girlie head attempt
 

this is my first head attempt in maya, i tried to do a head in lightwave a long time ago and it took forever and i didn't get very good results.

let me know what i can improve on or what im doing wrong.

this is poly'd and converted to subd
btw, is there any way to convert from sub-d back to poly without having subdivided faces? i tried all the settings in the convert option box and i keep getting more faces than when i converted to sub d
in lightwave you could just hit the tab key to go from poly to sub d and then subd back to poly. much easier that way

here is a poly mode image

the way im modeling it is im getting a rough outline to start out with and once the head is done im gonna go back and detail everything and make all the lines correct... should i point massage as i model or is it ok to do it at the end?

here is that poly image

You should make model clean and nice from begining til the end cos if you wait for too long you wil end up in mes!!! Jes play around with convert sub-d to poly option, check the vartex option i think and you should get what you want!! Nice model so far BTW!!!

i checked the verticy option like you said and it worked! that must have been the only option i didn't fiddle with. thanx
now that ive got a rought shape of the head im gonna go back and detail everything nicely, next time i will detail as i go.

Nice start, very good for your first attempt! No crits yet, lets see some more updates :)

Hey Dan

Yeah heads are always a bit tricky when you first start doing them, but eventually you'll find a method that works best for you.
I usually just start with a poly cube and just get the general shape around the eyes, nose and mouth areas first, I dont actually do the ear hole until I'm happy with the main parts first. Also at this stage I would have far less polys too. Thats the beauty of subds, it allows for less, but smoother geometry similar to smooth proxy in poly menu, while you work the mesh to the shape you want, then, cut the detail in later. I attached an image for Rubber Chicken earlier last week so you can have it too. Its of an old man but the mesh is good over the pic. Study it and observe the edge flow around the nose and mouth areas, this is an absolute rule of head modelling also known as 'edge loops'. You are basically indirectly defining the way muscles under the skin work but are are using the flow over the skin surface. This will actually allow for easier use when animating the facial expression. Hope this helps
_J

Oh yeah forgot, the girl pics look good do you have any spares?, as I'm always looking for good reference for my next job

Cheers
_J

a small update, i did a bit more refining but still lots more.

the reference images im using at a bit tough to work with as they are not quite perfect profile images, she has her head pointed slightly down in the front one and slightly to the side in the side profile.

forgot the image again, whoops

ill have to ask her if she minds if i pass around pictures of her, hahah :eek:

Hey Turbo Dan, good start, like Jango said heads are always tricky your first few times.....I think that your head is definately coming along nicely indeed, keep it up.:) I don't know if this might help you out, but I have gone through so many methods and ways of modeling a head, and I finally came across a great tutorial (IMO) that creates a head in a very cool way, and it is the method that I have become familiar with in head construction, because of the fact that you define exactly where you want the detail to be.....anyways here is the link, check it out, it might be of use to you....

http://www.thehobbitguy.com/tutorial...ing/index.html

MainlineX :)

Very good. I think Jango pretty much covered the basics for ya. It defintely has a sense of likeness, just work more on the lips, nose, and eyes, until you're absolutely sure thats how you see those parts of the face. To me the eyes and ose are looking very closely to what they should, but the mouth needs work. Keep up the great work! :cool:

Great start, One thing I also have to add is that you mirrored the head in your reference picture and you put the two halves to close together. There should be one eye width apart on the eyes. Without correct references you will never have a good result.