Help I am just Learning

[qbee]

This is my first attempt at modeling a face and I notice that I keep getting these ugly dents on the face. Any suggestions on how I can fix this?

[KenH]

Where to start? But how are you to know what you're doing wrong as there's no obvious guidelines....so, here's the lowdown....again:

 

First thing to know is to click on a line and you will see at the cp there is a yellow handle. If a spline is continuous, this handle should have a square on both ends. Grabbing the squares and moving them(then press undo after) will indicate which direction the spline goes.

 

1) In one CP there should be only 4 lines coming out. Anything more or less will produce a crease. You can use 5 point patches and hooks to get around this problem. Study the models on the cd to see how to use these.

 

2) The 4 lines should equate to 2 splines. That means you have 2 continuous splines running through every CP. The splines should cross each other like so..... X.....and not like this......)(

 

3) From your model, it looks like the lines on the outside and around the mouth and eyes are made up of many small splines. These should be consolidated into longer continuous splines.

 

4) Reduce the number of splines in the face. In particular coming off the nose...this can be done with hooks.

 

5) Stitching a spline into an exising patch produces a spline that constrains to the patches orientation. So no "roughness" will occur from misplacing a cp.

 

That's enough for now.

 

I should say, this is a better first effort than any I made!

[qbee]

Okay I started over and tried what you said. I gues I need to get use to the program being that when I try to adjust the handles it just goes crazy. How can I get better control over it. Then when I tried to mirror the other have it does it along the z axis.

[Fuchur]

I think you just pushed the extrude-button at the wrong places...

Try to connect the splines by hand where they are too straight and it should work better...

In the end you can make a smooth surface in many ways. Maybe even like what you did here...

 

If you have too many problems with the handlers(shouldnt be there... maybe when you try to animate them but not in the modelling-window) you can control the biases by activating the "Show Manipulator Properties"-option or in the properties itself, but that needs some expierence.

 

*Fuchur*

 

PS: After that you can try the smooth-plugin from s.gross...

[jon]

i'd recommend that you look at a few other face tutes. not to copy, but to see how others have approached the problem.

 

for example: most folks start from the eyes and mouth, and then extrude the loops out.

 

after four years, i'm still trying to smooth out my faces... it's all about practice.

 

-jon

[qbee]

Thank you so much for the help guys I have another question I put the smooth plugin in the hxt folder but it's not showing up..

[qbee]

I tried some more of your suggested tricks. But it's not smooth as I want it. Here is an update. I tried the smooth plugin but it keeps erroring saying I don't have 4 cp's selected when I do.

[KenH]

You should adjust the handles before mirroring. Just use your mouse to move the handles...doesn't go crasy for me. I think you might mean it goes crasy on the other side. This is a problem with the current release and we're all hoping it will be addressed soon. It's to do with the pivot point.

 

You can drag the porcelain material onto your model to make it smooth.

[zacktaich]

show us the new mesh. It still looks really messy. It's pointless to try and fix a messy mesh with plugins and roll handles.

[qbee]

so your saying if you mess up there is no way to recover the model?

[gordonm]

You may want to look into getting Anzovins "Modelling a Face" by Bill Young. It is quite good.

 

Gord MacDonald

[Fuchur]

Maybe you could deliever the model to us, so we could look into it and give you some more tips on doing it better?

 

*Fuchur*

 

PS: I dont think that is it too bad after all... if you get the creases out, it will get a good model (maybe)

[KenH]

so your saying if you mess up there is no way to recover the model?

Not at all. You'll just have to go back and edit the model. To do that, you would copy the half you want to work on. Then delete the model and paste that half back. The main problem area from the pic is the cheek. It just looks like the spline isn't continuous or maybe the cps are peaked?

[qbee]

Here is my model you can look at it.

Angel4.prj

[KenH]

I've marked all the problem areas I could see. Number 1 is a continuity problem. The rest are problems of too many splines going through a cp. You haven't used any 5 point patches at all. You cannot make a face without them.

[qbee]

Now when I go to make a patch the icon isn't lit. Is there certain conditions in using this.

[Godfrey]

You haven't used any 5 point patches at all. You cannot make a face without them.

Sure you can; I've seen faces made before A:M supported 5-pointers.

 

It's just very difficult to do it smoothly without them.

[qbee]

I think I got it as smooth as I can get it.

[JTalbotski]

Your model is looking better and better. A couple things to try to make it even more smoother are to make the patches as square as possible and as equal in size as the patches next to them. You also might try using hooks in the many rows of splines going up the middle of the forehead. That will eliminate the waviness caused by the splines being so close together.

 

Keep going, it's really coming along nicely.

 

Jim

[KenH]

Wow! That's fast learning! If you post the wire, we could try to sort out the eye area.

[qbee]

Here is the wire. Hooks? How do you make a hook?

[KenH]

Here's a great head tutorial:

 

http://www.colins-loft.net/CoopFace.html

 

 

And the general resource:

 

http://www.lowrestv.com/arm/search3.asp?bo...ateAdded%20desc

 

See page 128 of your manual for an explanation of a hook.

[qbee]

I fixed her up some more. Need to still work on the neack, eye area and forehead a bit more.

[Fuchur]

The hook is made by making a spline, than dont leftclick on the next spline you like to devide but right+left-click at it...

 

*Fuchur*

[lazz]

Holy cow. You've come a long way. That's great progress! You're a quick learner. Keep up the pace!

[qbee]

Thanks guys.