Here is my final model:


To finish my Mudbox model i had to paint on the lines of a good poly flow structor over the top of my model. This would have to show edge loops and show a clear understanding of what a good poly flow would appear like. This took me around an hour because i kept making mistakes with lines on each side and making sure that my poly flow contained no triangles. Overall i’m thoroughly happy to what i have achieved. This is an image of my final Model and the model with a painted poly flow structure:



I enjoyed the project as i progressed though out the term. I found myself using new software and attempting practical work like sculpting maqettes which i wouldn’t choose to do before hand. This Project has also opened the 3D world of ideas art into perceptive for me in that i can now understand the basic elements that build a model both practically and digitally.

I feel as if i have got a strong sense of knowledge of what topology is and how polygons work in Digital modeling. The 1000 word essay was key to help me learning this important area of modeling. Without researching and exploring different areas of topology i would of struggled to paint a good poly flow structure on top of my model and i would of struggled to create my model.
There are areas that i wish i had more time for and i wish i worked harder on. If i had the chance i would improve this blog because it lacks research and it lacks a clear timeline of events. Im happy that i was able to create a make a blog because this is the first time using a blog to document my work.

Other areas of improvement i would like to make is the model its self, there are some areas that could use improving on the face which could be done with some more time building the basic structure. I found that i did to much modeling on a high poly flow level and that i should of did more basic modeling on a low level. This is something that i will remember in future projects and tasks. The same goes with my structor of the polygons in my model. I must remember to use edge loops and good topology on my model unlike in this project.

Overall i am happy with my project and have learnt a lot. I think i have for filled my brief. An extension to my work could be to look at the difference between the sex of the models in the face or the age. This study would thoroughly test my new knowledge.

After struggling to create eyes on my model due to the lack of eye loops and the shape of the polygons around the eye i textured my model. after finishing texturing my model i was able attend a Q&A session on Mudbox. In this session i was able to learn a new way of creating realistic eyes on mudbox.

I learnt that i could create objects outside of the original model on Mudbox. This men’t that i could use a pre made model on my model. I imported a sphere on my model and adjusted the size so that it was roughly the same size as my models eye. I next dragged this ball into the same place as my models eye. This created a ball that appeared to look like a eye. by having most of the ball within the model the showing area looked very realistic. I did the same for the other eye but i used the preferences of the last ball to have them both the same size and in the same place opposite of each other.



With these spheres in the right place i had to adjust what the model appeared like from the front view of the eyes. By Locking the two spheres in place i was able to sculpt the head of the model eye sockets to the correct shape and give an illusion of eye lids on the balls.



This image shows what my models eyes look like after using two spheres as the eyes. As you can see the eyes on this image are white. Referring back to my early work on texturing what i did was lock both the model head and created new paint layers on the spheres so i could use the paint brush to color them white. Next what i had to do is to paint the iris and the pupil of the eye onto the spheres. I had trouble with this step. I used the paint brush along side the mirror settings to be able to paint both eyes at once so they would look identical. This didn't work because the mirror would mirror what i would paint on one sphere on a different area on the other sphere. This meant that i had to paint each eye separately. I tried to my best ability to keep them similar:

My next part of modeling was creating the hair on his head. This was easy due to my partner having short hair. What i did was i sculpted the area that his hair is on his head. After this i used the scrape tool to scrap a couple of pre-made textures and one of my own. this created the appearance of layered hair.

After creating my textures to use on my model i painted them on. I firstly used a darker skin color as a main skin texture on the face. After this i applied a lighter skin texture onto the area of face that appears lighter. I change the strength of the texture so that it would make it blend between the two. Because i made the hair i used a texture image i made of the hair from the original picture to colour the hair on my models head.

I next used a dark brownish color with a low strength and painted this straight onto the model on top of the skin in areas that were darker like behind the nose,eyelids, under nose and under the lips as well as the inner ears.

Because my partner a light stubble of beard it was extremely hard to try and model this onto the face because it didn't look right. I used a light pre made texture to rough the area of the face that the beard covered. I next painted the hairs onto his face using the paint tool:



For the lips i painted them on using the paint tool. i used the photography to make sure that i was using the same colours and placing light and dark areas in the correct place. Im happy of what the lips turned out to look like.

I also attempted to color the eyes i had using the paint tool and straight colors but this didn't work:

With these new skills i needed to practice using Mud box. To do this i chose to create 2 other basic Mud box models. Firstly i created a basic head pictured here:

This head despite being basic helped me understand areas that i would need to improve on like the eyes and the shape of the head. It was good to be able to spend time on using the different sculpting tools on mud box before having to attempt detail on my main sculpture because now i know what tools can do what and how they can effect my sculpture.

I also created a model of a unrealistic character to learn and use textures more. I mainly used the pre-made stamps for this model. I used the brush tool and painted the colour and stamps. I created tried to keep the idea based around a creature so i created it humanoid but i changed the shape of the eyes and chest and gave it a spine that a stands out of the skin. Here is a screenshot:

Lastly is the best way of creating a texture for model is to use areas from images that can be exported to Mudbox and painted on as a stamp. On Mudbox there are already made pre-made stamps shown here:



These textures can be painted on and create the illusion of depth. Also you can choose what colors you wish to paint the pre made stamps. In some work these would be practical but for my project i will have to create my own stamps on photoshop to paint on to my model. To make my own stamp i had to use the software Photoshop and load an image that had a texture that i would like to use.



This is the photo i used to create my first texture stamp. The picture was of a close up of the skin of my partners head.



This picture shows the area of skin that i want to use as a stamp. I chose the area that had the best light and looked the cleanest meaning there will be less healing with the healing tool. I cropped this area out only leaving the skin texture.



This image shows me using the healing brush to clean areas of the skin making it perfect for texturing. I also changed the levels of the photo to make the highlight and shadows show up more.



Lastly i saved my texture as a targa file on a 32 bit ration so it can save an alpha channel. I can now use this texture in my Mudbox model. I will have to import it into the stamp images. It can then be used with the brush tool. Here are some other textured i made to use:

Another method of texturing is using the projection brush. This brush uses a image that is placed over the model. This brush is tricky to use because you have to line up the image to the model if not the areas you paint on won’t match. The brush works by having a image as the brush that is transparent to the model:


When you click to paint the areas you paint are painting the image on the model. This means instead of painting the skin texture or importing a texture to paint on you can use images of a face to paint straight on:


This method needs a lot of lining up with the image and the model. you have to be able use more than one image to capture the texture for a 3D model. This means you have to be able to line up the photos on the model as well as one. This means there is a high chance of over laps and line edges that may spoil the texture. The result is good though a can make the model appear very life like.

I next started to work on basic detail. I looked at how my partners nose is formed. I looked to see if the tip was high or the bridge of the nose had certain bumps. I had to look at how the nostrils fitted on to the nose in side and depth. This allowed me to sculpt the nose onto my model. The tools i used to do this were the sculpt tool, smoothing tool. and the grab tool.

I was shown how to mirror my brush on Mudbox, this is a tool that allows you to sculpt on one side of the face but in what way you mirror the brush it will happen to the other side. This means i can save time by doing details and more on one side of the face and the computer is then duplicating this to the other side saving me time and effort. The disadvantage of this is that human faces aren’t perfectly the same on each side and other have certain differences. Areas of close detail will have to be done using the tools without being mirrored.

I roughly sculpted cheek size and sockets to were the eyes would go on the model. To sculpt out the eye sockets i used the sculpt tool but inverse the sculpt by holding ‘control’ while sculpting. This allowed me to leave space and have the area for the eyes ready to be sculpted later. I next build on the model the face definition like the shape and roundness of the head. I prodomiently used the Sculpt tool to add on size then i would use the Flatten tool to level out the head making it an even surface. once i had formed good shapes of the face, head and cheeks i used the smooth tool to round out the face making it more realistic.