Human Male Head Sculpt

[MoonDoggie]

Hey guys,
I'm working on a head sculpt in zbrush and wanted some critique. It's just an average male head, nothing terribly specific. But I'm working through the anatomy and wanted some comments on my facial/neck anatomy.

Thanks guys,
Colin



Check Page 2 for more

[mike_kennedy]

Looks great! Maybe the neck is a little long?

[percydaman]

looks nice colin. The nose looks too large for the mouth. Or maybe its the other way round.

[MoonDoggie]

Yeah, now that you mention it, the mouth is too small. The neck looks alright, but It's definitely close to being too long.

[Bathyscaph]

Colin,

I like the design of your character, I think it just needs a little more definition here and there. I highly recommend you check out ZBrush Character Creation by Scott Spencer. It's a great book on ZBrush technique and it specifically covers anatomy of the head and neck. It couldn't be more perfect for what you are trying to do. It also covers techniques for color and for getting the subtle skin detail in the face, neck, etc.

[MoonDoggie]

Hey Steve, thanks for the reference. I will check it out and pick one up on Amazon Many thanks.

[MoonDoggie]

Found it and picked it up for $30. Thanks again

[AJ Jefferies]

Hey Colin,

Great start! I'm trying to seriously study anatomy myself & it's a real kick up the arse about just how little I know!

First thing that leapt out to me was the shape of his skull. I've done a very crude sketch of how I would see the skull of your character based from the profile view & the shape you currently have looks too low for a human cranium.



Also, your ears are looking very flat at the moment. While every ear is different, they often curve through more than one axis. Which makes them a pain in the arse to model BUT it also makes them more visually interesting/appealing.

For general advice on top of that, try to secure the major landmarks as quickly as you can. Not by doing things fast, but by trying to capture the form at the lowest subdivisions you can & avoiding adding too much detail until the very last step.

A big eye opener for me has been studying, learning & replicating the planes of the face. Not only will it help you understand the layout & general proportion of features, it will also help you to develop a good shorthand when trying to capture a likeness (in 2d or 3d).

http://philippefaraut.com/store/reference-casts.html
http://www.planesofthehead.com/about.php

Also, make sure you're not just working from the front & side. It's really easy to keep locked into one view for too long, so always try & check your model from many angles as often as possible.

Anyway, I'm rambling now. Look forward to seeing some more!

Cheers,

AJ

[Bathyscaph]

Good to hear. I am pretty sure you will love the book. It really helped me understand all of the crazy workings of ZBrush. It's an absolute bargain for $30.

AJ, those are good links, interesting stuff.

[pskdude]

This is so interesting im wishing i could remember this investigative show i saw on the learning channel how a (sketch analyst ), would reconstruct faces in dead bodies. It was simply amazing how close they were when they would figure out the identity of the person. Stunning how the details in the skull provided them enough information to extract the persons face detail. Cool Thread.

[Sawyer]

I just picked up Scott Spencers book. Its very good. Seems like from the front he looks like Picard but from the side he looks like a teenager.

[MoonDoggie]

Hey Colin,

Great start! I'm trying to seriously study anatomy myself & it's a real kick up the arse about just how little I know!

First thing that leapt out to me was the shape of his skull. I've done a very crude sketch of how I would see the skull of your character based from the profile view & the shape you currently have looks too low for a human cranium.



Also, your ears are looking very flat at the moment. While every ear is different, they often curve through more than one axis. Which makes them a pain in the arse to model BUT it also makes them more visually interesting/appealing.

For general advice on top of that, try to secure the major landmarks as quickly as you can. Not by doing things fast, but by trying to capture the form at the lowest subdivisions you can & avoiding adding too much detail until the very last step.

A big eye opener for me has been studying, learning & replicating the planes of the face. Not only will it help you understand the layout & general proportion of features, it will also help you to develop a good shorthand when trying to capture a likeness (in 2d or 3d).

http://philippefaraut.com/store/reference-casts.html
http://www.planesofthehead.com/about.php

Also, make sure you're not just working from the front & side. It's really easy to keep locked into one view for too long, so always try & check your model from many angles as often as possible.

Anyway, I'm rambling now. Look forward to seeing some more!

Cheers,

AJ

AJ, thanks for taking the time to dissect it a bit. I'll work on those changes and repost today.

[MoonDoggie]

Fixed the skull anatomy. Many thanks. As you all know staring at this stuff too long you miss things that should have been evident. This problem was because I was working using 2 different heads for reference, and they came together incorrectly

Take a look now and please critique. Next step is getting it in Max and working out a nice skin shader and lighting using vray!

[MoonDoggie]

Here are some semi-early lighting tests. Comments and critique please.

First is a normal VrayMtl shader, second is SSS2. Trying to get better results with SSS, but I can't use my displacement with SSS, which kind of sucks.

(Does anyone know where those artifacts are coming from on the last render?)

All of these are completely raw renders, no post.

[MoonDoggie]

Vlado, what are the artifacts I'm getting on the side render posted above? I'll post my material setup in a sec.