Lethn Orlenath - I think I've finally started getting this one right.

[Lethn]

Hiya there folks I haven't really posted anything with real progress in awhile, character modelling has been a real headache lately but it's always been something I've wanted to do, I decided to follow up on some advice and check out the Joan of arc tutorial and it's very good, so far I've been gradually sculpting out and molding the face though I've hit a bit of a wall here with the nose, I'm wondering how exactly I should do it.


http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/Treius123455/LethnOrlenathRender1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/Treius123455/LethnOrlenathRender3.jpg

Mesh smooth

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/Treius123455/LethnOrlenathRender2.jpg

friendly crits and comments would be greatly appreciated!

[deadfish]

Firstly, make sure you have a reference that you are working from. If that is supposed to be a realistic face, then you have got the proportions all wrong.

If its not meant to be realistic then i guess its an okay start.

[inveni0]

The point of the Joan of Arc tutorial is to 'trace' her outline. Your screen grabs don't show that you're doing that. So, your face so far is pretty sad.

[parleee]

I'd recommend you take a look at turboracer's 'part time male' thread going on now. There's some nice wire renders, showing what a face mesh should look like. Your's is very gridlike, and is completely flat. Keep proportions and shaping in mind while you work.

Good luck.

[Lethn]

Thanks for your comments :) I'm not aiming for a realistic character here I'm using the techniques that Joan of Arc have taught but used a different reference, the character I've used is Vincent Valentine which is why it clearly looks so different from the Joan of Arc tutorial reference, I'm looking at creating a more anime/final fantasy character-ish style since I've always admired the style they do, I'll definitely keep your comments in mind though, I do need to work more on getting it looking 3D now I think, but this is far better than what I had before with the CV curves and the absolute mess that was in, at least this one is fixable :p

[inveni0]

You have to work on 'getting it looking 3D' from the very beginning. Modeling something in 2D and then trying to 'pop' it into 3 dimensions is incredibly inefficient.

[Lethn]

Right now that I tried giving it a mirror to see how it would look fully I've properly realized what you guys were saying, I'll keep at it, looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me :p might bring in an update soon after I tidy things up better, I found I was making all the features far too exaggerated as well as not being right :D.

[Lethn]

[Update]

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/Treius123455/LethnOrlenathRender5.jpg

Tried fixing up the shape some more, I'm a bit nervy about doing it 3D from the beginning for some reason, I think I'm going to look at more 3D characters to get an idea of the details I want.

[poopipe]

if you prefer to start in 2d you need to look at this tutorial

http://www.bakaneko.com/howto/computer/3d/head/index.html

[Steve T]

It's much easier if you line up a picture behind your mesh in your viewport, then you simply make sure the eyes, lips, etc, line up over the image. This really helps to get your facial proportions right, which are looking way off at the moment.

[PKT]

This polyflow might work, but I would suggest you using all the views in the viewport. And start to model in 3d. It's very hard to get a good form by basing yourself first with a 2d plane and tweaking, atleast thats my experience.
Good luck!

[Lethn]

Not to worry guys, I'll push myself into doing it 3D, character modelling is just something I need to work on a lot but it's also something I've been wanting to do for a long time, will see about getting an update in eventually.

[Lethn]

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/Treius123455/LethnOrlenathRender6.jpg

Here's a small update, started trying to make it look a bit more 3D now, see what you mean about the proportions.

[Honki]

Vincent Valentine must be the most freakishly ugly dude in existence.
People could help you a bit more if you posted your reference pics, and followed their advice just a little bit.

My advice would be to practice on a full walkthrough type tutorial (eg: Joan of Arc) before embarking on something completely unique. Although the head may have a different appearance, the methods of modelling it are universal.

[Lethn]

hehe yeah, not only that the only front view of vincent valentine I could find had ****** awful resolution so I got rid of it :S it's taking some editing, but I think I've gotten the idea now, I'll need to work on the lips and eyes more though I think.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/Treius123455/LethnOrlenathRender7.jpg

[Steve T]

You've actually somehow made the proportions worse than they were before, are you following anyone's advice, or the tutorials, or is there something else you're having problems with?

Building a human face is one of the most difficult things you can do in 3d, you have to have proper reference images to help you. Find a front view of the characters face, or any suitable face (there are many free artists resources out there) and map it onto a plane in your viewport, you can then adjust your geometry to fit the features in the image. This would easily fix your proportions - and it's much easier than eyeballing everything. If you're not using proper reference you're making life incredibly difficult for yourself and you will never reach your goal.

[Lethn]

Grr sod it, I'll start over, I think the mistake I made was starting off with a crappy reference image -_- I'll see if I can't get the mesh of a basic human and work from that, but I really despise doing tutorials since it feels like your just copying someone elses work and doesn't feel like your own lol Joan of arcs a great tutorial though.

At least I can go somewhere with this though compared to before.... I'll use the Joan of Arc for reference and start again from there, thanks for your advice guys, I'll see about getting an update in again soon, hopefully this time it'll be better, lousy reference images >_>

[Lethn]

[Update]

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/Treius123455/Render1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/Treius123455/Render2.jpg

I'm sorry about this guys :S life's been frustrating lately, I'm using the Joan of Arc as reference but it does make me wonder how I can make a unique character from this.

[Steve T]

Don't you have an image of a complete face? a partial image is more difficult to work from. Keep going as you are - it's looking better, try and make your lines match the 'flow' of the face as much as possible and make it look like a face in 2d. There's nothing wrong with starting something in 2d and nudging it out into 3d later, it's how i tend to start with complex shapes.

[Lethn]

Ahhh, right, well figured I could just mirror it and then tidy it up after, one thing I'd like to ask though is how do you set the model up properly so that you can use the side image plane? when I go into the side view it just basically looks like one line because it's purely 2D but I'll figure it out -_-

[Steve T]

copy the plane that has your front image it, rotate it 90 degrees so its visble in the side view, then map your side image onto that, taking care that they line up properly, so the eyes, nose, chin forehead and lips line up on both images. If you're relying on handrawn cartoon images then you'll probably have an extra hard time doing that and you'll be having to interpret more than copy, which is again making life hard for yourself.

Attached is how i set up my viewport/scene for character modelling.

[MonteCristo]

I'm gonna be harsh but I'm gonna be fair. You are doing this in a really bad way, and apparently you are struggling. Everyone starts like this, but you will stay in this position until you bite the bullet and do some tutorials... You don't have to feel like it's copying. You can experiment and push boundaries and strive for originality later. I know what you mean when you feel like copying is bad; THE EXACT SAME belief held me back for ages. But the good stuff can only be built if the foundation is good. Even Da Vinci had to learn from someone.

Check out Joan of arc in the Tutorials section of 3dtotal.com. Alternatively check out the Eva Wild series or something similar, but whatever you do follow some tutorials. It's the quickest way to kick-start your 3d learning. You'll be thanking yourself that you did it later. All it requires is a bit of patience and you'll be having fun in no time.

[Bigley]

Hey man!

Monte hit that dead on...
I get alot of kids in school asking me how to get better and I always tell them there are tons of tutorials online.

And I still swear by tutorials for starting out. They are truely great resources.

[Lethn]

[Update]

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/Treius123455/CharacterRender1.jpg

Here we are... Started getting it to look 3D, I'm following the Joan of Arc tutorial now I think I may as well abandon my character idea for now and start a new thread or something so it isn't all cluttered up, but yeah, I've been self-teaching for awhile now with little to no help and the Games Design course I'm doing at college is sodding useless with 3D or... Anything actually so I've decided to look up texturing tutorials and such too.