Need guidance on Modeling a head/face

[wildcard]

I’m looking for guidance, some step by step guide or tutorial, movie some other form of instructions on how to model a head/face.

 

Currently I’m struggling with the creation of a head for my model. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve started over from scratch again.

 

The body of my female model has been created through the use of a front, side and rear view picture of the basic shape. Through the use of the lathe tool, extruding tool, scaling and lots of tweaking. Took sometime getting the body modeled right and I've started from scratch plenty of times that really aided and improved my ability to model. However, I have tried repeating the same way I created the body, with the head, but it’s not working for me.

 

 

Been digging around the forums to find some guidance, but didn’t find a whole lot that aided me on how to create a head from scratch.

 

Eventually I ended up with taking a wireframe & shaded head from my Hash Library CD to aid with modeling. Merged and shaped it to fit in a picture with in Gimp and then use that as a rotoscope.

 

Somewhere it feels like cheating and I’m now simply connecting the dots, but as simple as it may sound I still find it difficult to form and shape the face.

 

Any one able to add some guidance on how to model a head/face?

[mouseman]

I'm looking for guidance, some step by step guide or tutorial, movie some other form of instructions on how to model a head/face.

Have you tried exercise 11.5 "Make A Face" in The Art of Animation:Master? There are multiple approaches to making a face and this is just one, but it will be useful.

 

Eventually I ended up with taking a wireframe & shaded head from my Hash Library CD to aid with modeling. Merged and shaped it to fit in a picture with in Gimp and then use that as a rotoscope.

 

Somewhere it feels like cheating and I'm now simply connecting the dots, but as simple as it may sound I still find it difficult to form and shape the face.

Once you get something that works, it makes sense to re-use it. Some people re-use existing models and modify them to get what they want. Others will re-use complicated parts such as ears.

[itsjustme]

In addition to the tutorial Chris recommended, you might check out Will Sutton's modeling tutorial videos here.

 

Hope that helps.

[wildcard]

I'm looking for guidance, some step by step guide or tutorial, movie some other form of instructions on how to model a head/face.

Have you tried exercise 11.5 "Make A Face" in The Art of Animation:Master? There are multiple approaches to making a face and this is just one, but it will be useful.

 

I've tried using the build order before, but I don't know what, but at the time I used it, it' simply didn't feel right nor did what I was creating look good enough. Out of frustration I've been looking for an other route or more guidance on how to use it.

 

 

Eventually I ended up with taking a wireframe & shaded head from my Hash Library CD to aid with modeling. Merged and shaped it to fit in a picture with in Gimp and then use that as a rotoscope.

 

Somewhere it feels like cheating and I'm now simply connecting the dots, but as simple as it may sound I still find it difficult to form and shape the face.

Once you get something that works, it makes sense to re-use it. Some people re-use existing models and modify them to get what they want. Others will re-use complicated parts such as ears.

 

Even though I managed to make a face, it didn't feel right with me, felt to much like cheating and not actually modeling myself, but it did work

 

In addition to the tutorial Chris recommended, you might check out Will Sutton's modeling tutorial videos here.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks those video's really really helped out a lot!

Seeing the method from chapter 11.5 actually being used in action really changed my perspective on how to model.

Static pictures and steps didn't get the idea across correctly

The quick introduction and the talk about the hot key's 1 through 6 gave me a good idea when the can be of good use to me.

I knew they where there, but never really had seen a situation when I could use them. The frequent use of the extrude tool gave me a much better picture there are many more situation it can be used in than I believed possible.

 

Still need to make another attempt at modeling a face, but I'm pretty confident I'll be able to create something I'll be pleased with.

[Darkwing]

My recommendation too is that no matter how sucky it looks, complete the model. For some reason, I find faces are one of those ones with a clearly visible learning curve that once you complete a face, have it critiqued, then go and model another, you will notice a drastic improvement from the first. Depending on how detailed you want to go too, you may want to skip nostrils. They really can gum up the works sometimes if you're new to modeling faces

[largento]

It ain't free (it costs $5), but Barry Zundel's video tutorial on modeling the head is a great resource.

 

It's the way I model everything. Look at this post to see my first attempt at modeling a head and my second (after watching Barry's tutorials).

 

I highly recommend ALL of Barry's tutorials. Really helped me get a handle on A:M in those early days.

[Darkwing]

OH Stalled Trek, I was so looking forward to that

[wildcard]

It ain't free (it costs $5), but Barry Zundel's video tutorial on modeling the head is a great resource.

 

It's the way I model everything. Look at this post to see my first attempt at modeling a head and my second (after watching Barry's tutorials).

 

I highly recommend ALL of Barry's tutorials. Really helped me get a handle on A:M in those early days.

 

Seeing how the video tutorial from Will Sutton really helped me visualize things better for me and got me going, I'm gonna follow up your advice and get myself some of those training videos and if there as good as you say they are, I'll get the others as well.

[Roger]

I would do the Cooper tutorial in The Art of AM. Lathing/extruding doesn't really work for a face, you need to build it patch by patch. The face will be made up of circular splines radiating out from the lips - kinda hard to explain, but the Cooper tutorial is pretty good. Or you could just use that as a rough guide and choose your own rotoscopes to model from. Get a friend and take a front and side view of their head.

[NancyGormezano]

My absolute favorite tutorial on modeling ANY character, destined for animation was presented here by Malo. He demonstrates a generalized modeling method specifically aimed at A:M that utilizes lathing, and minimal, efficient spline layouts suited for body rigging, as well as facial animation.