Week 3 - Creating a Poly

Following Eric Maslowski's online tutorials, I next moved on to creating reference plates for the 3D model. I created a plane, and applied the bitmap of the front of my face from the photoshop file.

I then made a clone of this plane, offset at a 90 degree angle from the first, and applied the image of the side of my face to the clone. I then altered the width of the plane to accomodate the full, wider, side image. I then placed them so that they were positioned correctly for modelling.

Next, I needed to view the front plane straight on, so that I could reproduce the quad-mesh in the 3D max environment. However, upon zooming into the face I found that the image displayed was very pixellated and impossible to work with. However, it was not the image that was the problem, as shown in the render to the right. I did manage to fix this problem eventually by increasing the picture quality displayed in the environment, within Max's internal options.

I then proceeded to use the line tool to trace the quads from the image. I found that some of the lines I had drawn on the original image did not line up or connect properly, sometimes having shapes with five sides that should not have been there. Therefore I improvised and added new lines where necessary. Once finished, the lines formed a flat mesh of the face. The lips and nostrils were not drawn into the mesh as they were more complex and needed to be added later in the process.

In the tutorial it is suggested that the quads be simplified and reduced in number. However, I had a great deal of trouble removing any without changing the overall shape of the face, so unfortunately the end result was quite complex.

The next step was to convert this flat mesh into an editable poly. However, when I did so I found that the lines had not been drawn quite right, resulting in a hole above the nostril that was not supposed to exist.

After a few hours of trying to fix the hole, I found that I could not find a way to do it. I believe the problem was where I was adding new lines to fix the inconsistencies with the original image. However, I then re-drew the mesh within Max, drawing the quads in a more orderly fashion, adding the new quads I had discovered (in my first attempt) as I worked my way down the face, rather than adding them in afterwards. The result this time was much more pleasing, and the polygon turned out correctly. It is now ready for forming into a 3D representation of the face.