Getting a head in life

(Topology lines created in Photoshop)

In order to create the rest of my head in 3D Studio Max, I had to first create the topology lines in Photoshop as I did previously when creating the mask. Using the blue lines, as can be seen from the right hand side image, I could roughly work out where the main topology lines needed to go in order to follow the contours and direction of my skin. Using the red lines, I created the topology lines that I would use to create the polygons in 3D studio max. As the image in photoshop was linked to the 3D Studio max file, it automatically updated the image within the software so that I was immediately ready to start creating the rest of my head.

(Initial stage of the creation of my head)

As can be seen from the image above, I have started to create the head. To do this, I started by using a simple sphere shape and positioned it roughly where my head would go. I then rotated this 90 degrees so that I could manipulate this shape from the side view. Using the front view, I narrowed the sphere to match the shape of my head. Similar to the way in which I created the lips and the nose, I then dragged new polygons out of the existing ones to start creating more of the head until the entire head was complete. The hardest part was matching up the final polygons as when they all came together in the middle, I had to ensure that I did not have any triangles, five sided shapes or any sharp edges.

(Initial stage of head in 3D)

The sphere needed to be manipulated quite a lot so that it resembled the shape of my head rather than a standard sphere. This required a lot of work so that the shape of my model's head exactly replicated the one from my initial images. Using the same fashion to create the polygons for the head, I continued this down to the neck and shoulder region. Although I thought it would be very difficult to create the neck and shoulders, it actually turned out to be easier than I first imagined. I used the side view to get the main outline of my neck and shoulders, then used the perspective view in order to match the correct depth and width. As the neck and shoulders do not require as much manipulation as the face, it was not as vital to have so many polygons. This made things quite a lot easier and allowed me to spend more time on developing the facial aspects of the project.

(neck and shoulders complete)

Once the neck and shoulders were created, I then needed to connect them to the main face of my model. To do this, I entered the editable poly mode of the face, and selected the 'attach' tool. I then selected the head and shoulders of my model and this then connected the two together. I then used the TurboSmooth tool to see how this looked. After some further manipulation, I was left with the results below:

(Head, neck and shoulders after TurboSmooth has been added)