Mareeva

[James 72]

This is only about my fourth attempt at creating a character and as such is not up to the standard of any of the other works here but I figure everyone has to start off somewhere and am fully open to constructive feedback about where I might be going wrong.

I'm trying to make a cute looking woman with an air of sexuality about her.
I know from illustrating that this is incredibly hard to capture on paper so I thought It would be a good task to set myself.

So far I have just been trying to establish some basic topology for the head and this is where I'm at.....

Any critiscism good or bad would be gratefully accepted

:@)

88

[PascalR]

Hi James,

Welcome to the forum! :welcome:

Did you have an illustration or a specific character in mind? In any case, I would first focus on gathering the photo references, or illustrations you like. Once you know where you want to go then try first to use your ref and stick to them as close as possible.
Have a look at http://www.3d.sk They used to have free samples there
They provide turntables of many models at a very high resolution.

If it is one of your first 3d face models, it is probably tricky to focus on both topology and shape at the same time.
I would probably go with a low resolution mesh of the full head to focus more on the global shapes and general anatomy, rather than jumping straight into a high rez topology.
Do you have any wireframe?

Cheers!

P.

PS: I have edited your post so your picture shows up.

[PascalR]

some free samples there too
http://www.female-anatomy-for-artist.com/?id=15

[James 72]

Thank you Pascal : )

I'm going to check out those links when I wake up tomorrow morning.
I really appreciate your help : )

I do have some photo references and some drawings I've made. I also got a book called 'Stop Starring' that I'm trying to work through.

I will try what you suggested and stick to a more basic head...

Thanks

James
:@)

[James 72]

Those links are really helpful Pascal thank you...

I've been working on the same head but been taking out a lot of lines and verts and realizing half of them don't appear to have been doing much anyway.

I do appear to have come across a small issue with the basic ear shapes I'm working on though.... I've attached a picture to illustrate my issue.
When un-smoothed they appear ok but when I hit '3' to smooth them I seem to have all these weird edges and angles ? I've deleted all the excess verts but they still seem to have all these odd little angles....

One other thing on my mind was,
Do you have some kind of payable membership or donations set up....
I really like this forum but I don't want to feel like a freeloader or bludger.
It only seems fair that if you've gone to all the trouble of setting this up that you should get something back for your troubles...

I'm only a student and not rich but would still like to show my gratidtude...

Thank you

:@)

[PascalR]

Hey James, no worries. For now the forum doesn't have this kind of section but there will be one at some point.
I want to have a space where people will get some in depth feedback on their work, recieving screenshots, paint over, in some cases ,even could send your file to the leaders they would then tweak them and send them back to you.
But this will happen only if the forum gets bigger ;)

Don't worry about the angles you get, this is just Maya's subd preview. If you actually convert your poly model to a subd one, you will be fine. For Mental Ray and Renderman you will only tag your mesh as subd and it will get smoothed at render time.
Just make sure the LHS part of your ear is blending smoothly into the cheek bone, right now it looks like the whole piece is extruded.

Cheers!

P.

[PascalR]

Oh and btw you can include your attachments within your post so the pictures show up.

Here is how:

How to include an attachment within your post


Cheers

Pascal

[James 72]

Thank you Pascal : )

I'll probably give it a few days before I post up any more progress....

Your so right about that ear geometry lol...



Personally I prefer the forums here to other CG forums.. (no names mentioned)

Here's more like sitting round in a beergarden and having a relaxing conversation, and other's are like being in a giant conference hall with Cyber geeks and Pixel warriors lol

Keep up the good work dude : )

It's much appreciated.....

[James 72]

My character's changed as I've been going along....
I'm getting more interested in making a slim dark souled character now.
It's not exactly going to plan so at this stage I'm going to put this model down to experience and move on to trying to learn some Z-Brush....
I know the ears and eyes suck... lol

I've had a quick look around Z-Brush and found it quite baffling. If anyone has any beginners advice I'd be very grateful....

Cheers

James
:@)http://www.cgfeedback.com/cgfeedback/attachment.php?attachmentid=116&stc=1&d=1259034476

[PascalR]

Hey James,

not sure if you are going to finish this one (I would recommend it) but the neck muscles should be straighter and the nasal labial fold,eyelids,ears, mouth corners should be worked on as well.
I'd rather spend a lot of time on one model and try to get it right rather than doing a lot of quickies. :)

Cheers

Pascal


http://www.csupomona.edu/~jlbath/Lab%20Pics/neck.jpg

[James 72]

You are sooo right Pascal and I needed to hear that. I think I was just getting a bit frustrated and wanted to move on but after hearing that I'm going to go back and sort it all out. Thank you for that picture as well. I've been using all my Burne Hogarth books but even though they are fantastic they don't actually show the muscles like that.
Thank you for your help. Have a great day...

James
:@)