Feedback and Modelling the face

Me and Adam K. received our first email from one of our mentors this week, Sophia. I won't list our answers, but I will admit, we both did a thumbs up from across our desks. They were very informative!

With Neku's body mostly finished, I've started to tackle the face/head. I've been excited for the head for sometime now, and the last time I used Planner Modelling, I was very impressed with the results, wishing I had known of it sooner.

So, I was excited but wanted to this properly. So I firstly looked at different 3D heads, both anatomically correct models, anime models, and photos/gifs of a spinning head. So here is the image I took as a reference:

I then drew a simple image of Neku's face proportions, and placed it on top of the mesh image:

From here, I traced the topology from the original, and then began to change the proportions so I could find a compromise between the two face shapes: 

The final image was then placed on an Image Plane and I begun to model it!

I didn't take earlier shots unfortunately, but iterations taken as I've done this:

- Bridge of the nose topology; I shuffled afew poly's, one of the edge loops around the nose should have come round to form a cheekbone. I had missed this so fixed it now
- Nose; An odd anime shape, but alot of deformities were happening. Now fixed, but may need more attention later also.
- Flat face; I stuggled with making the face rounded from a 2D plane. Required (still working on it also) much patience, and using tools such as Soft Select and Sculpt Geometry.

Still struggling, but here is the most current version of the head. Getting the shape correct and trying to get the lips right are my biggest issues at the moment. :)

Mentors and Shoes

I neglected to mention earlier; I have been assigned 2 Mentors, along side fellow MProf colleague Adam K. Our mentors are Sophia George (Game Design Resident at V&A Dundee) and Zoltan Fejes (Game Designer, Blitz Game Studios)

We've made contact, and about to send off our first batch of questions. I will not post answers, but here are Adam and I's collective questions:

Adam

• Generally as a designer, what tools should I be able to utilize in order to provide a concept, for example Zbrush/Maya?
• How quickly and often do you find you need to be able to use 3D modelling in order to show someone your vision?
• What are some of the pitfalls when designing a level?

Ceren

• How did you personally enter the industry
• When do you feel confident enough about a 3D model to put into a videogame?
• What do you personally think is tricky/a rookie mistake when it comes to character modelling for games?

A new problem today, is floating geometry allowed? (e.g. buckles that are floating on a shoe? Does it have to be connected??) I might ask a friend, Danny S., who is a talented 3D modeler in the industry for his advice on it.

Faster!

Today's progress; Cleaned up some haywire polys on finger/fingernails, have an earphone ready, belt modeled and attached to model, and shoes! Very happy.

I'm happy to say I have got head and hair left to model, before I go into details and further tweaking.

I'm also grateful I have my friend Robin G. on Masters with me, her area of specialty is technical 3D animation. So I often pester her to make sure the model/edge-loops are correct for rigging/animation/ready to be implemented into a game. :)

5th time lucky

I really lack confidence when it comes to 3D modelling. I am therefore very lucky my fellow students are good at it, and share some great tips with me, or features I was unaware of in Maya that can speed up work progress.

Of course, practice comes in a lot too, and I've been paying close attention to Digital Tutorials videos and friends when they show me how to do something (I then delete what they've shown me or screen cap it as reference and attempt my own version. I find this an easier way to learn!)

My 5th attempt at the baggy trousers of Neku, this will be the one I will continue to work on. Happy with the current shape/silhouette. Reasons for reattempts are: Not true to the 2D shape, shape did not look correct for animation, too many/too few polygons/a mess, and not having the right edge loops.

Also with the help of Mike N. and Digital Tutors, I conquered hands!

I understand my progress is slow, and needs much improvement, but with every iteration I feel more confident in myself in maybe producing better models. :)

Neku Iteration...

Just an update into my process. I keep finding new faults or thinking of a different way of tackling things. I'm saving out loads of different versions of the model, and I usually go with the alternative method version!

Iterations include:

- Legs, how they were extruded. Old screenshot, this version was changed.

- Model. I changed from modelling nude, to modelling clothes on top.
- Shirt, made it flair out instead of being a painted texture on top of his body.

- Hood. So many random, hiding faces, I thought I'd just glue it onto the top and I'll add depth with texture?

Until next time...