, where as in the front and side views, the shape and proportions of the head seem utterly different.

If I had the oppotunity to do this project again, I would make sure that the reference images lined up much better, as I had alot of problems caused by the lack of them lining up in the early stages, such as the extruding stage not lining up, features being different sizes etc.

I feel that the best things I did in this project was the creation of the more refined features, such as the nose and the ear. I think that they look very realistic, and am very happy with how they come out.

I think that I could have managed the over all shape the head better, as from certain angles it seems to be either too wide or too tall, but I am not entirely sure whether it is the model of the camera to blame.

In final conclusion, I feel I have managed to created a realistic looking head, in which I utilizies new techniques , such as bump mapping. When using 3Ds Max in the future, I will be definately want to use my new found skills to increase the quality of my work. I haven't felt as natural using this kind of modelling, but that has only made me want to increase my skills in it even more, as I ideally want to achieve a career in this part of the games industry.

Final Model





Here is the final model, which for some reaons looks a look rounder then it actually is in perspective mode. Overall I am happy with it, even if it does not look entirely like the reference image.

Before this project, I would have been unable to attempt to make an organic looking human face. I have learnt many techniques and skills from the tutorials we followed, that I fell I can take through to my professional life. A few of these include topology, spline modelling and bump map creating.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Bump Map

This was the final level of detail to add to the model. The bump map adds dips and bumps on the texture to make it look more realistic and lifelike.

This was achieved by first making a copy of the texture. By turning the texture into a greyscale image using the Desaturate tool, and then using the Levels tool to highten the light areas and darken the shadowed areas, I had created the first steps of the bump map.

The next stage entailed using the high pass function. By using this, I was able to extrude/bevel the details of the face, which I could then use in 3Ds Max to heighten the effects of the material. I ran into a problem with this almost immediately, as the neck skin had mostly been created with brush strokes, there was no detail to be applied to it, leaving a very strange smoothness which the rest of the model didn't have.

To fix this, I cloned some of the bump map from the forehead and face onto the next, thus fixing the issue. Here is the finished article.

Material

Now that I had the UVW Map as a template, I could now add textures onto it in photoshop that would then be applied onto the model itself. I ran into a great deal of difficulty with this stage, as the reference image did not have any skin showing for the neck, meaning I had to do my best creating a texture for it using the clone tool and paint tools. I think that I did a good job of masking this problem, but it did leave some rather strange results, such as the rather sharp edges of the beard.

To begin with, I first began copying pieces of the topology onto the texture, such as the nose and the eyebrows. Because the main part of the face was made up of basically, topology, it was quite simple to line the features up so that they fit onto the face correctly. Once they were in the general area, I used the free transform tools warp ability to rectify any problems with how they sat on the image.

Using the advice from the tutorials, I was able to take the cheek from the sideways view of the face, and pin it onto the UVW texture, and it fit in almost seamlessly. Once I had all of the major features in place, it was the case of filling in the gaps between them. I found the most effective tool for the job to be the healing tool. This tool could automatically work out how to best tween the two textures together to make them look seamless. The main problem with the texturing I found is how flat the hair looks. I could not think of an effective way to rectify this problem, but after looking at other peoples blogs, I have found that they have suffered with the same problem. Here is the finished article, a rather gruesome looking face, but I am happy with how it looks on the model itself.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

UVW Unwrap

Unwrapping the material of the head using the UVW Unwrap modifier allowed me to map out all of the features of the head. With this map, it was possible to place the features such as eye brows and facial hear onto the model with ease.

This process begins with adding the UVW Unwrap modifier to the head model. Once this is done, I used the paint selection tool to select all of the face on the face except those which made up the ear. By selecting all of these faces, I was able to tell the modifier to stitch all of those faces together on the map. I did this by selecting the cylindrical map parameter tool and drawing out a large cylinder that covered the whole of the head. This meant that it could detect where all of the edges of the face were, and in turn lay them out accordingly on the map.

Once this was done, I had to fix any overlapping points which may have occured after the automatic process. These were common in the areas around the nose and mouth, but were easily fixed using the relax tool to make all of the edges go slack and move to points where they didn't interfere with other points.

With this done, I could then select the faces that I had left of the ear, and use a planar tool to map out the points on them. Using the planar tool however had left me with alot of overlapping points on the ear, which would have taken hours to fix if done by hand. The tutorials that we followed in this project suggested that I used the pelt tool to rectifiy this, and it worked very well. All of the points were dragged out in there original directions, keeping a nice flow on the ear that allowed for all of the detail to be easily seen.

After I had completed this for one side, I then added a symmetry modifier, giving a horrid seam down the middle of the face. This was easily fixed by adding another UVW modifier over the top of the symmetry, and then selecting that new half of the face. Once it was selected, I was able to mirror it, and then move it to the other side so that it matched up in the middle. Once I had done this I was able to stitch the centre together, meaning that there was no longer a seam in the middle of the face. When I was happy with all of the placements, I rendered the template ready to be edited in photoshop. Here is the finished product.


Sunday, October 17, 2010

Fixing any details

Today I spent some time fixing any details on the face that I was unhappy with. I was not entirely happy with some of the curves on the cheeks, so I began to move the verts around very slightly so that they flowed much more naturally and gave the face a more natural shape. By doing this I had also given the face some of the natural dips and curves that it had on the reference image.


I also spent some time today redoing the lips of the model, as I felt they were not as accurate as tey could be. Looking at the reference image, the bottom lip is much more prominent then the top lip. To fix this I decided to add some extra points onto the bottom lip so that I could get a more natural look to it.


I also felt that the eyes were too wide, so I fixed this easily by selecting all of the points and scaling them side ways to make them narrower, but keep the same height.


I fixed a few other little things, such as the width of the front of the head, and some of the roundness of the head. I also made a few small adjustments to the jawline and the front of the chin, all by moving singluar points until they flowed more naturally. Once this was done, I was much more happy with the overall shape of the model.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Week 4 - Head Extension & Ear

This week I worked on adding the rest of the head to the face, and then attaching the ear to the side of the head. This started off by creating a sphere behind the head. I then scaled the sphere so that it matched the natural curve of the head in the side on reference image. I then removed the bottom half of the sphere, as this will be there the head connect to the neck, and also where the head forehead will connect to the face. I then welded each of the points from the sphere onto the face, until it was totally connected, making a very natural looking curve.



I noticed at this time there was an issue of the brow connecting to the forehead, creating a large crease in the skin that did not look correct. I correct this by moving some of the curves from the sphere that made up the head manually, until they took a more natural shape. I also preliminarily added some other polygons to bridge the back and the side of the head with the cheeks and jawline. I could see that that were are not perfect at this stage, but were tweaked until they were much better.



I realised that to attach the ear most effectively, there should be a circular hole where the ear would fit on the side of the head. To creat this, I first removed all of the polygons on the side of the head. This gave me a large hole which i was able to fill in with rows of polygons that I continue from the face, meaning that the nice natural flows from the topology could continue. Once I felt the whole was a more reasonable size, I capped it with a large polygon, which later I would carve into quads.


Once I had this large polygon, I had to edit it so that it followed the topologys natural flow. I initially attempted this by using the slice tool to make individual quads that flowed through the entire model. The problem with this was that once I came to the end of this phase, there was always one polygon left which did not have 4 edges. This became a pain because it would always result in an oddity when it came to rendering. I decided to scrap this idea and come up with another method. This entailed using the natural circular shape that was alread present from the sphere, and just continuing it inwards until there was a small enough gap to be filled by the ear. Because of the hooded jumper in the reference image, it was very hard to make the neck. I decided just to extrude out a basic neck at this stage so that I could get a feel for how it might look.


Creating the ear entailed going back to the topology and drawing out the quads that would make up the ear. In the tutorials, it was said that the topology of the side on view was an optional step, but would make the modelling much easier. I did not take this advice and found out the hard way that it can be very hard to follow the curves of the face without this added help. I decided that this time I would make sure I followed the instructions carefully and did all of the steps to make this task as easy as possible.


Once I had drawn out the polygons for the ear. I then went back into 3Ds Max and created each of the polygons in the same way as when I created the inital mask. Once this was done, I began to pull of the edge verticies of the ear so that it matched up the the shape on the front on view. Once the basic curve of the ear was in place, I then began using the extrude tool to indent the ears, making the natural dips and trenches in them. I added a mesh smooth modifier and was happy with the results. This was a very good start, but I want to add more detail later when I clean up the whole model.


The next stage on from this was to add some depth to the ear. This meant dragging out some extra polygons from the back of the ear, and folding them around the back so that they formed the back of the ear which will connect to the side of the head. After this stage, I was able to take the ear and weld it onto the side of the head. After moving the ear into its correct position, I then used the attach tool to make it part of the same model. Once this was done, I used the target weld tool to stich the ear to the side of the head. Once all together, I reapplied the mesh smooth and symmerty modifiers to the head, and here is my outcome.


With these steps done, the modelling phase of the head is complete. Next, I hope to refine any details on the head that I am still not happy about, and then use the UVW Unwrap modifier to create the skin and hair textures, and finally adding a bump map to give the skin and hair some added depth.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Week 3 - Extruding The Face / Adding Extra Detail

This week I worked on pulling out the rest of the vertices's for the face, so that they lined up with the Topology made in week one. This entailed selecting each vertex separately, and then putting it out on the x axis until it lined up with the side on shot of the face. This was most difficult in the regions around the mouth and the eye, as the reference images where unable to show the complete detail of the over hanging brow, and the right hand edge of the eye, meaning that it was difficult to find a natural looking curve. Once I had pulled put all of the vertices's, I applied a mesh smooth modifier so that I could get more of a gauge on how the finished product would look.



It was obvious that because of the short comings of the reference images, that some of the hidden details had not come out correctly, there was also an issue on the outside of the eye which made it look as if it was bulging. The initial nostrils also look incorrect, but I knew this was to be addressed in a latter tutorial, so I left them for the time being. After applying a symmetry modifier, I could see that the face was beginning to come together.



Once this was done, I decided to tackle the nostrils. Looking at the reference images, you can see that there is quite a lot of shape to the side of the nose, making a sort of cover around the nostril. The model this effectively, I decided it would be best to add some extra polygons to define the folds more clearly. I did this by removing the current nostril and bottom of the nose, and adding a very small, thin polygon which added as a fold between the nose and the face. After this I went about bridging polygons around the edge of the existing nose to add a more bulbous point on the end, so that it matched with the reference image. After adding the mesh smooth modifier back onto the face, it began to look quite effective.



Once this was done, I bridged in the caps from the end of the nose so that they all met together, making an organic shape that matched up quite nicely to that of the reference image. There was just a little work that was needed to be done on the underside, but this would be easy to fix one that the nostrils had been added.



The nostrils were added by using the inset tool to make a polygon within another polygon on the underside of the nose. After this, I used the extrude tool to make a cavity which would make the nostril. After this, I used the rotate tool to move the nostril so that it lined up with the reference image, and fixed any of the problems with the nose lining up. With the mesh smooth modifier, I was extremely happy with how it lined up.


Once this was done, I began to concentrate on places where I felt there were problems on the model. The main culprit for this was the brow, as it was not prominent enough, and didn't hang over the eye like it did on the side on reference image. To fix this, I began to pull the out the vertices's which made up the brow, and pull them out further along the x axis, so that it overlapped the eye socket more, giving the same look as the reference image. This looked better, but did not fix the problem entirely. I realised that another problem was within the eye socket itself. It didn't have enough depth, making the eye look puffy and incorrect. This was fixed by basically using the opposite method to what I did for the brow. By selecting the points which made up the outer eye and the socket, I pulled them in the opposite direction of the brow, making a bowl like shape within the eye cavity. After applying the mesh smooth and making the model a basic skin colour, I was very happy with the outcome.


Next week I will be working on adding the rest of the head and the ear.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

[ Group Work ] - Essex Map Ideas

After the meeting we had on Tuesday, I went about researching the best way to display Essex. I thought that it would be a good idea to show Essex as an entity by itself, that way it is the one and only focal point on the screen, meaning that the audience can't help but be drawn into it.

I looked for some basic outline of Essex, and found this image:


I felt that this was a good representation of Essex, without it being so detailed that it would take masses of work to make it look the same.

I went about tracing out a spline in 3Ds Max, which I then converted into an editable poly. Once I had done this I extruded it out to make it into a wedge. I beveled the top edge of the wedge to give it a more stylized effect.

I think that it looks very characterised and will fit our project well. Here are a few variations of the image.



As the project progresses, I look to add more detail, such as towns and natural land marks such as rivers and forests.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Week 2 - Adding the Quads

This week, I went about drawing the quads onto the topology I previous drew onto the face. I did this by using the line tool to draw out each of the quads onto the face, and closing them when prompted. Here is an image of this about half way through.


This took most of the tutorial to complete but near the end of the tutorial I began to extrude out the edges of the face to match that of the sideways face picture.


Next week I will be extruding the rest of the verticies out so that they match up to the images and hopefully look like the face.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Week 1 - Photographs & Topology

This week, I have began to add topology to the photographs we took. I have a picture of the face full on and one from the side. Using these images, I will build the basis of my head model by drawing out each of the quads until I have a full face worth. Once this step is completed I will be moving each vertex so that it matches up to the photograph of the face.

Before I could do this however, I needed to map out each of the quads in photoshop. Once the two photographs had been taken, I had to make sure that they lined up in height as closely as possible. This was because if the two images do not line up, I would run into alot of problems in the future when it can to extruding out the verticies.


After I had lined up the images, I had to mark out the main folds and creases on the face. I did this so that I could easily lay out some basic lines for the model along the face so the main points of detail are kept in place.


After I had the main points of the face, I had to begin dividing the face into seperate squares, I did this in red ink so that it was easily distinguishable from the features section of the image. Following the tutorials given to us, I tried to stick with the natural muscle structure of the face, making a ring around the eye socket, and following the faces natural lines down around the nose onto the upper lip.


After the image was made in photoshop, I moved it into 3Ds Max. I did this by creating two planes and adding the images to them as textures. I used a UVW Map modifier to make sure the images did not distort or pixelate and then added a self illumination setting tot he material so that I could easily see it from all angles.

Initial Impressions of Brief

After receiving the brief today, my initial feelings are that this will be a very good module for me to increase my skills within 3D modelling, not only by honing the ones I already have to a higher standard, but also by learning completely new ones. For example, I am yet to try spline modelling as described in the tutorials we have been given to use and look forward to learning to model in this way.

3D Modelling is by far my favorite subject matter in my degree and look forward to doing the best work I possibly can.