Mud 09 trial project

Xaltar

Well, I have the mud 09 30 day trial. I just realised that I have yet to do a female character in both high and low poly. Hopefully this project will tell me if its worth forking out for the full version. As it stands I am less intimidated by the interface but I still get better results in Z.

Here is what I have so far.



Sitting at subd 3 at about 65k tris. Started from a modified version of the default mud head primative (added loops for eyes and mouth in max). I plan on doing the full figure, hopefully within a month. That may be really slow but the goal is to do the best work I can at my current level of skill. My trial runs out in 19 days so I gotta try and get the sculpt done by then.

If mud 09 works out for me then that won't be an issue, I'll just buy it but at 600 euro (I can only buy online so I can't get the educational version :S) it will have to impress me a lot..... But this is my only real hobby so if its good its worth the $$

aesir

It's a bit manly atm, so here are a few ideas on how to tweak it a bit.

I think the brows are a bit too defined. Usually women have a more smooth transition for eye cavity to brow to forehead.

She has crazy traps.

Something about that jaw/chin isn't right...

Define eyelids a bit better maybe?

Manly chest.

Hair and eye lashes and you're good (maybe)

Xaltar

Thanks aesir.

I'll work on the things you mentioned. I am going for an odd jawline thats common in this part of the world so that will probably stay but I still have some tweaking to do there. This is my first female sculpt that isn't just a doodle so I have a few habits to break after sculpting male heads all the time.

[edit] Made a few changes, gotta take my daughter out for a walk while the wether is good.

Xaltar

Update.

Joao Sapiro

you advanced levels too soon , go back the previous ones to work more on the bone structure, also use refs good luck with the project sounds really cool !

verybad

Jaw is too broad IMO, testosterone (both natural and steroids) cause a broadening of the jaw. here's a sample
http://fs.blackplanet.com/778792286bdaa612e4b667e2e740354de8bd7a05/437x

My thoughts on what you should change.


(Click on image for rough gif animation)

Xaltar

Thanks for all the replys and the paintover guys. Heres what I have now. I will be posting regular updates incase anyone wants to see how mudbox 09 is treating me.



Still at subdiv 3 (same as first post.)

aesir

I think the mouth is too big right now. Scale down that whole area.

Xaltar

Bit more, gotta get started on the hair but still open to crits.



Anyone know how I can get the profile looking more feminine? I am having a hard time with it...

[edit] argh, wrong image, fixed.

TheSplash

The mouth should be smaller, and everything should be kept rounder, the jaw still looks to manly. To get the profile looking more feminine I think you should upturn the nose somewhat and perhaps even tilt the ear backwards some.


Here's an image, although its probably really photoshopped, it does show the feminine features quite well. Even to a point where those proposed lines are quite stylized.

Edit: Here's a some more substantial reference, although remember its from the 50s, so it reflects the ideal tastes of the period but the ideas should remain. Also, notable in both images the angle of the lips.




More on lips, haha this pic is funny

Xaltar

Awesome, thanks for the reffs.

garriola83

one thing i noticed is that the eyes are tilted wrongly, but other than that its lookin ace

Xaltar

Ok. I decided to redo the base head seeing as my UVs got screwed up when I exported from max :S I had to redo the sculpt completely. I'm glad I did though becuase now it looks a lot more like I wanted it to. I still need to do the ears and neck but thought I would post an update.

aesir

The eyes seem slanted inward unnaturally. The mouth looks a bit large. The eyebrows are angry.

Xaltar

Fixed the eyes, narrowed the mouth and tweaked its shape and changed the brows a little.



Thanks for all the comments so far guys, its great to have more than one set of eyes on things.

Mark Dygert

A picture isn't a picture until its framed... Hair is that frame.

It's really hard to make bald chicks look feminine. When you hide the hair on a lot of female characters they man-up. Before you get into painting make up, also knock in some rough hair, even a decently shaped temp hair helmet will work.

Also what doesn't help is that mudbox (and almost all other 3D apps) default shading gives characters kind of a 5 O'clock shadow, making them appear even more manish, it might be good to work at 100% self illum

The jawline and the chin in particular is pretty pronounced for a female that isn't smiling (its hard to find female ref on the web that isn't smiling). Normally (but not in all cases) the jawline is a V with smooth straight lines, indenting it around the corners of the mouth tends to push out the chin, something that gets done to make males appear more manly.

The iris of the eyes is almost never 100% shown. The eyelids cover up a good chunk of it. A good rule of thumb is that the color'ed part rests on the bottom eyelid, and the top eyelid rests close to the dark part.

When you push the eyelids off of the Iris and raise/arch the eyebrows you get someone who is surprised. If who I'm looking at, looks to be reacting to me negatively, I'm less inclined to think that person is attractive.

lastly the more the jaw line hangs over the neck, the "stronger" the jawline looks, if it blends into the neck easily it looks more femenine.

Paint over:

Changes:
- Straightened out the jawline
- Color corrected the shadows and skin tone
- Touched up the eyes, never underestimate the power of eye liner
- PhotoChopped some hair
- Extended the shoulders, they profoundly effect the shape of the neck and how we precieve the facial proportions. Sub-D probably shrunk your base?
- Pulled in the ears a tad.
- Adjusted the eyebrows down and in. Also less angled, helping to remove the shocked angry look.
- Imposed my own template of beauty over yours, understand beauty is a wide range of things to many people...
- There is also some more work to be done on the mouth to make it less bitchy and the nose also needs work, its a bit of beak right now.

Xaltar

Cheers Vig, really appreciate all the input and the paintover

I am actually attempting to make this look like a younger version of Katrine De Candole, the chick that played the Fairy in Hex. I'm not sure if its legal to post the reff I'm using so I will just post the link to the series site. http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/120/index.jsp on pg 24 of the photos.



I kinda liked the surprised/crazed look of the eyes lol My goal is to make a non generic character for a change. I'm pretty happy with what I have with the face atm, I took what I thought added character from the actress and got rid of a few things I didn't like. I wasn't originaly planning on using her as a reff and fuck me if it isn't hard to find decent reff of this chick. I had to rent the episodes with her in them just to get a profile shot

[edit] this is just photochopped hair overlayed on the previous image I posted with the eyes less wide via a paintover. I will move the brows down a bit and probably work on the lips a bit more. I have given up with the "paint" tool in mud 09, it just plain sux. I will do it in photoshop the good old fasioned way...

Xaltar

Here is the full body base I just got done. Sitting at a little over 7k tris atm but I still need to model the clothes and stuff then optimise. I'm going to go for a sexy nurses outfit alla the one in Hex, almost believeable as a uniform but not quite



I am also modeling purely in perspective mode for the first time. All my previous work has been modeled in ortho mode and as a result always looked off in any engine I tried it in..........

Kinda embarrassing that it took me 2 years to figure that one out :S

Xaltar

Oh well, trial is over. I will have to finish this off with mud 1. Definately not going to buy mud 09, just not enough features I use to be worth it for me yet. I still barely use any of the functions in mud 1 so this would just be a total waste.

Still working on this though seeing as I'm still having fun with it. I'll post some progress soon.

Xaltar

Update.