Back of the Head

As I had spent a lot of time on the previous sections of the head, I was quickly running out of time for this part of the assignment. With less than a week to go, I was only moving onto the back of the head. However, I started modelling to see how far I could get.

The first stage was back in Photoshop with the reference images. On the profile image I drew on more topology, cutting up the image into quads again. This was a little easier than the front image topology as it was nowhere near as complex. I managed to create the guidelines quite easily.

Back in 3DS Max, I reassigned the Photoshop file to the Material map and the reference planes updated themselves automatically. I now had the side topology viewable on the reference planes.

To make drawing all the segments around the back of the head easier, I started by drawing in a sphere to model as the head. I made sure the poles of the sphere were pointing out of the side of the head, and then scaled the sphere slightly to fit the shape of the head better. I then adjusted the number of segments on the head so that there were a similar amount of lines to the top of the face. I lined up the centre line with the centre line of the face.

I then set about removing unwanted segments from the sphere. To start with, in Polygon mode, I set the Paint Selection Marquee, then in the left viewport, holding the Ctrl key, I painted over the unwanted segments in the middle of the sphere and all the ones underneath the surface of the face. I then pressed the delete key and this left me with the back and top of the head which I could then model.

However, as the model was mirrored, I first needed to remove all the segments on the right hand side. To do this, I set the selection back to Rectangular selection and then highlighted all of the segments on the right hand side of the sphere and deleted them. The symmetry modifier would recreate the right hand side for me later.

I then had to attach the vertexes on the sphere to the ones at the top of the head. To do this I turned on the Snap to Vertex mode and then moved the first two from the centre into position. I then moved the vertex furthest on the left using the soft selection tool to ensure the side of the head moved smoothly and more realistic. When I had done this, I turned the Soft Selection tool back off and moved the remaining vertexes into position.

I then removed some of the segments of the sphere as it did not need to be so complex. To do this, I selected edge mode in the modify panel and then selected every other edge around the side of the sphere in the left hand viewport. I then used the Ring tool to select all of the edges parallel to the ones selected. I then clicked the Collapse button in the modify panel and they unselected segments moved to create a simpler shape.

The next stage was to create the back of the neck and side of the head.