Even though I tried to get everything in the right position, I spent a lot of time in this session adjusting the eyelids because the topology wasn’t right. I had to move all the top vertices to the right and when I did, the top vertices matched the bottom ones and the overall topology was much better. After all that, I had to work with the relaxation brush to tidy up the edges and sculpt the brush to bring the eyelid shape closer to reality.
While reworking the face and following the tutorial, I realized that I had missed some parts earlier (I didn’t position the mouth properly in the middle). I wasn’t sure if it would affect my later work, but since it was very possible, I decided to sculpt the face again. I believe that setting up the job correctly saves a lot of time later and helps avoid errors. But I also see that my perfectionism and need to get things done right before moving on to the next step kept me from keeping up with every workshop and left me behind. Maybe that’s why I wasted so much time sculpting (though the main reason for this error was not checking the model with the original form).
I worked with the correction targets in the shape editor to freely adjust facial features that didn’t look right. I also tried to improve the face model in general. I found the most similar model on the Internet and put it on top of mine to see the anatomical errors I made. I decided on this step after bringing the model to a stage that I was generally satisfied with and I did not see any major flaws in it. I also asked for feedback from my classmates and they agreed that there was an improvement and that this is the best version so far. Knowing that the longer I work on the model, the fewer inaccuracies I see, I needed to take a break and check with references what problems I missed.
These were most of the issues I noticed after layering the two models on top of each other. I realize there are probably more issues with my model’s anatomy, but since I had a backlog of work, my priority was to get the face as close to accuracy as possible and get to texturing and skinning quickly.
Sources:
Face muscle topology (2017) Available at: https://blenderartists.org/t/face-muscle-topology/688729 (Accessed: 30 November 2022).
Head model (2020) Available at: https://discover.therookies.co/content/images/2018/09/Rookies_02.jpg (Accessed: 30 November 2022).
Workshop notes:
Creating deformer shapes:
Windows>Animation Editors>Shape Editor.
Select object (with no history on it)>Create Blend Shape>Add Target.
Sculpt Tool:
Tool Setting>Falloff>Type: Surface.
UV Mapping:
UV>Cylindrical>UV Editor>Modify>Unfold.
Connect points with the Cut/Sew.
Separating parts of the mesh:
UV Editor>Cut/Sew>Split>Right click>UV Shell>Move.
Autodesk Maya: UV Editor overview (2021) Available at: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2022/ENU/Maya-Modeling/files/GUID-73BF7546-3BF2-44F3-9192-15A024CEC173-htm.html (Accessed: 7 November 2022).
Autodesk Mudbox:
Autodesk Mudbox: Learning resources (2020) Available at: https://help.autodesk.com/view/MBXPRO/ENU/?guid=GUID-9928B53F-26E8-4C49-A785-8AD797BA619C&v=2020 (Accessed: 7 November 2022).