My figure modelling is...well how can I describe it....CRAP. Especially heads.
I needed a player model for The Orion Odessey demo thingie I'm working on with '...that other Richard '. So had to put in some practice and get this cracked.

I needed fairly low poly figures...total about 1000 to 1200 polys per figure. With luck I stumbled into the Psionic site which has an excellent figure tutorial for a Generic Dude, but the tutorial uses CINAMA 4D.
http://www.psionic3d.co.uk/
I was able to translate everything except the head part of the tutorial to 3DC without a problem. So I had to find a way of producing realistic low/medium poly heads.

I tried a couple of different methods but found the following produced the best results. So if like me your a bit of a klutz with heads, read on.
If you want a high poly auto smoothed type head don't read on.... although I see no reason why these heads couldn't be auto smoothed if you wish.

Although you need the basic shape to be correct with low poly figures/heads, I would say about 80% of the final appearence is down to painting the skin. There is no need to put in flared nostrils, eye sockets etc.

Anyway here's a pic of my attempt to re-create the Generic Dude complete with low poly head..Total polys about 1250. It animates quite well but I still have some more work to do on the skin.

Bazza

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bazza,

Dude.jpg (66 Kb, 303 downloads)

So this is how I did the head.......

Take a look at Pic2....

1) Start with a single face divided three times
2) Delete two colums of faces so to end up with a 6x8 division and re-center.
3) Start to create a side view of the head by using the CREATE EDGE operation and deleting faces as you go.
Until you end up with something like (4). A good drawing is a help.
4) The finished side view. Make it double sided.
5) Select all the faces on ONE side only of the flat head thingie and extrude by .04 ( I'm working to about double
human scale.) Re-center the head.
6) Select the faces on BOTH SIDES of the head BUT NOT THE FACES THAT FORM THE NOSE.
Extrude twice by .04.
7) Select the head and use the BULGE operation.
8) The head will need to be re-scaled in both z and y direction to get it back to it's original size
Make a copy of the original Flat Head to help with this.
9) Start manipulating points to get the shape of the head you require. Try and select identical points on both sides of the head to keep it symmetrical.
Continue until you arrive at (10)
10) The finished basic head
11) Gave it a ' nose job ' using the CHAMFER operation.
12) Or a large Moustache.
13) Or a VERY low poly version by reducing the number of faces

From this basic head it's quite easy to create new heads....move a few points around, maybe scale it down a bit in the x direction to slim it down etc.
I'm not going into a full blown figure tutorial...the one at the Psionic site is better than I could do. Combine it with this head system and creating figures should be a bit easier. There's also a blow by blow account of how to create the UV map if your using Ultimate Unwrap.

Bazza

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Pic2.jpg (65 Kb, 264 downloads)

If you don't fancy starting from scratch, here's a 3DC file showing some of the stages of construction. It also includes the basic head and the very low poly head.

Bazza

BasicHead.zip (56 Kb, 75 downloads)

And when you've built your figure, unwrapped it, all you have to do is paint the skin.
This one is still WIP.

Bazza

DudeMap1.jpg (52 Kb, 232 downloads)

Hi bazza your model looks great and the textures. The head texture is well done.

James

Thanks James... just thought this system for producing heads may be of help to someone.

Bazza

Nice work. I dont do much low poly work, but I'm always looking for info to help me do more. I'm going to settle in and try to do alot more with animation so the low poly stuff will be of much help. Unwrapping and wrapping as well . Thanks again...

Thanks blaydrnnr, the unwrapping, I find, is the most tedious part of the whole operation, but a good unwrapping tool is a great help.

Bazza