Tantalising Topology

And so, without further ado, let's get started on the facial construction! I had a spare hour or 2 last night and decided to crack the topology whilst it was still fresh in my mind. Once again, I was accompanied by a faithful mug of tea and the ever wonderful playlists on my iTunes...

The ball was set rolling with a picture of this lovely chap: Taken in my kitchen by an exceptionally confused flatmate. To ensure that the profile and portrait shots would be easy to line up; we marked the levels of key features (Eyes, nose and lips) with drawing pins (Obviously on the wall, not my face). That way, I could keep my head level. Cracking open Photoshop; the first order of business was to remove any lens distortion present (For example; a fish-eye effect that sometimes happens with lenses). In addition, I was able to use this opportunity to line the features up on my face, in case my head was tilted. I was quite lucky though and the main features lined up perfectly. (The ears and mouth were weak points of reference as I have an off-centre jaw, so they are not symmetrical)

With the lens correction implemented, this was the result. Time to start lining up the 2 shots (Thus making my job several times easier in the long run)

Moving the profile picture into the same document as the portrait shot, it was placed onto a different layer and had the opacity reduced. From here, it was possible to line to 2 shots up, so that they were perfectly aligned. The immediate problem to notice was that, for whatever reason, my head in the profile shot was larger than the portrait. Using the tips of the chin as an anchor, the profile shot was reduced until the features started to align themselves. Luckily, very little editing or rotation was required.

That's more like it! Though my hair seems a lot larger in the second picture; the key features all match. The eyes, nostril and lips are in line. A few ruler lines were brought in to ensure everything was on the right level. To be honest, the most frustrating part of this section was moving the picture to line up! With the mouse, it had an annoying habit of trying to 'snap' the picture to where it wanted, rather than what I needed. Resorting to the cursor keys, it was lined up. Now for the fun to start!

The first objective was to create a basic set of guidelines. These guidelines are the main creases/bumps on the face. The core 'lines' of the face that will ultimately guide the quads and main structure of the face, so these lines are vital! The obvious creases were highlighted: Areas around the eyes, nose, cheek bones, lips and chin (Not forgetting the humble philtrum under the nose!)

From these basic lines, came the trickiest section: Creating the quads! These 4-sided segments will ultimately make up the 3D structure of the face. There was no room for error here: A single triangle could potentially ruin the 3D model (It would create a 'pinch' which is not only hard to remove, but incredibly obvious on the model. I had a few run-ins with those during the 3D module last year). The easiest starting place was around the eyes. Using the blue lines as a guide, they were linked and connected up. As the main lines took shape; they were intersected with several smaller grid-lines, creating a large number of 4-sided shapes around the eye. To be really honest; it was like drawing a spider web as a kid! The important part here was to link up all the blue lines. They essentially had to flow into one another and connect. The one you can see here goes from the eye, down by the nose and around the cheek (Which creases when you smile). According to the Tutorial Video, this is good, so thumbs up there.

It was then simply a case of adding in more quads and more lines. It was almost like a giant dot-to-dot. The important quad is the one on the end of the cheekbone (the large diamond one a few squares below my eye) because it forms an important link to many of the other quads. The topology was starting to come along nicely. The muscle structure around the mouth in particular was looking good. I could see where the muscles joined and how the structure there would pull and move to generate a smile or other expressions

The face was finished off with the forehead, which was one of the easiest sections (It wrinkles slightly, but otherwise doesn't move much). The topology of the portrait picture was complete! I'm exceptionally happy with how it turned how... though am somewhat uncomfortable, because I honestly found it slightly too easy. I have a bad feeling that there is a major error sitting in the lines somewhere. Granted, this was my second attempt (The first didn't quite have the mouth sections correct), but I still found both pretty simple to do. After hearing how this a tricky section to do, I'm not sure whether to be concerned or delighted!

The final thing left to do was to create the basic guidelines on the profile shot. Detailed quads were not needed for this one: Just the basic lines. A few minutes later, and I had a finished topology, all set and ready to go! Onwards!