Week Five

(Before and after adjustments and smoothing)

After fine tuning the main face the next stage was the creation of the rest of the head. In order to do this firstly the Face reference images were we opened in Photoshop and adjusted so that the side view of the head included contour lines and quads. When applied in 3Ds max the next and rest of the head could be modelled. Creating a sphere which provided the main shape of the top of the head and then extruding down the edges was the main process involved. This process was a slow and awkward one to achieve the chin being a majorly difficult area in which to create relying on all views within 3Ds max.

(Back of head first added and adjusted)

When the back of the head and neck were completed the next stage was to attach it to the rest of the face. In order for this to be achieved the vertexes which joined to the face had to be aligned so when the shape was attached no stretching would occur. Once attached once refining was undertaken to smooth out the face and make a more realistic appearance.

(Back of head with face attached)

Week 4

To create the Face in 3DS max firstly a Reference plane had to be setup, this was where a major issue was found. When the images were applied to the reference plane in 3d max there quality was so low that it would be impossible to accurately create the quads using the image as a guide. Trying to solve this issue took up a lot of time and it was only when asking the lecturer for help the simple solution was discovered. A setting within 3Ds max needed to be changed so that the program matched the resolution of the original images being imported.

(This image shows the view seen before the image quality was fixed)

(The lined up reference image complete with lines and quads)

To begin the modelling the line tool was used to create quads using the image as a template. This process was fairly quick and easy to achieve, the next step was to convert a single line to an editable poly and then attach the rest of the lines to create one shape. The vertexes within this shape had to be welded together so that the shape could be manipulated properly.

Next using a side view the vertex’s created using the front view needed to be pulled out converting the 2d surface into a 3d shape. The vertexes were placed in there accurate location in reference to the face, doing this created the basic elements seen on the face the nose chin and mouth etc. The nose eye and lips were created in a slightly different manner. Using the line selection the shapes were created by extruding the lines out and cloning them. This created smaller quads which would provide more details to the shape.

Week Three

This week was the real start of the 3D face creation. Also the YMCA project progressed successfully from being merely initial ideas to being a fully thought through design. The idea our group created was discussed with the module leader, the idea was approved and then more research into how the idea would progress into a creation was undertaken. Our group began investigating how the characters should appear and what methods of creation would be suitable within the specifications and time scale we have to work within. The finer details will be discussed with the client Craig Gough and will a meeting will be arranged for a later date.

The 3d face took a lot of time this week, having to get front and side portrait photographs was an interesting task to undertake. The task originally seemed fairly easy but when importing the images into a picture editing software called adobe Photoshop things soon fell apart. Personally I found it rather difficult to get both the front and side images to line up to a suitable amount. This meant that the photo taking process had to be repeated to get better images to work with. It was vital that this stage was undertaken carefully, having images that were not lined up properly would create major issues when it came to modelling in 3DS max.

Once the images had been aligned in Photoshop the next stage was to begin drawing lines which followed the contours of the face. These would provide depth to the face during the creation period. The next step was to create quads in Photoshop; these pre-planned quads would make life much simpler when creating in 3ds max. Having the image as a guide would save issues which would probably appear at a later stage if this step hadn’t been undertaken.