How do u paint your faces? (calling anyone)

Fordy

Hi folks

Having just spent 6 hours or so painting a fairly basic face for one of the Polycount SDK's, I realised I need to spend a bit of effort in getting things looking a tad better. I admit im no artist, but with a bit of practice I probably won't be too bad.

So, I was wondering how you all paint your faces. I mean do you paint the darkest tones first and then add highlights or do you paint in grayscale and then overlay your colours after? Do you airbrush or use dodge n burn?

Ruz, I particularly like your faces, could you give me your 10 cents worth too please?

Many thanks all!

Ruz

Hi fordy. My current work flow is to spend ages on one face texture and use that as the basis for all my others. That way i can keep on refining the base until I am happy. I tend to start with a mid tone, establish the basic colours, then work in to it with the airbrush and smudge tool on fairly low opacity.
I use dodge and burn sparingly, then paint over with the airbrush if it get too harsh looking. The most important thing is to avoid to much greyness and keep a clean mid tone.
Hope this helps mate.

Fordy

Cheers Ruz!

I was begining to think no one was going to reply.

Im sure it'll help. Im gonna try a few different techniques and see which one works for me.

While we are talking of air brushes, have you (or anyone) used the airbrush pen for the Intuos3? Is it worth the Price? and can you tell any difference??

Ruz

Yeah I would have replied sooner, but just saw the post today. Hope you are well and still building nice levels.

seems ages since I was doing unreal stuff

Not sure about that tablet thing. been wondering myself.
I have an intuous 2 at work and a basic one at home and I think TBH I can paint better stuff with the basic one.

Sage

Well this is what I used to do when I was making high res characters. Model the detail of the face, render the front and side and line that up to your low res model. Use that as a template to paint on. For the rare times I have made a skin for a low poly head I would get some pictures a sort of liked, made the features of the pictures fit my model then paint on top of that until it looked well. Later.

Alex

Fordy

Thanks Alex, hadn't thought of doing it like that, better add it to my list of techniques to try.