Creating the Lips

Time to get started with the lips! I notice that I missed some of the early phases of the nasal construction: The techniques will be included here.

The first step of the lips (This applied to the nostrils too) was to select the edges leading into the lips (In this case, all of them) and pull them out using the 'scale' tool, whilst holding down 'shift'. This created several new faces/vertices to work with, as you can see in the image above.

The next step was the start pulling the new faces into shape. What also proved handy was the 'connect' tool. It acts as a 'cut' tool, but is more precise and faster (Depending on what you want). To use this; select the edges leading to the edge of the lips (The 'sides' of the new faces, not the original side and the one that acts as the new edge of the lips). The connect tool simply cuts a new line (or more) through them... basically splitting each new face into 2 smaller faces, allowing for greater manipulation. Nice! With these, it was then a case of pulling them into a rough lip shape (Turning the mesh 'see-through' and using your picture in the background is highly recommended)

With a quick blast of turbosmooth, it was time to see the results. Already a promising start! The corners of the mouth pinch slightly (Due to the edges all coming into a high concentration of vertices) and the lips are not prominent enough yet, it's definitely promising! Notice that I left a slight gap between the lips (After all, I might want the mouth to open if things work out nicely!)

A few more tweaks later and I was able to puff out the lips a bit more and clean up more of the edges. I even worked in a slight smile to it!

And here is where I am now! I'm incredibly happy with it! Considering what it looked like just over 24 hours ago, I'm relieved that it's starting to take shape. There's still bumps and tweaks here and there, but as whole, it's on the right track. My only critique is that it looks less like me and more like Sonny from iRobot... hmm...