Starting off

Took some photos of my partner (Sam Gardiner) on a back drop with a rope to indicate his eye level. Will later go into photoshop and get rid of the shadow as this could not be done manually at the time. Also took photo's of his forehead, cheek and around the eye for textures which will come in handy at a later date.

Images

These are the original photographs

Photoshop'd photos

Textures

Clay Model - Start of Sam

Started with a polystyrene egg on a chopstick to get a slight head shape. Then began placing the clay around the egg then smoothed around to get a skin texture.
Added some clay on the top brow and smoothed around to create the effect of eyebrows.
Then with some clay made a small triangle and placed where the nose is then smoothed either side down and then up to the eyebrows.
Cut into the head to the side of the nose to create the effect of eyes
Then simply pushed the cut tool into the head where to mouth is to be placed.

How ever I was not happy with how the head was turning out, I felt it was too large for me to handle and the egg had created the wrong shape for a head. I decided to scratch this one and began to start another.

Mudbox

Mudbox

Been working on Mudbox for the past couple weeks so haven't written anything for a while. Was struggling with the software for a while and am still trying to get the mouth just right. So far it has been going well, after a tutorial with Mark Wickham on the anatomy of the face I felt that I was happy with how the eye's turned out and finally got the nose sorted. All thats really left is to get the mouth done and ears, as soon as I have them in place I think everything else will just fall into place.

Pictures...

Youtube

Here are some videos that I used to help with my sculpting in Mudbox, with polymer clay and my drawings.

This video has greatly helped me and is the first of a four part tutorial on using Mudbox. Although it is not of a human head it still uses the same principal throughout. It is a really well done head and the end result is astonishing, I feel that this helped me alot when I first started sculpting with learning the tools and how/when to use them.

This was more for a personal use, I struggle when drawing eyes and did also when it came to sculpting them. I used this to learn how to draw eyes from scratch and learn how to use the layers for a better effect and where the eye is placed, how deep it is ect.

This is another set of tutorials that I used when scultping with the polymer clay. It goes through step by step how to create a simple but small head, the end result is of a woman but using the same principal I was able to use this to my advantage when sculpting.

Woodwork Shop

Went to the wood workshop to create and armature, had an induction into how to use all the tools and equipment but once that was done it was simple. Just got a small piece of chip board and pole of wood no bigger than six inches. Drilled a hole through the chip board then with some glue around the hole placed the pole through it and allowed it to dry for 30-45 minutes. Will later place the finished head onto the armature by pushing a hole in the bottom of the head.

Image...

Clay Model - Finished Result

So this is my finished result of Sam, I am happy with how it turned out although I feel it could be alot better. I have never done sculpting before so think that this has turned out well enough from having no real experience. I first got a piece of Foil rolled into a ball as a starting point, this would be the shape of the back of the head and I then put clay all around it until I had a simple ball of clay. Then added a square of clay underneath to form the jaw and smoothed over. The nose is simply a triangle piece then smoothed over. Mouth took me a long time as did the eyes but it was the same process of just adding then taking away...

Pictures

Drawings

Below are some drawings I have done to help me with my Mudbox design. They are just simple practice drawings just learning how the face is proportioned and where to place things. This will aid me when it comes to sculpting Sam's face as I will have a better understanding of the facial anatomy.

Details

Descriptions

Side

Face

Measurements

Lines

Topology

Skull

All placed together

Phillip Ball - Drawing Workshop

Had a lecture with Phillip Ball about the anatomy of the body and muscles. Was a really interesting topic and has we had discussed it before with another lecturer felt this time around it was more in depth. He has published many of his drawings as well in many different publications.

Mudbox

This is the step by step versions of my Mudbox clone of Sam Gardiner's head, overall I am happy with how it turned out although I did struggle with this software. It is difficult to describe Mudbox but it is a mixture of Photoshop and Maya rolled into one and I have not struggled with either of this pieces of software before but did with Mudbox.

Photoshop

You can export a layer from Mudbox into photoshop and edit the texture that way, this will prove to be a better method for myself as i am experienced with photoshop.

Topology

This shows the topolgy with my final head but with the texture taken off to make it wasier to see/understand. The web defines "Topology" as reginal anatomy: the study of anatomy based on regions or divisions of the body (in this case the head) and emphizising the relations between various structures (muscles, nerves and arteries ect) in that region. It is to help when modeling faces or bodies with getting the proportion correct, also with the measurments. Although each face is different there are ways of mapping oout each head to make it look more realistic. Understanding how topology work will help with scultping and drawings.

When using topology with sculpting it is important to get it right, if the topology is correct when sculpting everything else will fall into place. For example if the eyes were a wrong size and not the correct distance from the ears or nose then when it comes to sculpting it finely and adding a texture the head would not look right and make things difficult.

Head Modeling by Hatice Bayramoglu shows how she has created a 3d model from her drawings using topology as a reference guide. From a simple drawing of a face then adding the topology on top as a guide, this shows how well topology works within sculpting and how important it is to know and how to use it.

This shows the mouth and eye loops, these two parts of the face are one of the more important and also more difficult ones to get correct. From these you can place the nose and ears in correct positions.

This shows the cheek, nose and eye loops. The nose is connected to the eyes and also mouth, the cheeks flow down from the nose and helps with the postu8re and size of the head.

This shows the flow if the mouth and nostrils and also the eyebrows. The mouth and nose are connected via the philtrum inbetween, this is also important to get correct as it will help with the postiotion of both the nostrils and mouth but also the size of both as well. The groove above the eyelid and below the eyebrow shows how deep the characters eyes are.

This shows the flow from the nose down through the mouth and around the face, also showing the flow to the neck and adam's apple. Getting the shape around the head will force you to position your features in that enclosed space, sort of like an easel for the face.

Links on topology:

http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8911&highlight=facial+topology
http://www.cgarena.com/freestuff/tutorials/max/headmodeling/index.html
http://wiki.polycount.net/Face_Topology

Final Version

These are some screenshots of the final version of my clone of Sam Gardiner's head. Overall I am happy with how this turned out, I felt that i struggled with the texture and could have done much better with more time and practice. After exporting the texture into photoshop and editing it that way, it became alot closer to the actual face.