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[Arik_the_Red]

I referred to how I make eyes, sockets, and faces in the "Share Your Modelling Tips" (http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=2081.0)... and referred to making a thread following those techniques and sharing the development of a character I am starting to create.

Well, here it is... the making of "Sarge".  As to who and what Sarge is, well the character is to be cartoon-ish, not realistic... and will be a military sort, so I am hoping he comes out accordingly.

I want to share the development because I thought it would be fun to show the way I've experimented with in making eyes, mouths, and faces so far... and so that anyone with comments and pointers could throw their thoughts out as well.

I'll make a separate message for each step as I develop it... so, to be continued!

[Arik_the_Red]

Creating the Basic Eye Sockets

Create a sphere and located it at 0. 0. 0 (for ease of relocating as needed later):
--Sphere 50 Dia
--Long 16, Lat 12

Rotate the sphere X = 90 degrees

Object/Point Edit
--Cut Faces to front of sphere = shape of eye "wide open"  (see "Eyesocket 1" image: http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=eyesocket1.jpg)
Mesh Editor (double-click on the object) Smooth Angle - 180 for more roundness

This eyesocket becomes the base for making one side of upper face. The reason I rotate the sphere the way it was set is that it works well for extruding the eyebrow and cheek form when later continuing.It is my base for shaping upper face - from the eyebrow and on up, the cheek on down, and the nose ridge. (To be detailed later).

Locate the eye socket to left of the X: 0 coordinate, as far over as the socket would be relative to the face/head (see "Eyesocket 2" image: http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=eyesocket2.jpg).

In this case, I have located the eyesocket at X: -30, and mirrored it to compare and see if it looks reasonable in the forming of both sides of the face/head.  "Sarge" is to be "toon-ish" so the sockets are closer larger, and closer together, than a "realistic." I may or may not delete the mirrored image depending on how useful I find it while continuing to build the original side. After all, it will be deleted and replaced with more developed versions as I continue to make the face.

Now I like to create the eyelids and eyeball before resuming "facial construction."

Creating the Eyelids

The eyelids are made using a sphere centered within the eye socket, and slightly smaller than the socket. For Sarge, I make the eyelid sphere as follows:

Create a sphere and located it at X: -30. Y: 0. Z: 0 (placing the sphere centered in the middle of the eye socket):
--Sphere 48.75 Dia
--Long 16, Lat 12

Rotate the sphere Z = 90 degrees. This makes for the most appropriate structure of an eyelid, as the sphere divisions run the same way that an eyelid structure works.

Convert the sphere to mesh.

Obviously, the eye socket is in the way at this point, so hide it (Edit - Hide).

In "Object/Point Edit" mode, select the points of the lower half of the sphere, and delete them, so that now the basic upper eyelid is in shape.(see "Eyelid 1" image: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/eyelid1.jpg)

Now, to form a flare for the eyelid's "lip"...
working in the "Left" view. use the "Cut Faces" tool to cut a new line from the sphere's "polar points" toward the front, a small distance above the edge as shown here: http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=eyelid2.jpg

Select the lower front edges, except for the ones connecting to the "polar points", as shown here: http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=eyelid3.jpg

Then, in Top View, select the "Non-Uniform Scale" tool and stretch the selected edges so that the flare out a little as shown here:  http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=eyelid4.jpg

Now you can copy and paste this eyelid, and then: Rotate Z = 180 the new copy, thus ending up with your upper and lower eyelid.  http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=eyelid5.jpg

You may now "Show All" to see your "closed eye" view... and if you like, even open the eyelids by selecting the upper, and Rotate X = -30. Then select the lower eyelid and Rotate X = 30. Thus, you have this: http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=eyelid6.jpg

Next comes the eyeball... but I'm taking a break because I have a bad need to fry up some pork sausage and potatoes... BREAKFAST!

But first, here I have progress to date, adding some color and an extra sphere (47.5 dia) to serve as a placeholder for the eyeball that is to come...

[Arik_the_Red]

Making the Eyeball

If you have not already made a sphere to represent the "eyeball", do so now...  Create a sphere as follows:
--Sphere 47 Dia
--Long 16, Lat 16
Mesh Editor (double-click on the object): X = -30, Y = 0, Z = 0 (centered within socket and eyelids), Smooth Angle - 180 for more roundness
Convert to Mesh
Rotate the sphere X = 90 degrees

Hide everything except the eyeball.

Now the following color textures for use:
-- Eye: White
-- Iris: I made mine brown for mine
-- Pupil: Absolute black (Trans = 1, color = black, all other settings to 0)
-- Eye Lens: Clear and shiney, (Trans = .1, color = white)

The lens and eyeball are going to be separate objects made from the same size sphere.

Copy and paste, creating a 2nd sphere. Move this sphere out of the way for later work.

Apply the eyeball white texture to the 1st sphere.

Select and apply the iris and pupil textures, getting this result: http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=eyeball1.jpg

Flatten the Iris/Pupil Area: In Point Editor, select the inner ring outlining the pupil. In "Left View", move the points until they are flush with the outer iris ring. Likewise select the next ring and move it until it is also flush with the iris ring, resulting in:  http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=eyeball2-1.jpg

Create the "Lens": No, this is not technically the anatomical eye's lens... it is the clear cover that goes over the iris, to give that extra dimension of realism the I like.  Take the 2nd sphere that you had set aside, and remove all the points/edge lines except for the three front-most circles. Apply the clear "eye lense" texture. Move the "lens" until it is located exactly over the iris, essentially sitting in the same position as where the iris/pupil area domed outward before you flattened them.

You may now group, or "join solids," the lens and eyeball proper.

Eyeball is done... so go and "Show All"... and then you can do the mirroring of everything made, and get a better eye-dea of what you're face is shaping up like.

From this point on, directions are going to get less detailed, and depend more upon your ability to manipulate things the way that look right to you. That is because we are going to get back to working on the eye sockets, and extruding edges to "grow" the eyebrows, cheeks, etc. and some things have to be visualized since they cannot be accurately, easily described in text.

You may opt to keep the mirrored eyeball and eyelids in place if you don't plan to make any other modifications to them.  The mirrored eyesocket will be updated as the extrusions and other editing of the "original socket object" progresses.

[Arik_the_Red]

Building Brow and Forehead

Now we return to work with the eye socket.  You may choose to hide the eyeball and eyelids, or keep them visible as you choose.

Start in the Point Editor. Use the "Edge Select" tool and select the edges that you will "grow" the brow from - the foremost upper edges of the eyesocket, per this drawing:  http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=browridge1.jpg

Then switch to the "Extrude Edges" tool, and draw forth your first extrusion, as shown here:  http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=browridge2.jpg

After this, adjust the newly extruded edge using the "Non-Unifrom Scale" tool, Move" tool, and scooting indivitual points around until you have the new edges in the order you like: 
http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=browridge3.jpg

Select the new edges again, and create another extrusion, likewise adjusting, re-sizing, and re-arranging as you begin to work up to form a brow.

Repeat this process a few times as needed to bring the brow up and form into the forehead. It may be that you need to create a few lines here and there to bring outer areas together and create new faces to fill gaps.

http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=browridge4.jpg
http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=browridge5.jpg

After working these techniques some, you should be able to come up with a complete brow and forehead.  Then you can mirror the object and see how things look.  In the following image, and the final render at the bottom, I have taken the liberty of mirroring, joining solids, and "Smoothe Angles" to 180, to see how well the whole thing fits together. 

http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=browridge6.jpg

Very important, I do NOT save the mirrored and joined work... It is only for me to look at and verify that things will be coming together properly. 

I "undo" back to the point before mirroring, and then continue on with the work.

If for some reason you cannot undo, it simply means you will have to delete the points on the side you created when mirroring.

Not bad for a longtime Noob, I think...

Next we will use the same techniques to form the upper cheeks out of the lower eyesocket edges, and of course we will have to come up wiith a nose.

[headwax]

Great work Arik, goodthat you are sharing your knowledge

[Arik_the_Red]

Thanks, Andrew.

I do want to see my work brutalized with some critical analysis. I don't know that I'm really approaching this the right way. Despite having messed around with anim8or for close to 3 years, I've really kept in the shallow waters, and have had a lot of gaps in between working things.

[headwax]

Brutal:? Hah! You want brutal?

Only crit is I'd put all the pictures here rather than photobucket,

As far as sarge,  is it a subdivided image we are seeing on that last shot. If so: "I'd defintely make the edge of the iris a perfect circle, without the straight edges, I'd also make the pupils semi transparent. Ther's also some hard edges at the apex of each orbit which indicate some of your verticie/lines are too closo to let the subdivision smooth him out

Of course if he is a straight mesh then forget what I said because it is stupid

[Arik_the_Red]

Thanks for the crit, Andrew... the last render is not subdivided. I mirrored and joined, and set the Smooth Angle to 180 for maximum roundness in appearance.

One of the things I did want to throw in at some point was to subdivide the eye, for the very reason you advise.

As for those hard edges, thanks there, too. I have since worked on those areas, done a bit of hack-and-whack, scooted points around, etc.

I've sort of gotten ahead with things, and made the cheeks and worked on the mouth, and am foregoing the detailed "how-to" and simply going to summarize briefly what I did to make those... next message.

Maybe I should go through and add all the images.  Could you direct me on how to set them up in their proper places in the messages (not tagged on at the end), and making them thumbnails?  I didn't want them to dominate the thread itself, and am not sure how to set that up.

[Arik_the_Red]

A Bit More Extruding and Manipulating

Some more edge extrusion work, moving around points and adding edges and faces to get things looking right, and voila, there are some upper cheek shapes.

At this point I move on, and create the mouth, from which will form the lower face.

Mouth - Lips

I made the mouth lips by creating a sphere and rotating it sideways. I converted it to mesh and located it below the upper face, to become the basis for Sarge's lower lip. I trimmed off the ends of the sphere, and proceeded to stretch the sphere, elongating it sideways.

I then used the "Warp Modifier" to taper one side of the now stretched-out sphere, so that the lip would be fatter toward the center of the face. 

More "Warp Modifier" work involved bending the ends of the mouth, after which I rotated the lip, turning so that the top of the lip became flat, for a "straight" expression.  Lastly, I deleted a portion of the back and bottom edgelines, to create the edges from where I would later extrude beyond the lip.

Now I mirrored, joining solids and merging the points to form the entire lower lip.

To create the upper lip, I copied and pasted the lower lip and rotated it around until it mirrored itself. Next I moved the newly "FAT" upper lip, and then did some Object Editing - using the "Non-Uniform Scale" tool to stretch, shrink and resize the upper lip, reducing its thickness until I was satisfied with its proportioning above the lower lip.

Lastly, I did a bit of extruding on the far side of one mouth-end, and "joined meshes" of both the upper and lower lip to be one, and connected the points, filled in the gaps and made one, uniform connection of the lips.  With that corner of the mouth complete, I deleted the other half of the mouth, mirrored the "complete" half, and then joined them to make one complete set of lips.

Here, I have made a screenshot of various views with edges visible, so you can get an idea of what the final mesh looks like:  http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d69/aric_001/SARGE/?action=view&current=lowerface1.jpg

With this work complete, I am now ready to build the lower face, extruding from the mouth's outer edges.

[Arik_the_Red]

Well yes, I got sidetracked and delayed... but back to working on Sarge.

He just got his "racial designation," and finished his main head. 

Here he is, 4 angles, before joining sides and subdividing...

[Arik_the_Red]

And here he is, after joining and subdividing... I did some reworking of the eyeballs, deciding to recess the irises further...

Also, I did a bit of messing with the irises so that they actually have a small ridge effect that may not be quite evident from these shots. I really like the effect it has on giving dimension to the eyes.

[ttsnim]

*Tackle pounce hug*

He looks COOL! 

I like what you did for the eye lids.  I may have to try that some time my self.  ^_^

[headwax]

Very nice work Arik. Maybe a higher spec on the corneas?

[Arik_the_Red]

Like this?

 the spec was at 0.5 before... now at 1.0... not much of a change.

If you're asking because of the somewhat shaded, yellowish look... that was intentional. I was testing to see how it'd look if not white-white... Though I did lighten the yellow a bit in this take.

[floyd86]

Nice model Arik.
Try lowering you rough values for more of a shinny effect on the eyes.