Head Reference question

Mr. Bean

Here's my problem: head reference photos are really hard to find. There are several places, like a thread on CG tantra I think, but since there are so few places to get head references, the only photos that are available are used over and over again by other modelers.

So I've used a head reference photo that was probably used many times by other people (there's not problem with that), and I've successfully created a good head.

But for texturing, it's really difficult to use a photo for a face texture if it doesn't match the head model--it's way easier to use the same face photo that was used for modeling also for the texturing, since it matches and needs very little tweaking.

But if I use one of the head photos (that's probably been used a million times) I used for modeling also for the face texturing, then it will look like the reference image. My point is that I will get a result that people will probably recognize.

I hope I'm explaining this well. I don't know how to get a unique face if I use the head reference that everyone else uses. I could take a picture of someone I know, but the people I know would have to be willing, and even more than that they wouldn't look like the character I'm trying to make.

I could hand paint the face texture, but I'm not very experienced with organic texture painting by hand, and anyway I doubt it would look very photo realistic. Game studios have actors that they can photograph every inch of, and they can use those reference photos for both the model and the texture.

Does anyone know what I mean? I'm not sure how to get a unique head texture that doesn't look like the head reference photo that was used to get that result.

I'm not expecting anyone to post a link full of golden reference that I've never seen before, I was just hoping for some advice on how you would go about face texture painting and getting a unique but realistic result.

Thanks for any advice!

cryrid

Putting painting aside, you could try and morph some of the photos into new people. 'Raising the Bar' shows how Valve used photos of 4 different people to create Gordon's face/texture.

gsokol

I think a lot of really well done faces are painted by hand.

If you want to use photosourcing, maybe check out 3d.sk (www.3d.sk). It costs money, but there is a lot of reference there.

Mr. Bean

I'm more than willing to try face painting, in fact I always thought that it seemed fun.

But it always comes out really plastic fake looking for me, and I never seem to be able to get that skin texture.

Do you have any tips for getting a realistic face by painting, and do you think it's possible to get a very realistic texture if you do it by hand?

This is the only tutorial I found on face painting in PS:

http://www.gameartisans.org/gamecon/tutorials/tut_4.htm

Eric Chadwick

Painting by hand is definitely the way to go, if this is a portfolio piece. Art Directors know what photo-source looks like, but they usually want to know you can paint textures from scratch, or at least paint like 80% of it.

A couple older tuts.
Ancient-Pig's Photoshop texture painting tutorial
Dr Julian's Texturing Tutorial

Also, lighting has a huge impact on how good a head will look. Even with fairly nondescript textures, a well-lit head can look great. Don't neglect the lighting!

Calabi

Liguify and cutting out pieces resizing moving etc works if your trying to get things to fit that dont exactly.

Mr. Bean

Thank you both for the suggestions! I'm definitely going to go with painting it by hand, or at least try.

Eric, thanks for the links, and I'll definitely pay careful attention to the lighting (I'm using photos for reference so I can get the lighting realistic).

The tricky part is putting eyebrows, facial hair, and the skin "texture," but I'm sure it's just a matter of practice. And I could always snatch a piece from a photo for the eyebrows.