Facial modeling
polycounter lvl 9
I feel like a total noob for asking this. Does anyone have any suggestions for modeling a statue face? For some reason it is not clicking with me right now. I am looking to model a buddha type face that has been carved into a block of stone like the image here.
Replies
If it was for a typical UE3 type game and this is just behind the path, then I probably would start off with a block that has a few segments. Then do some light modeling to get the major shapes and handle the rest with bump/normal maps. It's pretty flat except for the jawline and maybe the nose. Pay attention to things like the right ear block(s) that are missing and there are some pretty sizable cracks that might work better if modeled into the mesh. Also the left ear ring might need to be modeled out.
Or
If the face stood out more and had more prominent features (sunken eyes, pushed out nose) I'd probably take my base head I use for 3D and deform it to fit the features, optimize it and blend it into the blocks.
OR
I'd probably block it out by drawing a few splines over some shapes and then converting them to Edit poly and push/pull add/remove until its starts to look right.
I would likely start with a block that covers the whole size of the statue and then add loops and such to refine the features until I was happy with it. The I would do a bump and/or normal map to get all the details, like the cracks in the blocks. How much you model and how much you map depends greatly on its use and how close to its viewed.
What area are you have the most trouble with it?