Questions about character modeling

Tiberius

Tiberius

New member
Hello y'all, I've been using Cheetah3D as a hobby for quite a while, but only at a very low level. Up until recently, my most complicated projects were basic mech suits and such that were actually a bunch of pieces grouped together in a similar-to-skeleton fashion. I recently (3 days ago) started playing around with making more advanced characters, and started experimenting with the skeleton capabilities of the program.

I've got just a few questions that I can't seem to find answers to elsewhere. Anybody who has any advice or input is invited to share it.
First off, I know I probably can't achieve it, but I'm attempting to get as close to in-game cinematic quality as possible. Any advice about how to construct a human face at that sort of level?
Second, what would you suggest for eyelids? I've tried just making larger half-circles around an eye with the same texturing as the rest of the face, but it just doesn't look right.
Last, how would I go about creating a hood and/or cloak for a character? It doesn't have to simulate the flow of cloth as long as there's a feasible way to do it manually.
 
Two more things I didn't think of before: what's the best way to lip color? As just a colored area of the texture image? Also, is there a way to make a hair element that can be edited to flow over shoulders, in the breeze, etc? Once again, it doesn't have to be self-simulating as long as there's a good way to simulate manually.
 
Hair: Sooner or later Cheetah will get a fur simulation. Without that you usually don't model more a general form of the hair and do the rest with textures (this form is just an object like every other one. Of course you can manipulate it the same way (and it could be rigged to roughly comply to the head).

Rendering: Another thing still missing in Cheetah is subsurface scattering (sss). That simulates how the light penetrates surfaces of objects. The best example for that is of course human skin. Without that it's extremely difficult to render a human face, if not plain impossible, in the desired quality.

In general: Don't try to reinvent the wheel with developing own methods to model a head. We can't beat the experience of those people who are willing to share their knowledge on youtube and vimeo (etc.). There are lots of videos and tutorials, of course done in other software, that will help you along (not all of them good, though).

If I'll ever find the time (and the nerve) I'll get a copy of this:

http://pushingpoints.com/v2/the-pushing-points-topology-workbook-volume-2/

Without reading it, I recommend it, as Vaughan really does know his stuff and his topology series is software agnostic. There will be a few tools missing in Cheetah, no doubt about that, meaning you'll sometimes need a step or two more than he does to get to the desired result.

Good luck
 
And this topic reminds me of a guy who's using 3ds max. His portraits belong certainly to the best I've ever seen and his site is well worth a look:

http://www.ianspriggs.com

(on the other hand I have to admit I don't really see the point in such portraits. But it's really, really well done)
 
Thanks for your input. At the advice of a friend back home, I have switched to Blender for this kind of thing, and that's already working better as a character modeler.
 
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