Face Modelling

[adamjames]

OK, I'm trying to get to grips with the patch modelling. Once I start laying down the CP's, it's like a juggling act to get four-point patches without destroying the ones already there.

 

Could someone pleeze tell me if I am going about this the right way, or if I need to scrub this and start again.

 

When I see other people's works (just seen Ken H's start of a face model), they seem so neat compared to mine.

 

Thanks for taking a look...

 

Adam

[adamjames]

This is the side view...

[adamjames]

And this is the perspective. It's those sharp bumps I don't want...

[Ross Smith]

Heya, Adam. I've learned a lot about splining in the past year. There are more qualified artists to teach, but I'll throw my hard-earned lessons in while no one's posted yet. Hope I'm not just sputtering here.

 

You know how the patches work, right? Ideally, a control point is an "intersection" of two (roughly perpendicular) splines. The four CPs (and the connecting splines) that enclose a patch define the curvature of that patch. With that in mind, you can try to find ways to fix a lot of those creases -- try to make every control point a crossing of two splines that flow into each other, not simply attach to that point in space.

Also, particularly when modeling heads, consider the different possible approaches to modeling. Some people draw the profile with a spline and extrude to one side, using those extruded patches to form the face, then copy/flip/attach to complete it. Others, like your approach, outline the eye opening and extrude out from there. These tactics work well together, and they often create models with splines that flow well. This way, you use hooks minimally. I suggest you remove that hook beneath the eye and complete the concentric ring.

Some helpful hotkeys, in case you don't know them yet: Hold down different numbers (the ones above the keyboard, not the 10-key pad) while moving a CP with the mouse to constrain the motion of the CP. 1 = X axis, 2 = Y axis, 3 = Z axis, 4 = along selected spline, 6 = along the normal. (The normal is the direction perpendicular to the two splines that define the CP.)

Last, there are plenty of good tutorials on building heads on the ARM ( http://www.lowrestv.com/arm ).

Best of luck!

[KenH]

The most obvious thing is you need more vertical splines to form the nose....While modeling, I found that even though you attach a cp to another, it's spline doesn't necessary join up with the spline on the opposite side. You can check this by moving the bias handle of the spline(select the end of the spline) and see if the other spline moves too(then undo this move).

To get a nice smooth eye, I lathed the profile of the eye. Once this gives you the basic shape, move cps together eg multiselect the top cps of the eye to move them all back etc rather than individually tweak them.

 

The nose and the eye done this way will all have 4 point patches and then it's just a matter of using 2 five point patches to joint them. Good luck!

[AMAR]

if u post the pic the side and the front view I'll lay down the spline to help you understand how to do this....sort of like creating a template.

 

Also what you can do that looks like a poser model, if you do a quick and a screen capture of the side and front with the wireframe that will help you get a better picture of how to lay down the appropriate splines.

 

Using the basic splinage seen in the polygons outlines in the face can help you get the results you want. I wanted to do a tute on this but never got around to it. Collin Freeman has a pretty good tute on it also for modeling faces. Just wished it was available back in 98'.

 

Happy Splining.....

[Sacman]

To continue the thought about the 2 splines entering and leaving the CP the way they are supposed to, I was getting horrible creases and lines until I finally recognized this problem. I still find myself having the problem often but now that I know about it I can fix it. Of course, the real question is why I keep creating them.

 

Anyway. The way I find them is to look for abnormalities in a shaded and shaded wire frame view. If I see anything untoward, I will grab the cp and move it in extreme directions to see the bend in the Spline. It should make nice curves in both directions. If the spline looks peaked in one direction, then they are not connected correctly. With some trial and error I was able to find that you can usually get away with disconnecting the effected spline one side at a time leaving the good spline intact. This also maintains the integrity of the location. Then reconnect the two offending ends to each other and finally reconnect this completed spline to the original good spline.

 

Sometimes the offending spline connections will be very obvious. Like I show in my crappy Microsoft Paint example on the right. These kinds of problems usually require a break and reattachment versus a simple disconnect and can often lead to problems upstream if you do not make the new connection carefully and correctly.

 

If you did not need this info then ignore me.

 

Thanks

 

Wade

[adamjames]

if u post the pic the side and the front view I'll lay down the spline to help you understand how to do this....sort of like creating a template.

Thanks, guys...you're helping me lots.

 

Amar, these are the front and side views.

 

 

Adam

 

 

 

Front...

[adamjames]

and side...

[AMAR]

I just made it in and noticed you posted the pics.....give me an hour and i'll have something for you to check out.........K.....Happy Splining...

[AMAR]

Here yah go...........

The Beginning

 

I'll finish off the nose.

 

Then i"ll post a pic with a .prj zipped file in about 15min or an half hour.

 

 

Happy Splining ......I'm Out for now

[adamjames]

Wow! That's really helpful, Amar...you work fast!

 

I'm downoading all these pics to study and looking foward to the prj file.

 

 

Thanks for your help.

 

 

Adam

[AMAR]

I apologize for not sending this earlier but i got caught up in the Final (NBA) and did a little tweaking........... Now the face splinage is stll kinda low (398 patches) and still needs a little TLC (manipulation of points and the bias) but the key here was to show you the direction to go in to lay down splines. It's been said already but if you use adobe illustrator, Freehand or Core Draw laying down splines takes on a similiar philosophy with the exception it is 3D of course.

 

This model you're creating can be more accurate but the rotos don't quite line up and since I was trying to get this done quickly I didn't spend the key time i needed in line up the photos in photoshop.

 

Making good hand drawn or using good rotoscopes is key in character creation unless you are freestyling it. It's is a science in it own right, as with all the other processes, but even more for accurate recreations of the subject that is chosen (the character your modeling).

 

None the less, here the model and that final pic.

wendy_sample.zip

[AMAR]

And the pic by itself.................

[ypoissant]

Nice quick demonstration Amar.

 

Here are some observations:

 

The Poser renders where taken from a short focal length camera which caused perspective / foreshortening distortion (rather large nose and cheek bones). When using a photo as a rotoscope, try to choose one which was taken with a long focal lens to minimize the distortion. In other word, place the camera as far as possible from the subject and adjust the zoom to properly frame the subject. In the current case, that is the reason why the facial features didn't line up in the two rotoscopes.

 

Of course some more tweaking of the mesh will be required after initial splines layout. When doing this, a 3/4 view is of a great help as it guides the adjusting of the spline CPs depth to fit the 3/4 view.

[AMAR]

one other thing that i wanted to add was that it is key when placing your hooks not to place them on the end (middle as shown in the pic last sent on the center spline i have selected) were your going to mirror something. In this case, I did in this quick illustration but i had to go back and modify those areas because there were no cp's in th hook area for the mirrored splines to connect to.

 

Lastly one key thing when modeling characters we ge caught in is leaving out the frailties seen in the human face that give it character. Like every on the right side of the face don't exactly line up and isn't exactly the same size. The same is true for other attributes like ears, teeth, the body, hands, fingers, feet, toes, nails, hairline, and so on......and so on.

 

I wanted to mentioned that because those are the things that will set your characters apart from being just a good or very good model. Making it a GREAT MODEL, what I did what a good quick start that should after you do it after the 5 or 10 time have you creating very good models of the face. Also helping you to develop a techique that suits you. But for the models to become great takes time and out of the probaly 70 or more attempts i had over the years of create faces I've create very very good models....

 

None I consider greate yet but with fine artist and artist that are animators have to make a choice do you focus on making great CG looking art or CG models that will animate.

 

My approach was to show you how I create a face that will animate and with a little tweaking patience and textures, make a really good looking face.

 

Until next time ...............GOOD LUCK and GODSPEED with your splining.

[adamjames]

Amar,

 

Thank you for your demonstration, it has taught me a lot and I'm sure it will be helpful to many people on the forum. I know I've got a steep learning curve ahead, but you've helped get me started.

 

Yves, thanks for the tip on the camera focal length....very useful to know.

 

Right, I'm off to lay down some splines.

 

 

 

Adam