First head model

[Inyri]

I found it a lot easier to start with a drawing that had my edge loops drawn out already, then I used a plane and blocked it all out. I think most folks do edge modeling for heads though, to be honest. That's what I did for the second half of mine.

[ChalklYne]

another head

 

 

 

 

 

areas im having trouble with. seems like my polys are splittin? i been tweaking em a little bit, tried adjusting the geometry approximation ( which is like xsi smoothing groups) and it just seems like maybe id have to add in an edge loops. id hate to tho so im just tampering with it off and on for now...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[minilogoguy18]

You don't mess with geometry approximation, that changes all normals on the mesh based on like a slider/value, use mark hard edge/vertex to make creases. You honestly really shouldn't need that though anyway for something like this, just need to grab edges and move them around to get the shape right.

 

I model doing the plane method and extruding edges, takes some time but I seem to get a better end result.

 

Not sure if you're using the mirrored clone mothod to build the opposite side or if you're just using symmetrize polygons but you should delete half, edit>duplicate/instintiate>clone single and type in -1 for X scaling to mirror and freeze scaling. Then with the clone hit '+' 2 or so times to make it into a lvl 2 surface mesh and edit the low poly by pulling edges and vertex's out while looking at the high poly clone to see the result to get a more realistic face.

[ChalklYne]

yeah i just realized that little trick the other day watchin tuts...not sure why i didnt use that method. this one started out as a little plane in the crease of his eye. took me maybe 45 minutes im fixing up his shader problems just by moving some verts around to match inyris help earlier she colored in red. helped eliminate the shading problems. heres what he looks like now...

 

 

 

 

 

 

ear is wayy off but im gunna get to that. ill prolly do a couple more heads as practice, then maybe try a starkiller or boba fett from 1313 ( i think its boba)

 

 

on another note, even if i freeze all transforms on my mesh before i start enveloping and weight painting, it still looks all screwy in modview. 3 different models now so i know its something im skipping. i hit the freezeM and the freeze all transforms on the mesh before i start rigging, and dont move the mesh at all after freezing it, still same weird looking error. tried with 2 different skeles so not that either. reset transforms maybe?

 

 

i had no idea about the mark hard edge thing man i was loookin for something like that to unsmooth some shading on hard surfaces for proxy. badass mini thx man

[ChalklYne]

second head attempt finished

 

 

 

 

 

[minilogoguy18]

It has no cheek bones and the ears are super jacked up.

[eezstreet]

It's definitely closer though. I didn't even notice the ears were messed up until mini said something, but the cheeks do need some work. I'm no pro at modelling (all I ever modelled was a crappy gun made out of cylinders in Max lol), but I think that you shouldn't need to redo this one though like the last one.

[CrimsonStrife]

You may have already shown this and I missed it as I have only partially been following this thread, but what are you using as a reference? that can also impact the outcome of the product.

[ChalklYne]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CrimsonStrife]

The edgeflow on that isn't bad...but something just seems off about it...I know who it is supposed to be...but it just seems off.

[ChalklYne]

yeah i keep thinking the same thing. hell i dunno. ill tamper with it. might make another one cuz i got like 4 triangles in this one and i didnt want any. i think this ones too wide

[Astral Serpent]

That head looks like it has a Russian or Scandinavian facial structure, not sure of how this is relevant. lolol

[ChalklYne]

ref pic

 

 

 

 

 

[Malkav]

The face seems to be too broad.

[The One and Only]

The neck shape is still wrong. As it stands if you attached that to a body the head would be leaning back from the shoulders, where as for a relaxed stance it should be slightly forward of the shoulders.

[MUG]

Not that hard to see where the problems lie.

 

Seems to me mostly, that the entire face I tilted in such a way that the face ends up further forward at the chin, and is shorter than it should be as a result.

[minilogoguy18]

Why not just use actual pictures of Sam Witwer?

[CrimsonStrife]

Why not just use actual pictures of Sam Witwer?

Thats the way I would advise doing it too.

[ChalklYne]

yeah maybe on my next run at him., trying to fix that same damn xforms problem ive been having. i got 4 models waiting to be rigged but that damn transform problem man

[minilogoguy18]

I don't see how you can have so many problems, its so simple, you need to freeze the transforms BEFORE setting up the heirarchy and BEFORE weighing the model. Freeze the model THEN start setting up the heirarchy and weighing, can't count how many times I've said it, you're getting hung up on a step in the process that nobody normally has any problem with.

[ChalklYne]

freeze BEFORE the heirarchy huh? hmmmmm... thought it was before weighing but heriarchy didnt matter cuz i wasnt actually moving anything.. before heiraarchy huh? hell u say. sux it was that easy

[ChalklYne]

so nah that wasnt it either. but i figured it out i think... the peices that flip in modview i notice have 180 value in the y axis of rotation, i got that from the duplicate symmetry i did on the peices after i segmented em. well, if i hit freeze transforms it removes the 180 value there. but after rigging him again it still just rotates 180 degrees back to the other side. its the rope a dope lol. i dunno im zeroing in on what im doing wrong cuz it does it for multiple models. and freeze transforms didnt fix it.

[minilogoguy18]

You're still over thinking and not reading what I'm posting, any time you edit geometry including it's center (which is done by freezing transforms) you must freeze the models construction history otherwise if you look at the operator stack in the explorer the things that show up under modeling will be undone on export.

 

1 position to skeleton

2 freeze all transforms

3 freeze model

5 heirarchy

6 envelope weights

 

I think the problem is you're attempting this with next to no general knowledge of softimage other than whats needed to build a polygon mesh which is like 1/10000000000 of the programs functionality.

[ChalklYne]

right on.

thx 4 the assistance guys.

 

so i found out how to bake the bump maps into the textures, so ill have a lot cooler textures soon. heres a pic of me just tampering with creating some bumps for him to bake shadows from onto the diffuse texture. and just and updated pic or two showing i fixed his chin. lookin pretty close now with this one.

 

 

 

 

no where near final just showing some learning progress behind creating his pores and such

[ChalklYne]

yeah u hit it right on the head man. ill stick to non humanoid models til i can get a hang of it