Head

[CurtObi4]

Ok, this is the first time I've tried to make a head in Blender 3D. I made one in 3Ds Max once, but it was poor. I just started so, all I have so far in the ear. Tell me what you think.

[CurtObi4]

Started working on the back of the head. I'm thinking of doing half of the head and then mirroring it across. Tell me if this is a good or bad idea. I've never really done a detailed head before. This is in 3D Blender.

[CurtObi4]

What I need is a diagram of different views of a head so I can line mine up and get the proportions right. If anyone knows of any good sites, let me know.

[CurtObi4]

Finished back and top of head, tell me if anything seems out of proportion.

[inkman002]

try 3d.sk. they have lots a stuff.

[Tank[NL]]

looks good.
nice detail, good shapes and stuff.

thumbs up.

[enjoiskating543]

its so well done for blender, evil program i tell you.

go to where inkman said, also i would suggest (although its a great start and beautiful ear) starting from the beginning, normally you start around the eyes and make youre way down and around the face then to the full head then ears, im sure you can find some tutorials, that way you'll have pefrect ..um .flow?

just a suggestion

[CurtObi4]

Thank, 3d.sk had alittle more than I wanted, but I found what I was looking for, this should help. Thanks.

[hpslashluvr]

well, it's a way of modeling, doing little parts here and there and then "sewing" them all together

i think the ear needs a lobe? whatever that dangly thing is called on the bottom of your ear...i know some ppl don't got it but *shrugs*

[CurtObi4]

I'm one of those people that don't have an ear lobe. Here is my ref pic.

[hpslashluvr]

hehe well then...FREAK :p jk lol

i think the ear needs more err thickness/depth whatever it's called near the top where the top curves in...(i hope you know what i'm talking about)...it looks too flat IMO

[CurtObi4]

Yeah, I see it. I might fix that. I'm gonna see if I can get arround to the eye and nose first.

[CurtObi4]

Alright, I started on the eye, but it wasn't turning out to good, so I started over. This is what I have now, it still needs work.

[CurtObi4]

I hitched it all together. Still needs work,. It looks good from the front fiew and the side view, but the top view still needs some tweeking.

[CurtObi4]

If anyone happenes to know how to do symmetry in blender, that would be helpful. I keep finding things I need after I found a crappy way arround it. I'm so not usto this program. I'm getting better though.

[CurtObi4]

alright, so I got most the geometry done, let me what I did wrong.

[CurtObi4]

And here is the front view.

[hpslashluvr]

it looks like his head might need to come back some more, and his brow forward a bit

that's why you need to always post profile and dead-on front views :D

[CurtObi4]

From last render, fixed: nostrils, eye highlights, changed render engine and lighting, eyes less wide, brow alittle more forward. Straight-on veiw.

[CurtObi4]

Side view

[hpslashluvr]

ok, like looking from the side view, pretend the eye makes a sideways "v" shape like <

bring the point of the < back some

[Tank[NL]]

looking good. just one crit. the mouth seems to be <> , more or less.
a mouth should be (). if it already is, then its just the angle of something.

[Bracer]

The Way You Model.......Is Interesting To Say The Least !

[CurtObi4]

Thanks for the comments, I'll see what I can do to that eye. Tank, I'm not really sure what you are talking about. Maybe it's all the parentheses and greater than signs... Maybe if you say it differently I'll understand what you are saying. I'm not saying I think you're wrong, I just don't know what you are saying. :)
Anyway, thanks for the comments. After I finished cleaning this up, all start looking at making some hair, and textures. If anyone knows some good hair tutorials, that would be really helpful.
Thanks guys.

[Balagesz]

Nice work.
Can you attach an wire image about the nose and the mouth?

[CurtObi4]

sure thing.

[CurtObi4]

I need some help. I know not many people know blender, but maybe you have had this happen to you before, the texture won't go on all the surface. If anyone has advise on how to fix this let me know.

[Balagesz]

I think you musnt textured it yet.
First you need to corect many poligons.
The nose is too sharp, and you need to made the mouth hole(i think).
The holes of the nose are too big.
the mouth corner is wrong a little.
But you are on the right way.
Keep it up.;)

[CurtObi4]

I fixed worked on the nose and the mouth. The mouth is now open, though only slightly. I also fixed the ears. I think the texture problem might be because I made the face seperatly from the rest of the head, so mabe the surfaces have different names or something. Anyway, thanks for the critique. If you see anything else let me know.

[CurtObi4]

side view

[CurtObi4]

One more angle

[hpslashluvr]

IMO the corner of the eye still needs to be pushed back a little, the nose seems too flat to me, and the chin shouldn't be so jay-lenoish - the curve should start higher, i think

of course, i believe you were using refs, but it's just a thought

[CurtObi4]

How does this look?

[hpslashluvr]

definitely better, are you gonna make a body?

[CurtObi4]

I want to make a body. I've been thinking about the hair though. After looking at a bunch of tutorials of people that thought they knew how to make hair, I started thinking about making a hat, haha. <Br>This is a picture of the second character I made in Max. I want to make this new one a lot better than that, so I wanna make good hair. I'm also gonna go about making the body completely different.

[CurtObi4]

Don't critique this ^^ just showing past work and what I want to do differently wit this current one.

[NWH1983]

It looks really good CurtObi4. I think you should finish your minor tweaks, and start texturing. In many ways, texturing is even more time consuming than modeling.

Keep up the good work.:D

[CurtObi4]

K, here is all the angles. Tell me is you see anything. I think I'm seeing something with the nose bridge and behind the ear. Input welcome.

[NWH1983]

I'm not going to nitpick your work. It looks good. Your edge loops are clean, so the smooth looks good.

Of course you're never going to think its perfect: Its your baby. It will never seem finished to you.

I think you should bite the bullet and start working on textures.
Paint him is what I suggest.:)

[CurtObi4]

Well, I have been playing arround with the UV mapping in Blender. It's not very easy, haha. Might be alittle while before I get it textured. I also feel the need to make the eye brows with real geometry. Then after texture and eye brows, maybe some hair and I'll start working on a shirt. Don't know if I will do more than the upper body.

[NWH1983]

I have no idea what blender is capable of, having never heard of it until this post. In max I usually take several uvw projection maps (cylindrical, spherical, planar, ect.) of key areas, before I actually edit individual uv points. Its basically like drawing, first you rough, then you clean it up and detail.

And always make your bitmaps twice the resolution of your render if you want them to look good close up.

Hope this helps. There are a lot of really good tutorial on texturing out there, and though I haven't seen one for blender specifically, I've use non max tutorials to help me out before.


Check this sight out, the guy is an awesome texture artist, and he has really good tutorials. He uses Lightwave but he tries to keep his tuts as non specific as possible. They are great for an overview of texturing.

http://leigh.cgcommunity.com/tutorials.htm

[hpslashluvr]

leigh is a girl btw :)

(she's loved by the entire cgtalk guy community ;) )

there's also a lightwave hair tut somewhere...just google it, it's pretty good

[CurtObi4]

Who's leigh? yeah, I'm gonna be looking at some tutorials soon here. Thanks for all the comments. :)

[CurtObi4]

I made eyebrows!! haha, they look like black caterpillar... This is done with geometry. Made each hair. I'm not sure what to do. I don't want the eye brows to look flat. I was thinking about an opacity map on a texture to lower the polys. I could always just have it be a texture, but I don't think it would look very good. Since these aren't female eye brows I can't just say he shaved them off and painted some on. That would be... odd. Tell me your ideas. :)

[NWH1983]

Compliments of me.

[CurtObi4]

Hey, thanks. That will help a lot. :)

[CurtObi4]

Alright, I havn't been able to work on it a whole lot, but here is what I got.

[NWH1983]

Nice work on the eyebrows. I can tell it will be a bit tedious, But the end results should be worth it. Keep it up.

[CurtObi4]

Alright I finished the eye brows, tell me if you think they look good or need more tweeking....

[NWH1983]

They look good. I just notice you have one eye set higher than the other. Great attention to anatomy man. The eybrow look funny right now, but if you make eyelashes they should balance out. I'd suggest using the same method as the eyebrows.

Whew, the eyes do look really good.

1 thing: I can tell you used a straight photo for the texture. Don't do that. Use the photo as a reference and paint on it in photoshop. First step would be to desaturate and use it as a bump and spec map. But it still won't look good, you need to add collor, darken, lighten, and play with it some.

I'm glad to see an update man. Keep it up.

:)

[CurtObi4]

NWH1983 Thanks for the advise. I'll be working on it.
So, I added a hat, Tell me if it looks good.

[NWH1983]

The hat is too shiny, plus the bump needs to be adjusted, as there is too much contrast. Also it covers your ears. The ears look really good. Maybe a different hat?
Up to you though.

[CurtObi4]

Yeah, I was debating that. Not sure what other hat would look good.... Thanks for the comments.

[CurtObi4]

K, added eyelashes, and worked on skin texture. Though the program crashed so I might have to do this over.

Edit: I found Blender's back up folder, so everything is ok. :dance:

[hpslashluvr]

his eyebrows seem a little upside down u shaped. maybe make them a bit more asymmetrical...and get some better lighting perhaps ;)

[CurtObi4]

hpslashluvr, I don't really know what you mean by better lighting. Is it too dark or maybe I should I add different tones. My monitor is very bright compared to other people's sometimes, if it's too dark definitely let me know.. Thanks for the comments. I see what you mean by the eyebrows. Thanks. :)

[ggutshal]

Perhaps it is the reference, or maybe just me, but it seems as though the cheeks are recessed between the eyes and the mouth. The cheeks need more contour. If you run your finger from the corner of your eye down to the mouth, you'll feel a bulge. That bulge radiates out from the nose and forms the cheeks following the cheek bone of the underlying skull. It seems this contour is missing. I have seen some few folks with extremely recessed cheeks though so as I mentioned before, perhaps it is the reference you are using, in which case the lack of cheek structure may be correct.

[CurtObi4]

Alright, I finally got time to work on it. He now has a hat that does not cover the ears. :) T'is a fedora. Still gotta make his hair.

If anyone thinks this render is too dark let me know. My monitor is very bright compared to other people's sometimes. So it will look fine to me, but be too dark for someone else. If this is the case, tell me, and I will render a brighter version.

[Rion411]

Looking real nice, I kinda like the beanie better but the new hat is cool too. Good job!

[CurtObi4]

Thanks Rion411. Encouragment is always welcome. :D

Added a colored light in to bring out the detail a little more in the hat. Fixed smoothing on bow.

[NWH1983]

Very nice. Kinda Gangsta feeling now. Paint some hair on the back of the skull. Or put stubble if the head is shaved.

[CurtObi4]

Yeah, I'm definitely going to put hair on him. But now because of the hat, I don't have to do as much hair . :) I'm gonna try the plane with opacity mapped texture on it method. Thanks for the comments.

[hpslashluvr]

i think there should be a little bit more scruffiness b/w his goatee-ish thingy and his sideburny things...just to be even ;P

[CyberEye]

Hello!

I work with blender too! And I must say, that it is able to model very good with it!
If you know to use the shortcuts, blender is very strong and you get fast results!

Also I think, that texturing with blender is easier, than in other programs, which I know.
The only bad thing is the renderer. But I hope, that K-3D would be better, because it use Renderman-renderer as default. And this very good!

If you have any questions about Blender, feel free to ask me! :)

To your model:
It looks very good, I think!
Especialy the ears! Very good!

Keep it up!

[CurtObi4]

CyberEye Thanks! Yeah, the rendering engine isn't too good, but if you run it through Yafray rendering engine it looks really nice. But I tend not to use it becuase it's hard to set up. You have to change the lighting and then do special things to get clear materials to be clear.
I do actualy have some questions.. If you know how to rig a character for animating in blender, I havn't figured that out yet.
I was also wondering if blender has a feature where you can take lets say a circle and a path. Then set the circle to form a tube in following the path.
If you know how to do these things, it would be more than helpful. Thank you. :)

[CyberEye]

Hello!

I know, what do you mean. Rigging was also my problem, but I found a very good documentation about all things which have to do with blender:
http://www.blender.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=documentation&file=index

This will help you!
With this, I rigged and animated successful a human-like hand. But I can't show you some pics of that, because the *.blend-File lies on the Server in my school. Maybe I can post some pics next week, if you want.

Rigging is a little bit confusing but if you got it, the bone-system will be stable.

[CurtObi4]

CyberEye: Thanks. I found the tutorial very helpful. :) I actually have one more quick question. That is how to rotate textures. If I know that I'll be golden. :)

[CyberEye]

Hello CurtObi4!

I like to help you with Blender!

Rotating textures is easy as easy. ;)

You can't rotate the whole texture. You can only affect the texture coordinates.
Be sure, that you has at least two views opened.
Use one view for your model-view and the other one for your "texture"-view.
The "texture"-view is named as "UV/Image Editor".

In your object-view, change to "UV Face select"-mode. Be sure, that you selected at least one face. If not, you can't see your geometry in the "texture"-view.

And now go to the "texture"-view. You can affect the wire with the same shortcuts as in the general model-view.
Use [b] to make a rectangle border or use [b] two times to get the live selection. You can also select "vertex-by-vertex".

Use [g] to move the selected parts. If you are in this mode, you can also press [x] or [y] to move the parts only at the whole named axis.

Use [r] to rotate the selected parts. To get exact angles, hold down [STRG] while you rotate.

To zoom in and out, use the numeric keys [+] and [-] or the mouse-wheel easily. It's not a stepless zoom.

To get a live preview of your textured model, change only the model-view-style to "textured".

This is the only knowledge you need to handle the texture-tool easily.
I must say, that texturing this way is much easier than in several commercial programs, which I know. (My opinion)

I hope, this overview will help you with your texture-problem!

friendly greetings

CyberEye

[CurtObi4]

Thank, I got it working. I also had to change the Map Input to UV instead of Oroco. Thanks. :)

[elveatles]

This certain part of the ear keeps bothering me. Here's a picture. Red is the problem. Green, the solution. The ear needs to be more continuous on that part.

[CurtObi4]

Yeah, I see what you mean. Thanks.
So does anyone have a good Idea for the hair? I was thinking of using dupliverts... Though I would have to have alot of vertexes to get it to look full, so maybe I'll make my dupliverted object a curved plane with a hair texture...

[CurtObi4]

Alright, fixed the ear. I also just realized that I didn't have the smooth on the face (not mesh smooth, just smooth). So now it looks alot.... smoother.. Started working on the hair....

[enjoiskating543]

i still say increase the image maps size, repaint it, and reapply it...but you already know that, right

[CurtObi4]

Yeah, havn't gotten arround to making the face texture high res yet...

Here is the awesomeness of dupliverts... As you can see, it might possibly need some tweeking....

[CurtObi4]

Hair is soo annoying... It almost looks good. I have to do the other side too.... Does anyone have any crazy setting that make hair look more like hair? I tried using the texture as a bump map. tried to get it to reflect without making it look gray. Not to much success.. This is what I have right now.

[elveatles]

Don't know much about making hair. The sideburns look strange. Sort of like if you stuck hair on tape and put it there.

[CurtObi4]

K, I made the side burns a little better. I'm gonna hate doing the same thing to the other side. Repetition....

ah elveatles, you beat me... Oh well. Here it is. Tell me if this looks better. :)

[CurtObi4]

Alright, I think it finnaly starting to look like hair...

[elveatles]

The hair looks much better!

[Gui Mendes]

Nice hair!
I'm watching your topic..
cya!

[NWH1983]

I admire that you've decided to do hair, even though you don't have a hair shader. I've yet to make a personal attempt. The hair looks quite good for what it is however. I'll be making an attempt at faking hair on my next project. Good going Curt. How about an update?