Conclusion

I have learnt a lot doing this project and I feel like my 3d max skills have greatly improved.

I have learnt how to create complex shapes, like the face and the ear, in a simple way and I have also learnt a lot about how to use the uvw map tool and how to use materials to make the shape look more realistic.

I am pleased with my head. I feel the profile and the eyes and nose look like me although the mouth doesn't as much.

Finished Head

Hair

I found the hair and fur tool very difficult to use. I had difficultly stopping the hair going through the head even though I told it to collide with polygons. Also even though I had styled the hair so it was all straight and tidy some stray hairs still stuck up at strange angles.

To solve this problem I tried making hair using polygons. I created a copy of the top of the head and using the cylinder tool I created a ponytail and a fringe. I used my reference photo to create a material for the hair and I made slight changes to the uvwmap just to get the material looking right.

Another Picture!!

I added the light map to the specular levels channel and then I changed the brightness in photoshop until I thought it looked right.

Light Map

This is to add shiny parts to the face. It was hard to do because my skin isn't really that shiny but I added shine to the lips, forehead, nose, chin and cheeks. I also textureised the image to add detail.

Picture!!

I am happy with how it turned out. The skin isn't too rough and it has added the creases under the eyes and below the nose really well.

To Fix This...

I clicked on bitmap and added a mix to the bump channel. On the empty channel on the mix parameters I added some noise. I chose the noise type fractal and then messed around with the bump and the mix amount until I got the effect I wanted.

And This Is What It Came Out Like!

Bump Map

This is the bump map I created in photoshop. I imported this picture onto the bump channel of the materials.

Sorted Out the Face

My (ahem) bags were halfway down my cheeks, I fixed this using the liquify tool in photoshop to move them up a little as well as modifying my uvw map so the picture took up the right amount of polygons (stopping that part of the image being stretched). I did the same for my lips and under the nose.

And This is What It Looks Like

I look a bit droopy but I can't seem to fix this. I plan to continue on and fiddle with it a bit more later.

Adding A Face

I rendered my UVW map and placed it into photoshop. By adding a mask I was able to create a guide that showed the outline of my face. Using my reference photos again I placed parts of my face onto this guide.

UVW mapping done!

After flattening one side of the head and one ear I but a UVW unwrap modifier above the symmetry modifier. This left me with two maps that were the same. Selecting one side I moved it over and flipped it and target whelded it along the center of the face.

UVW Mapping

Mapping the head now, I selected the head appart from the ear. I then selected uvw unwrap and then selected edit. I then whelded points together using target wheld, Then I relaxed it, checked that there weren't any inverted or overlapping polygons (there weren't) and relaxed certain parts of it and centre relaxed the eye.

I then selected just the ear and used pelt to flatten out the shape. I fiddled with it to get it to work like pelting it and the relaxing it until I couldn't flatten it any further.

This is What My Head Looks Like Now!

From the side I think it does look a bit like me.

Creating the Ear

I used the same method creating the ear as I did when creating the face. I first drew out the polygons, used the line tool to trace them and then I turned this shape into an editable poly. I then used the front view reference picture to give the ear shape. I then, using the chamfer tool, moved the inner parts of the ear back and the outer lope forward by selecting the right polygons.

I am very happy with the end result, I think it looks a lot like my ear.

Adding Detail to the Face

I created the lips and sorted out the eyes. I also changed the base of nose slightly so the the part between the top lip and the nose wasn't so flat.

And This Is What It Looks Like

The Head

I extended the first line of polygons next to the face and another one on the other side and then tried to fill the gap in the middle. It has two triangles in it but I made sure to create lots of polygons where the head was more round.

Problem With Modelling the Head

The problem with the tutorial videos I have been working from is that, when showing how to create the overall shape of the head, he goes from this...

... to this...

I'm not sure how he did this, the sphere he used to create the top of the head seems to have gone too.

Starting the Head

This was done using a sphere and be using the edit poly tool to line up the polygons with the face.

The Nose

It's not brilliant but I'm keeping it like this for now and get on with the other bits.

I had to create some new polygons using the create tool to get the ridge of the nose to look right. I created new polygons using the shift button and the scale tool to create the nostrils.