Miss Swift head mesh (Critique Requested)

stray-shadow

I've been looking at other peoples meshes of famous people and wanted to try and capture the likeness of another human being.

I found a profile and front picture of Taylor Swift and got to work. This is the head I've got so far but it looks pretty generic.






Any tips on better capturing a persons likeness? I'm sure a texture and hair will do a lot for it but I've found some beautiful meshes that with only a few hundred polygons are almost unmistakable.

Advice and feedback really really appreciated!!

ClusterOne

For likeliness you want to use a sculpting application like Zbrush or Mudbox (or blender). Rather than box modelling, try starting with a generic bust like Zbro's Bust Base Mesh:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fKhOEL4FIc"]Bust Base Mesh[/ame]


...or another generic base mesh from the Polycount wiki.


For likeliness you need a proper understanding of human anatomy and lots of photo references. For human anatomy check out of Anatomy For Sculptors. For photo references, and really everything under the sun, check out Pinterest.


EDIT: The low poly meshes you saw likely used Normal Maps. Normal maps are generated by creating a high detail model and then baking the detail on to a lower poly model. Unless you plan to handpaint the model, you definitely want to sculpt instead of box model. For references sake, an average high fidelity AAA character model is currently around 20k triangles; so you shouldn't need to pinch you polygons very hard.

stray-shadow

Thanks for the info! I love the look of sculpting programs but they seem pretty daunting. I'll get stuck in and have have some fun playing with them.

Would the head I have constructed be any good as a base head to sculpt from? If not, what should I do to improve it to make it more usable as a base model for sculpting from?

MrOneTwo

Yeah it could probably be a decent base mesh. Things you could improve:

- edge loop termination on the forehead could be a bit cleaner (it's not that bad though). Same applies to the cheeks. You've got 5 edges converging into one vertex. That usually doesn't work that good during sculpting.
- don't leave open edges for sculpting. It's just easier to work with closed mesh.
- ear doesn't look good (first of all it's too small). The topology isn't great also. Ear is a tricky thing. You want to have evenly divided base mesh with proper edges loops and rather lowpoly. Complexity of the ear just doesn't work well with those rules. You can bruteforce shape of the ear into bad topology. It can be done (that's usually what I do. I don't block out all those complicated ear shapes.) but you will learn more by modelling proper ear. Even detached from the head just to learn about all those crazy shapes in your ear

It's a good start. Needs a lot of work though. Making faces based on someone elses face needs a lot of experience in modelling and anatomy.

stray-shadow

So I'm trying to fly before I can walk

The ear was very tricky, even getting that funny little head-wing I have at the moment. I kept either getting an N-gon or a triangle as I tried to seal it.
I'll definitely try to model individual ears to get an understanding of how to construct them!

The video posted by CLusterOne is amazing, I've got a long way to go but that was very inspirational.

Thanks guys for taking the time to reply!

reverendK

the taper you have on the neck shouldn't be mirrored - it goes in on the left side but out on the right because she's turning her head toward the camera while her shoulders aren't facing it. the tapering on your model makes her look a little alienish.

stray-shadow

I had a go at creating a full female base mesh and also had a go at making ears. just did a few models to get an idea of how to go about building them.

I think this is a bit of an improvement, but if you've got time I'd appreciate a bit more feedback.








I should really stop faffing about and jump in ZBrush already!

kanga

Looks like you have done a lot of work and are enjoying the modeling. You have picked a very difficult challenge but you should ask yourself what it is you want from the whole exercise. To make an attractive character you are going to need to study form, volume, structure and gesture. Being just a little off with a female or male form can be the difference between expressive and unattractive. I think you should make lots of zbrush studies and show them here before making a final character.

Get sculpting!
Cheerio

Edit: I can see you are having fun and have a feel for the human form. Putting some of that energy into form studies are going to make a lot of difference.

r0xmys0x

Nice to see a fellow Dundonian here :thumbup:

Like other have said, the best thing you can do is jump into ZBrush and use that to find your forms. As for your bases you need to pay attention to proportions. The males legs and arms look stubby compared to his torso. The female has some pretty butch looking shoulders try thin these out a bit. Both the bases suffer from steamrolled hands, I've noticed this in a few peoples work recently. I think the best thing you can do with hands is to model them relaxed; hold you hand out in from of you and relax it. Notice that your fingers and curled and your palms actually have a curve and a fair bit of meat to it.

Good luck dude, I would have posted some reference for you but I'm on my phone.

stray-shadow

Thanks a lot for the feedback, I didn't post until now as I didn't want to bump my post without something to show.

This is my first sculpt, been at it for quite a few hours now. The neck is a bit lanky and then chin seems way too pointed among other things.

@kanga I've been studying anatomy when ever I can to try and improve my proportions and taken to trying to draw from life regularly too.

ZBrush is awesome, loving it so far! Now I have an idea of how to use it I'll start making lots of studies as you suggested.

@k0xmys0x I'm at Abertay University at the moment, trying to get into characters between modules =D For hands I'm going to sit down and do some studies. I think it came as I built the hand separately and attached it not paying enough attention to it.

Thanks again for your feedback, here's my first sculpt.