Wrapping My Head Around Facial Topology When Modeling

[Anonymous No.464900]

Hey /3/. I'm a novice modeler (been studying for about 6 months now) and am trying for the third time to learn a proper method for modeling human heads so that I can start modeling characters.

Creating a head with proper topology for animation seems to be my biggest issue. I feel like I understand the core concept, which is the edge loops flow like the muscles under the skin, but building the model with this topology in mind seems to be where my workflow breaks down.

I'll be in Maya, have my reference set up, and have a decent shape built, and just can't figure out the appropriate way to make the topology flow like in all the pictures I see.

Can anyone recommend some literature or lectures that can maybe make the process of creating the topology as you model more understandable? I feel like I'm kind of banging my head against a brick wall with this.

[Anonymous No.464901]

How detailed do you plan to go? If you're going for an ultra high res/detail model with actual muscle systems then this might be more important, But if you're just going to be rigging with joints / deformers then it isn't as big an issue.
Accurate facial topology is important, but i get the feeling you think it's more important than it needs to be. Most tutorials you find on youtube/via google will show you how to create adequate topo, and most of it starts with with a base a lot lower poly than that pic.
You basically just want loops around the eyes, mouth, and nose, and you want them to loop out until they hit areas with less deformation. i.e the pole at the cheek area in the pic; that area only stretches up and down, no creasing, so the pole there isn't going to cause a problem.

[Anonymous No.464907]

>>464901
>You basically just want loops around the eyes, mouth, and nose, and you want them to loop out until they hit areas with less deformation. i.e the pole at the cheek area in the pic; that area only stretches up and down, no creasing, so the pole there isn't going to cause a problem.

Yeah, I get all that. It's the actual process of creating this topology while modeling the base mesh that has me stumped. I'll be box modeling the head, and end up having issues making the edges flow the correct way. Or have issues putting the poles in the right place.

It might have to do more with my ability to adequately edit topology than the specific case of facial topology.

[Anonymous No.464914]

>>464900
The corner of the mouth is a big issue, especially if your character is going to scream and open it ten times the normal, in a cartoonish way (mine do that). Face rigging is one of the less shared secrets in the interwebs, and most artists developed their own animation procedure - as a max user, i simple have a ton of sliders in the right corner of the screen associated with the model (blink, mouth stretch,smile, frown, etc). It´s an old process, but still functional.

[autist weeaboo No.464918]

>>464914
autism, die.

[Anonymous No.464919]

>>464907
Try edge extrusion to create face loops, then bridge / connect the mouth / eye loops. Then delete the front faces of your box modelled head, add or remove loops through either of the shells until the border edges are even, then stitch the face on.

[Anonymous No.464940]

>>464918
>muh low quality bait
>underage
leave 4chan forever, and don´t return.

[Anonymous No.464985]

>>464900
Check out "Stop Staring" by Jason Osipa, it's a book I still refer to all the time.
>>464907
How do you model? Do you box model, or do you create 1 poly and shift drag it? That's how I do it. I create one quad in the eye loop first, and shift drag it until I have 8 quads on top, 8 on the bottom, and one in each corner, for a total of 18. I do the same thing for the mouth, and then I drag out the loops. The Sintel girl is fairly decent, but I would add one quad to the corners of the mouth at least. I never like having corners of the mouth end with a vert, as this can deform all weird. Osipa's book lays it out pretty well.

Also, you should check out hippydrome.com. It has paid tuts and stuff, but it also provides enough free stuff that it's worth checking out, I got a lot of insights into topology from it.

[Anonymous No.464997]

>>464985
I box model. Edge-modeling was too difficult for me when I first tried learning it a few months ago. Now that I've got a lot more experience under my belt, it might be worth trying again.

Thanks for the link; looks promising!

[Anonymous No.465020]

>>464985
I checked out "Stop Staring" by Jason Osipa and "The Art of Moving Points" by Brian Tindall. These seem to be geared more toward people who already know how to model a head appropriately and want to learn advanced animation techniques. They don't much go into how to go about building the topologically-sound head from scratch. "Stop Staring" does, at times, explain how to build independent parts of the head, but not the whole head at once.

I think I need something that focuses heavily on "how to edit topology to do what you want" coupled with "facial topology practice". Something geared toward modelers, not animators.

[Anonymous No.467320]

>>464900
Build the model with garbage topo, but make sure the shape is right. Then just use quad draw and re-draw the mesh with the correct topology, it will be faster in the long run and will teach you the same amount about topo, try it.

[Anonymous No.467506]

>>464900

you can't just create a head.

you will need 10000 hours of anatomy study and 10000 hours of drawing heads before you can make the perfect head in 3D