The main lesson I learned from week 5 was drawing geometry on the model. My main problem, which I identified fairly quickly, was having too many edge loops. Because of them, it was difficult to see the mismatched vertices and modify larger parts of the face. I think I started adding details too quickly which made my workflow messy and ended up making a lot of mistakes.
So when I went to model the eyeball, I added eyelids and details much later, which in turn helped me create better topology (and anatomy).
I prefer to manually adjust the vertices than use a brush. I can see that working with a brush can speed up the workflow, but I still don’t feel completely comfortable with it and I make more mistakes, which slows down the process overall. I focused on recreating the shapes of the faces and making sure that the topology looked correct at this stage. I know from previous experience that good topology is key in later steps, so I spent a lot of time cleaning up areas that looked messy and making sure the lines matched the muscles of the human face.
Workshop notes:
Sources:
Free 3D Head Model (2022) Available at: https://www.3dscanstore.com/blog/Free-3D-Head-Model (Accessed: 31 October 2022).
FaceTopology (2018) Available at: http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/FaceTopology (Accessed: 31 October 2022).
Drawing geometry on the model:
Select object>Choose the “magnet” (last one under Mesh Tools)>Live object>Mesh Tools>Quad Draw.
Reflecting half of the face:
Edit>Duplicate Special Options>Scale X (-1).
Object Mode>Mesh>Mirror Options>Mirror Axis (X)>polyMirror>Merge Threshold (0.007).