practice head
 

head im practicing with, just wondering if anyone had any suggestions, thanks.

side angle

font angle

I am a beginner myself, so I cant give you good criticism, however, I would try to make the expression on the mouth different.

Reference is the key, get as much as possible, also look into the basic shapes and froms of the head, proportions and positions of the various areas etc,

Could you post a wireframe of the low poly mesh so that we can see how the topology is going?

Also have a look in the topology thread (one of the astickey threads at the top of this forum

one question? does it really matter if you have triangles in your geometry? vs quads? cause i have alot... ill get the wire frame and the poly to you when i get home from school.

Only if you're pretend to convert the model to sub-d, if you want that, would be better if you model the figure only with quads

Try to give a more realistic look, cause your model looks like it has some kind of desease :P

ok, it is supposed to be an older man though, when i practice hair ima make it gray for sure. what do you mean pretend to convert to sub d's?

I agree, refference is the key, but I think thewooleymammoth could go about doing the head in a way where he would have more control. Box modeling a head can get very fustrating if you don't know your topology very well. I suggest importing image plains and create the head one poly at a time. This has 2 advantages in my opinion, you learn the topology better as you go, and you have better control over the topology.

Of course this is just my own opinion though.

i made him one face at a time if that's what you mean... im not sure what box modeling is.

i feel like im just asking a ton of questions, but does anyone know a site where i could get image planes? i cant find any pictures that match up...

Box modeling is when you start from a cube and you use the split poly tool to add more geometry. Off hand I cant say where to find good ones for free with out having to pay for them. I reccomend just doing a google search for head tutorials. They have image plains in their tuts you can download.

For me, I always box model, its just my prefered workflow.

I tired a load of other techniques before settleing on box modeling, edge exruding, curve cage then using the poly append tool (as shown in Maya Secrets of the Pros 2 book) creating an outline poly shape then extruding (al a Dave K's poly modeling tut, do a search on google), but box modeling gave me the control I was lacking at the very low level, as I try to get as much detail in at the very very low state.

One other thing to note is dont just go off the front and side planes as you might have a model that matches them perfect but looks well off due to perspective distortion, the best thing to do it use the persp view as much (if not more!) as the front and side.

Someguy posted some modeling ref links in the members lounge, one of them looked pretty good as it had good front and side as well as persp views that you can use for reference (and it was free too!).

The main thing is dont rush or get dis hartened as its a very hard thing to tackle making in 3d, when your getting frustrated take a step back and have a break. Have a look at wireframes of other peoples models for Ideas on how to construct the topology and try to get it in your minds eye how your going to lay them out on your model, even, as Jay suggested to me, take the ref pics and draw out your mesh over the pics on paper that way your planning how your geo's going to go, before going into maya (as it can get very messes if your not too sure)

Good luck!

Well said Gster123; however, I reccomend thewooleymammoth try the many other methods of head modeling and see what he fancys best.

Of course! Thats the only way your going to find out whats the best method for yourself, its all a matter of personal preference. No one method is the best.

Hope it didnt sound like I was saying use box modeling as that wasnt my intention, I was just pointing out the different methods and my prefered workflow.

Cheers

Steve