Week 1 - Anticipation & Preparation

Yes, thats right - I will need to spent half a dozen weeks staring at my face digitised on-screen!

First of all I need to take two photos, ensuring I get in my head and neck in the frame for both the front-on view and the profile shot too. I used a 10 mega-pixel highest-quality JPEG setting on my Bridge Camera to ensure as much detail as possible was captured and this was done using natural daylight as the primary light source to enhance the features without incorporating any major shadows or highlights into the shots

 I then uploaded the two images straight from my SDHC Memory Card and began to edit them in the order that was neccessary to then ultimately take them into 3DS Max and onto my facial form at the end - Here, the image shows both images as seperate files, but I noticed that my front-on view needs the 'Camera-Distortion Correction' treatment before I do anything else  

With the 'Camera-Distortion Correction' treatment, it is possible for the user to adjust settings that would maybe have caused the individual to avoid using that image initially. By altering the 'Perspective Controls' both vertically and horizontally, as well as lighting the 'Vignette' around the edges of the image, greater constrast was achieved between my hair and the surface behind

 

This was the resulting image after adding both a 'Brightness/Contrast' adjustment layer and a 'Hue/Saturation' adjustment layer - I feel this improves the definition of my facial curvature and contrast between skintones in my cheeks and cheekbones 

 

 The unadjusted 'Vignetting' is visible on this image, although both images will of course be devoid of any background eventually.Again, the adjustment layers improved definition and tonal contrast here, moreso in relation to the varying brunette shades throughout my hair (However, I reckon that the process of defining the profiles of my bone structure will be easier here than the front-on shot...)

Here are both shots side-by-side before I attempt to transport the profile image onto the area to the right of the front-on image file - I will then lower the opacity of the profile image and try to gain an accurate alignment of key areas; ear lobes, base of nostrils, corners of mouth and so forth. This will then mean the pen marks that are to be added to define the muscle/bone structure will be representational of the true-life dimensions

Before I was to go ahead with applying the topology lines, I used the 'Unsharp-Mask' tool to improve the clarity and definition of areas of facial structure against each other and the surface behind

By reducing the opacity of the profile shot, I could then bring it alongside the front-on image and gauge how accurate the photographs turned out to be. As with photography undertaken without the aid of effective, visible markers to follow, there was always a problem of perhaps not matching all facial areas as precisely
as they could be under the circumstances

The benefit of working with both images in one file and seperate layers for both meant that I was able to position the front-on shot, lock the layer, and then scale the profile shot accordingly

Once I had rescaled the profile shot to a reasonsable approximation against the front-on image, I then enabled the 'Rulers/Grid' under the 'View' tab to see how close my adjustments are to Photoshop's scaled grid visible on-screen

I then had to use the 'Eraser' tool and remove some of the material away from around my nose, thus allowing me to judge the scale better between both images and aid the extrusion process once in Max

The process of Topology meant that I used two specturally-opposing coloured brushes to first mark out the curvature of the muscular structure and bone definition of the face as shown here - the brush strokes were only needed only one side of the face and had to follow facial contours

Next, I was to then create 'Quads' from using the second brush to follow the topological lines as a guide, but then also create a hatched effect that I would then follow in Max later on with the 'Spline' tool - I did feel at this stage that perhaps the brush strokes could have been a bit heavy (lipstick, anyone...!)

I repeated the Topology process for the profile shot and again tried to maintain as closely as I could the contours and curvature along the jawline and cheek bones, as well as the form of the nasal and lip areas

* I was now able to progress into week two, with the aim of completing the 'Splined' section of the tutorial within the 3DS Max program *