Creating the back of the head

In order to create the back of the head, I began by creating a standard sphere primitive. I then converted this into an editable poly and took out the bottom half of the sphere. Now I could use the reference planes to line-up this editable sphere poly and then pull the edges and vertices around in order to better shape the head. Once the head was the correct shape, the use of the weld and target weld options enabled me to join the head to the face.

I found most of this part of the head reasonably simple to model. However, one area that was a bit more tricky was the sides of this shape. Since I had earlier deleted the middle faces of the sphere, it was hard to join these correctly. Once completed, I again used the TurboSmooth modifier to give the shape a very smooth finish.

The Symmetry Modifier

In order to duplicate the topology that I had already created over to the other side of the face I used the symmetry modifier. By moving the mirror plane around, I could achieve the correct mesh. It was then simply a matter of dropping down into editable poly mode whenever I needed to edit part of the face and the modifications would then automatically reflect over through the symmetry modifier.

Once the symmetry modifier was applied, I also applied the TurboSmooth modifier. This was used in order to obtain a nice smooth finish as the shapes created earlier made for a very low-resolution face.

Using Splines to Model a Head - Phase Two

This was the second phase of using the splines to create the basic 3-dimensional topology of the face. In this phase, the vertices created last time were all lined-up on the Z-axis using the side-view reference plane. This was achieved using the Edit Poly modifier.

In order to do this accurately it was important to make the shape see-through. This allowed a better view of the reference plane with which to line-up the vertices.

Upon completing this section, I have now ended up with the basic 3D topology of one side of the face. This is a good basis to move forward.

Using Splines to Model a Head

In this stage the reference planes were used as a basis to model the face. In 3D Studio Max, the line tool was used in conjunction with the snap tool to draw splines that snapped directly onto each other. These splines were then filled to create faces that would make up the topology of the face that was defined on the reference planes.

By sticking to the reference planes, the result was good and I was happy with the outcome. It was very important to get this early stage right else I would've risked compromising the rest of the project. Now I can move forward to add a third dimension to this currently flat topology.

Reference Planes

To create reference planes for the head model, two pictures were taken of my head - one of the front elevation and the other of the side elevation. These pictures were then imported into Adobe Photoshop CS5.

In Photoshop, the images were placed next to each other and the first task was to line up all the key features such as the eyes, nose, mouth and chin. Using the rulers in Photoshop as a guide, I found that this was relatively straightforward and I managed to achieve a very good alignment.

Once the images had been aligned, the next task was to define the topology of the front elevation of the face and of the ear. This was not so straightforward. I used the pen tool in order to get the most accurate topology lines possible, however I found it very difficult to define the topology. In the end I did manage to achieve a fairly flowing sequence of quads across the face, but it was a challenging task. These reference planes will now be crucial when it comes to modelling the face.