Introduction:

This 3 part video tutorial by ten24’s James Busby will show the process of preparing and using photographic reference to create realistic human characters. Part 1 will show the steps taken in Photoshop with parts 2 and 3 focusing on the methods used in Lightwave. Also available for download with this tutorial is the base mesh used.

Chapter 1: Photoshop

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Duration: 09 minutes 12 seconds

Click Here to Download the Character Head Base Mesh | Size: 64kb

WARNING! This Making of Contains Nudity.

Software Used :

ZBrush

The original idea for this image came out of the references I’d collected. Whenever I start a new artwork, I do a lot of research and then I start the modeling (Fig.01).

Fig.01

With these references, I blocked the model with a simple base and I did some primary tests with the composition of the model (Fig.02).

Fig.02

As the idea matured, I really needed some specific references for the towel on the head and how its drapery would work. So I took some pictures of a relative of mine doing the exact pose with a towel (Fig.03).

Fig.03

I used the same real-life reference for the towel in the model’s hand (Fig.04).

Fig.04

Picture 1. The end result could look for example like this. Notice that this is a stylized head which is not exactly realistic. For example the eyes are too big.

Human head is one of the most difficult subjects to model believably. The structure and form of a human face is so familiar to everyone that even a small fault in the 3D model is easy to notice.

This tutorial covers the 3D modeling of a human head in 3D Studio MAX using polygons. The head is modeled roughly using polygons. The head will get its final form when Meshsmooth modifier is added to it. When the Meshsmooth modifier is added to it the face becomes a so called subdivision surface. Subdivision surface means a surface which is created by dividing the original surface into smaller polygons. Meshmooth modifier does exactly this. This way the rough surface can be made rounder and smoother. The end results is a head similar to the one in picture 1. Notice that this is a stylized head which is not fully realistic. For example the eyes are too big and the ears have been simplified. However, I believe that this model could very well work as a basis for realistic geometry of a human head.

Topology, Edge loops and Poles

Picture 2. In the picture above you can see the polygon construction of the model. By seeing the construction of the model you can conclude how well the model is suited for animation.

Picture 3. The picture above is rendered so that you can see the Isolines of the Meshsmooth modifier.

In picture 2 and 3 you can see the topology and edge loops of the model. By seeing the structure of the model you can conclude how well the model is suited for animation. Edge loop means a row of edges that goes through successive four sided vertices. Four sided vertex is a vertex where four edges meet. In my opinion, in an ideal model that is made for animation edge loops are parallel or perpendicular to the movements of the muscles.

There are almost only four sided polygons (quads) in this model which is good if the model is going to be animated. One should always aim to construct the model from four sided polygons when modeling a character. There are naturally three sided and five sided poles in this model. A pole is a vertex where less or more than four edges meet. Pole ends an edge loop and might sometimes cause trouble in animation. If you want to know more about the subject I recommend reading Bay Raitt’s instructions about 3D modeling and edge loops. Another great resource where to find more information about edge loops, head modeling and 3DS MAX is www.cgsociety.com.

3D Studio MAX Tools

Picture 4. Low polygon version of the human head. This is how the complete 3d model will look like before the Meshsmooth modifier is added.

Before starting the 3D modeling one should be familiar with the following concepts and 3DS MAX tools:

• Editable poly
  • working in sub-object modes
  • copying polygons
  • weld
  • cut
  • extrude
  • create
• Symmetry modifier
• Meshmooth modifier
• Basics about materials

Reference Pictures for the 3D Head

Picture 5. Reference pictures provide a lot of help when modeling a human head.

It’s best to use real photographs as reference pictures when modeling a human head but if real photos are not available you can download pictures below.

Create reference pictures in 3D Studio MAX according to picture 5. Change Left view to Right view. Create two plane objects whose size is 512 x 512 (the same as the pixel dimensions of the pictures. It’s relevant that the proportion between width and height is the same as in the pictures) and add textures to them. Set the Self-Illumination of the materials to 100 (material will become self illuminating and therefore is easier to see).

• Human head reference picture: right
• Human head reference picture: front

Prepare the Views

Turn on Smooth + Highlights (F3) and turn off grid (g) in all view ports. Set the width and height segments to one in both plane objects. The head is considerably easier to to create when we can model according to the reference pictures in the background.

Page 2: 3D Modeling a Mouth in 3DS MAX

Software Used :

ZBrush, Maya

Introduction :

I am a big fan of military topics. Since I had already done a soldier, this time I wanted to try a World War II German general.

Refrence :

Because this character was based on the real world look-and-feel, I didn’t draw any concepts for it. Therefore, I needed a ton of references instead. I found an old man reference from 3d.sk which I decided to use for my character; the reason was simply that it was a perfect reference to practice my ZBrush sculpting skills with and would also fit my character pretty well (Fig.01).

Fig.01

Modeling :

I created a plane in ZBrush with the reference image as the texture. Then, I started to model the head from a sphere. It’s much easier to get the right proportion if you have an image plane (Fig.02).

Fig.02

After I’d roughly done the sculpting, I exported a high-poly OBJ file to Maya and started to do re-topology. This is a very important step if you want your model to be used for real production. Modeling is only the first step of the production process; there is a lot of work after that, such as unwrapping, rigging, animation, etc. If you can keep your wireframe clean and appropriate, it will make everyone’s life much easier. I used a Maya plugin called “Nex”, which is a very nice tool to do re-topology with; using this plugin will keep your polygons in quads and evenly-spaced easily (Fig.03).

Fig.03

After completing the re-topology process, I exported another OBJ file and went back to ZBrush. With clean edge-loops, this time I was finally able to work on the details. There’s one thing I’d like to point out at this point: each area of the face has a particular skin texture. It’s important not to use the same texture everywhere because it will look unrealistic (Fig .04).

Fig.04

Software Used: Softimage XSI 6.5, ZBrush 3.1, Maya 8.5, Photoshop CS3, Unfold 3D

The making of the Elven Archer was quite an organic process. Unlike most of my modelling projects, I didn’t start this one off with a set goal in mind. In fact, the model just started off as a doodle in ZBrush. I had no idea when I started that I would take it so far!

I was developing my own ‘metamesh’ of sorts – a concept that I picked up from Alex Huguet – which is basically a mesh topology that is generic and serves as a good base for quickly starting sculpting in ZBrush. I made a couple of head meshes and was doing a couple of quick head sculpts to test how flexible they were and how well they worked (Fig.01).

Fig.01

Sculpting:

The elf started off just as a sculpt of an old man. I started off first gathering some quick references from the net on older men’s faces and just pretty much went to town on the ‘metamesh’ base. I used the Clay Tubes brush to build up the base shapes and quickly lay down the major facial anatomy. Then I did a quick smooth pass – then more clay tubes and standard brush to start defining details in the face such as major wrinkles and creases.

Once I was happy with the overall look of the face – using the Move brush to make adjustments to proportions at lower subdivisions – I started tightening up details using the Standard, Smooth and Pinch brushes. You have to be careful with the Pinch brush though, since it redistributes your polygons unevenly, so it’s best to use this last as a sort of final refine pass.

Also, a neat trick I discovered is to go back down about 2-3 levels from your highest subdivision where your polygons are more evenly distributed and hit the ‘Reproject Higher Subdiv’ button, which will more evenly distribute your polygons on the higher levels and project the details back onto the mesh. However, make sure to save a morph target or create a new layer when you do this – since sometimes it does mess up in some places.

At this point I looked at the model and a sort of story started emerging from the character; I saw him as being this veteran warrior – an archer maybe (Fig.02). He had seen his fair share of battles and had the scars and stories to match them. Although he had seen much hardship in his life, he still managed to remain positive and hopeful. I wanted to convey that through this project.

Fig.02

The next day I continued refining the sculpt, adding some asymmetry to the model – something which I think is very important to making believable CG characters – and adding some high frequency details, like pores, with some custom alphas I had.

Once I had the sculpt of the head pretty much done, I drew a quick concept sketch of what I had in mind for the character then imported it into XSI to build the base meshes for the rest of the character (Fig.03). It was here that I decided I wanted to put some life to him and animate him. I didn’t want to do anything really drastic – just enough to convey the personality and make him seem believable. Knowing that I only wanted to do a medium shot of him, I didn’t bother to model what would not be shown in the final animation, so I didn’t model hands or legs.

Fig.03

Once the rest of the meshes were modelled in XSI, I exported them back to ZBrush to start detailing and sculpting. I used ZBrush’s mesh extraction to produce some thickness to the cloth and using mainly the Standard and Smooth brushes I began to rough out the cloth folds and wrinkles. I painted some custom alphas in Photoshop for the design on the shirt and applied it via the UVs, and used Inflate to raise it a bit.

For the leather straps I did the fine engraving by using ZAppLink to project masks I painted in Photoshop onto the geometry then deforming in inward.

For the leaf shoulder armour (Fig.04):

• I started off with a plane and quickly sculpted some leaves onto it
• I then hid and deleted the excess polygons
• I retopologized the mesh and added thickness to it using Mesh Extract in the SubTools menu
• The holes were created by exporting the mesh to XSI and adding them in there; I then continued to refine and sculpt the leaves with the new topology

Fig.03

Here is the finished elf in ZBrush (Fig.05 – click to enlarge).

Fig.03

Texturing:

The UVs were quickly done in Unfold3D and refined in Maya. For me, I prefer to spend less time on making perfect UVs and focus more on painting good textures. For this project I wanted to try painting all the textures by hand – there was minimal photo texturing used. For the sake of time I’ll just walk through painting the face textures (Fig.06).

Fig.06