I decided the best place to start this week would be to complete the ear. During last week I had managed to get the basic shape and indents of the ear to the point where I felt the form was realistic enough for the object to be identified as an ear. The main thing remaining for me to do to the ear is to attach it to the head, but first I must finish preparing this.
To begin I put the ear I had modelled so far into isolation mode, went to editable poly, selected the edge icon and selected one of the edges on the outside of the ear. Then in the side menu I clicked on the loop button so all the vertexes on the outer edge of the ear were highlighted.

After this I selected the move tool and whilst holding the shift key dragged new polygons out along the X axis. These polygons will make up the side of the ear.

I then repeated the previous step to create another set of polygons, this time for the back of the ear. Once the new polygons had been created I used the scale tool to make them lay in the same direction as at the front.

Next I created more segments at the back to reduce the number of edges until it was equal to the number of edges where I will join the ear. For this I used a combination of methods. Firstly I used the create tool in the polygon menu to join four of the already existing vertexes.

Secondly I selected edges in areas where I could not use the create tool to reduce the number of segments and dragged out new ones by holding the shift key. I then positioned them by moving the vertexes before swapping to polygon mode and using the create tool to join them to other close by vertexes, forming a quadrant each time.

I then continued to work with these techniques until I had completed this ring of segments, making sure that each one was a quadrant. Finally I made some slight alterations to the position of the vertexes so that shape of the surface flowed, gradually changing direction.

At this point I looked at the ear as a whole and decided I was not completely happy with the level of indentation at the top part of the ear. So, in polygon mode I selected the indented area and with the move tool made it deeper. Then I went to vertex mode and moved the ones at the beginning and end of the indented area to make the transition gradual and smoother.

Now I had created the ear it was ready to be attached to the head. To begin this exercise I made sure it was properly aligned with the ear on the front facing and profile photographs. This was to make certain that when I attached the ear it would be in the correct place in relation to the head I had modelled so far.

When I was satisfied I made the head visible and removed the polygons which were located where the ear needed to be. To start I remove two polygons, but when I went to begin attaching the two parts together I found there was a too bigger difference between the number of unattached edges of the head in comparison to the ear and so to resolve this I removed two additional polygons to make this task achievable (these being the two highlighted in red in the image below.)

To attach the ear I turned on the snap tool and with the ear selected and in vertex mode I dragged each in turn to the nearest vertex on the head. Whilst doing this I was careful not to move a vertex which I had already snapped into place as this was an error I encountered when modelling the neck. I did find that some planning was needed before starting as there were not an equal number of vertexes to join. Also, some of the vertexes were a long way apart which would lead to stretching of quadrants. So this did not happen I repositioned the spare vertexes at the front of the ear further away.

As well as this I changed to edge mode to create new polygons by selecting the edge I wanted it to be attached to and dragging out a new one. Once a new quadrant had been created I joined the vertexes the same as before.

On occasions I used the create tool in the polygon sub-menu to join vertexes which had no quadrant between them due to the combination of methods used in the surrounding area.

Using all these methods I worked my way around the ear joining the vertexes of the two parts in turn. This went well for the area in front of the ear as after some initial thought as to how the two parts could be joined without including shapes other than quadrants it was quite simple, however this was not the case for the other parts.

The areas I found most difficult were at the top and bottom of the ear where it would began to come away from the head. This was because there are two vertexes side by side which would both need to be joined, but without it being able to be noticed by the eye.
To start with I also found the back of the ear very complicated to attach. This did become easier when I made the head see through and worked looking from the inside outwards, as when I was joining the vertexes behind the ear previously I had made a couple of errors and left small gaps.

Whilst working on the back of the ear I realised there were not enough vertexes around the back of the head to join the ear solely using quadrants. Due to this I created an extra vertex which did not line up with any which had already been created. I plan to create an extra row of vertexes around the head to resolve this problem when I have finished creating the new segments.

From here I finished joining the remainder of the ear to the head with the create tool.

As the vertexes of the two objects had now been aligned I selected the head and in the vertex sub-menu opened the attach window. Here I chose the ear and clicked on attach so that it would all become the same object.

Next I selected the paint selection tool and used this to highlight all the vertexes which had been snapped together during the previous exercise. I then opened the weld window and used this to join all the vertexes which overlapped into one. I completed this task twice, once from the outside of the head and the other from the inside so that I could be certain that all of the vertexes that needed to be were welded.

I decided this would be a good time to look at the head as a whole with NURMS subdivision applied. Generally I was very pleased with its appearance, but I did notice there were some places where the surface was very bumpy, especially around the ear. As a result I felt it would be best to make these improvements next.

To do this I turned off NURMS and went into vertex mode. I then selected each vertex in turn which I felt was a cause of the dip and with the move tool repositioned them to make the head rounder and more realistic. When I felt the surface was smooth enough I reapplied the NURMS smoothing tool.
Once I saw the side of my head with NURMS subdivision turned on I was still disappointed as it was not as smooth as I expected it to be. I ended up moving the vertexes and then turning on NURMS several times before getting the fluid surface I was looking for.

Finally I was pleased with the area in front of the ear.

There is one final alteration I need to apply to the ear. Whilst I was attaching this to the head I had to add an additional vertex, otherwise I would not have been able to construct the area using quads alone. However, there was now a five sided shape on the back of the head. To resolve this I made it into a quadrant using the cut tool. In edge mode I selected cut and drew a line from the additional vertex to the point of symmetry. I divided the whole row as if I had only divided the segment with five sides the one next to it would consequently become a pentagon.

I felt that now would be a good time to add in the eyeballs. For this I went to the create menu and drew out sphere. I tried to keep it in proportion to the eye socket, although I did find I had to scale it up slightly as from some angles it was possible to look around the eye into the back of the head. I did consider scaling the sphere along each axis independently to create a more squashed shape quite similar to the shape of the eye socket, but thought it may produce an eye which did not look realistic.

I was unable to get the correct size eyeball without it cutting through the surface of the face initially, however I did find by moving the pivot point of the sphere closer to the centre of the head and then rotating it inwards slightly I was able to position it correctly.

When I was happy with the position of the eye, I cloned a copy of the sphere so I could be sure that both eyes had the exact same dimensions. Then, with the move and rotate tools I aligned it using a similar method.

I was now happy with the size of the eyeballs so I went on to apply the material. I had initially planned to take the material from the photograph of myself, but thought this may cause some problems as it was partly intercepted by my eyelids. Due to this I decided the best solution would be to find an image of an eye on the internet which was similar in colour to my own. I have chosen to use the image below.

I then took the image into Photoshop. I was not completely happy with the outer edge of the eyeball as I did not want the veins as visible as they were. So, I added a mask to the layer and with the paintbrush tool in white I painted a large dot in the centre of the mask layer. This made the centre part visible and the outer part invisible. I then applied a Gaussian blur to the mask layer to create a gradual transition from what is visible to what is not.

I was now happy with the appearance of the eye and so went into 3Ds max and opened it in the material editor. I then applied it to one of the spheres and assigned the UVW mapping modifier to the object. I tried several settings in this menu, but was unable to get exactly what I was looking for. As it had got into such a mess I decided to remove the modifier and reapply it to have a second attempt. This time I found that using the box mapping parameter and setting the length, width and height to 10.776 made the image fit just as I wanted it to. Finally I used the gizmo tool to position the pupil and iris in the centre of the eye. This gave the appearance I was looking for and so I repeated this process on the other eye.

I have decided to leave the modelling at this point. I am pleased with what I have achieved and it has turned out much better than I expected. The only real thing left which I could possibly create would be the eyelids, but I do not know how long this would take me and as I have only got just over a week left I would rather go on and have a good go at applying the materials. I have not applied a material this complex before and feel I would learn more from doing this than the eyelids. This is especially so due to the fact I would be repeating the process I used for modelling the lips and back of the head, something which I believe I have understood quite well already.
No comments:
Post a Comment