Unwrap uvw

After all the modelling had been completed it was time to think about actually applying materials to the face. As the face has so much detail It made scene to use a photo of the face as a material. To do this The unwrap UVW modifier needed to be used. This creates a 2d map of the face that the material can be added to.

The first step was to turn off turbo smooth and the symmetry modifier. Then the whole face was selected apart from the ear (this would be done at a later stage due to its complexity). There are several bugs in 3DS 2011 Max; one of which are in the Unwrap UVW modifier. Every time the polygons on the face were selected for unwrap UVW, the program crashed and shut down. To over come this 3DS Max 2012 was installed.

When the polygons on the face were selected cylindrical was selected under map parameters. The cylinder was set to the axis that wrapped the cylinder around the face. It was scaled to the correct size and moved to the centre of the head.

Edit UVWs was selected and filter selected faces was pressed. Constant update was selected to view a live update in the view port of the map. The relax feature was used to space the map out to get a more understandable map. Individual polygons were moved around to achieve a usable map. Select inverted and overlapping faces was used to make sure the map laid flat.

Making the ear

The ear was a very complex part to model so the rest of the head was isolated. In Photoshop the main outline of the ear and the contours were drawn around in the same way that the face was. It was very hard to divide the ear up in to four sided shapes due to its complexity. After editing in Photoshop, the image was saved and then reloaded in the material editor within 3Ds Max to allow the changes to be visible on the reference planes.

The ear was then traced around using the line tool with the snap toggle selected and set to vertex (making sure it was set to corner in initial type and drag type). One of the lines was then converted into an editable polygon and the rest of the lines attached to it.

The vertices were then moved along different axis to line up with the reference images. The outer vertices were moved and then the next ring of vertices. The middle vertices were tweaked using the perspective view in one window and a front orthographic view in another window.

To get more detail around the indents in the ear the chamfer tool was used to add more edges. The collapse tool was used to delete excess vertices created at the corners of the chamfer. This process was repeated to build up the detail of the ear.

The outer edges of the ear were selected and whiles holding shift dragged back to create the depth of the ear. This was then repeated but while the scale tool was selected to make an edge that could be connected to the head.

The ear was then attached to the head and then additional vertices were added to the head by selecting edges and holding down shift and dragging them to the back of the ear. The target wield tool was then used to join up the vertices. To make sure there were no unattached vertices the weld function was used.

When the turbo smooth was applied the vertices were tweaked to best match the shape of the ear.

This is the final render so far.

Making the neck

The polygons were constantly tweaked using the reference images. Alt + X was pressed to make the polygons transparent. To create the neck and shoulders edges were selected and whilst holding shift they were dragged in the desired direction which made a new edge. This process was repeated until there were enough polygons to make up the shape of the neck. The vertices were dragged to the correct place using the reference images.

Making the skull

To make the back of the head a sphere was made and aligned to the reference images. It was then scaled to fit the reference images in both directions.

To get a consistent flow of geometry the number of segments was matched up with the existing geometry of the forehead. The sphere was then converted into an editable polygon so that it could be edited. The ploygons around the front of the face were removed and so were the ones around the ear so that they could be modelled at a later stage.

As the back of the head would eventually be attached to the front of the face, half of the sphere had to be removed.

The vertices were then aligned using snap toggle and the back of the head was attached to the face creating one editable shape.

Defining detail for the lips

To make the lip, the edges were selected around the mouth opening and whilst holding shift the edges were copied. Switching to the vertices tool each vertex was aligned to the shape on the reference images. To give the lips some depth the edges were copied again and pulled back into the mouth twice and scaled down with the scale tool. The edges were then copied down on the bottom lip and up on the top. Wield was used to ensure that all the vertices were joined around the inner edge of the lip.

The detail on the lips looks more realistic after turbosmooth has been switch on.

Defining the detail on the nose

Using the cut tool while vertices are selected enables you to divide a polygon into more edges. This enables you to add more detail where it is needed. It was used to add more definition around the nostril.

By selecting the edges around the nostril and holding shift and dragging up the Z axis a copy of the edges were made. This created the nostril cavity. The scale tool was used in the same way.

The cut tool was used to make sure there were only four sided polygons making up the nostril, as when the turbo smooth was applied the odd shapes create pinches on the model.

Nose cavity once turbo smooth has been applied.

Using Symmetry, NURMS Subdivision and Turbosmooth

After all the Vertices had been moved for one side of the face a simple symmetry modifier was used to mirror the left side of the face. The x axis was selected as the mirror point and it was moved along the axis to line up with the reference image.

Use NURMS Subdivision was selected under Subdivision surface to add detail to the face which smoothed it. This created a sharp edge all around the symmetry line of the face though.

To get round the sharp edge that Subdivision NURMS created it was turned off and a turbo smooth modifier was added, making sure it was before Symmetry and editable polygon in the modifier list.