Human Basemesh Head Progress thread.
Hello everyone! I'm writing this thread for feedback on my Human basemesh head. Mostly plan to make my own personal basemesh for both male and female characters, so starting it off with the head as it is the most crucial of all.
Said basemesh is inspired by PSO2NGS models, especially the style that was the main inspiration for said head. (Bascially anime faces, but with a slightly more detailed nose and spherical eyes instead of just flat eye planes).
As it is too many to list and show, I complied most of my references images on an imgur link-> HERE
As for the head in question, here's what it looks like currently. I made a polymeshed' version if anyone would like to see it later.
Thanks in advance for all the C&C and I'll try to update the thread regularly
Said basemesh is inspired by PSO2NGS models, especially the style that was the main inspiration for said head. (Bascially anime faces, but with a slightly more detailed nose and spherical eyes instead of just flat eye planes).
As it is too many to list and show, I complied most of my references images on an imgur link-> HERE
As for the head in question, here's what it looks like currently. I made a polymeshed' version if anyone would like to see it later.
Thanks in advance for all the C&C and I'll try to update the thread regularly
Replies
Most anime style heads do not have much detail on them, just light indications of anatomy, and rely on painted on details, simpler shapes of features, space between facial features, and accessories to define character.
What you're doing here is trying to map realistic anatomy onto anime heads and that's not going to look right. PSO NGS in particular has an even weirder style in that they have smooth anime heads mixed with weirdly anatomical bodies.
Take a look at this screenshot
There's almost no detail there. It's pretty much the same nose on every female character from what I found. Almost no detail on the lips, if there was any detail on the model it's all washed away by their anime-lite skin shader.
My suggestion is to hold up, step back to very low polygonal detail in zbrush, and focus on getting the head forms correct in shape and proportion. Currently your head's cranium is way too wide, and doesn't have the egg-like shape that a normal human has, let alone the big skull of an anime character. Simplify all the features. What you're going for with a base mesh is something that looks good without any detail on it.
Now, look at this PSONGS concept art turnaround that I found. Note the profile view. The angles of the nose, mouth, and chin.
If you want to go more detailed than this, take a look at how other artists have expanded on the simple anime heads. For example, base meshes from Rodesqa:
They usually add in details more commonly found on stylized characters from say, pixar and such for the nose and mouth from anime rarely works well with realistic lighting and shading.
Hm, even if its just as simply as more 'detailed' nose(not like Pixar nose, just beyond a triangle)?
From what I've seen on one of the NGS heads, the nose has detail. Not crazy amount of detail, but enough to give it form without the lighting.
Not sure if its due to texture in all honestly, so I just presume its all done via modeling. As for the eyes, I seen some models that keep the anime eye design but have spherical eyes instead of just plane shapes(mostly for rigging purposes + style), so I'm wondering if that's also difficult to achieve too?
As for the rest:
[My suggestion is to hold up, step back to very low polygonal detail in zbrush, and focus on getting the head forms correct in shape and proportion. Currently your head's cranium is way too wide, and doesn't have the egg-like shape that a normal human has, let alone the big skull of an anime character. Simplify all the features. What you're going for with a base mesh is something that looks good without any detail on it.]
Welp, back to the drawing board. If needed, I can send you the OBJ file of the head, though I'm not sure if you would have any use with it.
Thanks for the critique.
Though for neck and shoulders, you meant more detail or?
Ahhh, fair. I thought I got the shapes right? Then again when I first share it they told me it looked good enough.
Updated the head more, took both advice, I'll worry of the details later once I fix the current issues. Only thing is I'm unsure how well I fixed the problems earlier on...
her chin and her nose are too sharp. I know you try to make them as narrow as possible, but don't kill the initial shape. The chin and the nose have to get some wideness. They're not sharp objects.
3. The eyes should have eyelids.
PS the head doesn't have a normal skull at the moment. You need to check bone landmarks.
Have you picked a specific piece of concept art or model reference as your target yet? If so you should post it so we can give you better feedback.
The eyes should probably have a more streamlined curve to them and overall be more cat eye/anime-ish.