human head anatomy (with blend file)

since i am learning so much from helpful ba forum and my blog readers too, and since i love blender as a sculpting tool, i decided that i want give back to the blender community. so, i made a tool to study human head anatomy, to help those who want sculpt or model human heads with learning proportions and those muscles of the face that affect the surface. … so i made a blend file to share. it was complety done in blender, no zbrush was harmed, i just mention, since i know that some of you care about such :wink: … the blend file contains

  • in layer 1 a male skull as a multires mesh with nice low poly basemesh, the jaw is extra object and can be rotated, in case you want sculpt an open mouth. (sculpted from reference fotos, so it is in real world proportions),
  • the muscle system in layer 2, the ring muscle around the eyes is sculpted in two versions, one with eyes open, the other with eyes closed. the muscles are named properly so you can look them up in anatomy books if interested.
  • nose, ears and eyes in layer 3.

i made the models as accurate as possible, but i am aware that still there might be some flaws as i am no super expert but average anatomy knowledge person. but, i used reference fotos for everything, so it should be close to the real thing…

the image below shows pictures of this content of the blendfile, plus a sketch sculpt to suggest a way to use this blendfile to learn sculpting heads in correct proportions etc:

add a cube, subdivide a few times and jump into dynatopo sculpt. use constant and a large detail size (around 40%) and approximate the skull. then put detail size to about half, and approximate closer, and so on… in the last step i disabeled symmetry added mass for the hair and added a little volume on the jaw and chin and under the brow where glands are under neath the skin… this sculpt is not contained in the blend file.


feel free to use the blend file as wished, even if you do not want study but like to have a nice skull for your scary project :wink: … if you want share the file with someone else, please do as is without altering it. … please enjoy!

Awesome!!!

Thanks for sharing and good work keep it up.

This is amazing, thank you doris, and I’ve not even looked at the .blend file yet!

Looking through your sketchbook in awe of your sculpts (except end of year orc :D), especially like your Margaret Rutherford, great character study. You’re very talented.

Thank you kindly,

David

Thanks Doris - this is very generous! This will be an excellent reference. I’m looking forward to using it!

thank you. i am very happy when you can make use of it. this was my intention. …
haha, so you did not like the orc, david black…hmm hmm, yes you are right it is really a weak sculpt. good taste man!.. joking aside, i am glad you enjoyed my sketchbook and particularly that you like one of my favourite sculpts (miss marple)… thank you…

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

Haha, just when I needed a skull for a reference :slight_smile:

Thanks Doris, and great work! :wink:

This is very cool, and I enjoyed looking at the model! Did you model the base mesh of the skull without sculpting it at all? What is your workflow when creating a sculpt from scratch? Do you usually create a simple modeled mesh and then sculpt all of the details, or just sculpt the entire thing? Also, I have never been very good at sculpting so do you have any tutorials that you recommend, or a good place to start?

bonrw1, this is great!
italianjoy (what a nice forums name :-)) … the skull is first sculpted from a cube as dynatopo in one piece with most of the detail. then i retopo by hand, and made the retopo so that the jaw is extra object. i then created the inside of the model by duplicating parts and editing the mesh. when this was finished, i made vertex groups for the shrink wrap modifier “shrink only here”… i use multires modifier and shrinkwrap only on the vertex group “shrink only here”. now i have the separate objects, the outside looking like what i had sculpted in dynatopo, and i sculpted a little on the inside and final detail on the multires to finish off the meshes… … yes, i do tutorials at sculptcookie, there are tutorials for basic sculpting on head. also blender cookie has some good tutorials on sculpting. other than that, i must admit i don’t know tutorials, but maybe these get you started…

@Doris: Ah, I see! Very interesting! :slight_smile:

I did my first Retapo of a head today, it’s pretty hard, but I’m sure I’ll pick it up :yes:
I have seen your tutorials on Sculptcookie, and I must admit, I have learnt quite a bit from them! :slight_smile: It’s nice to see all the different techniques for making heads, like Kent Trammell’s “How to create a realistic 3d portrait in blender” and Jonathan Williams’ “Sculpting a human head in blender” And your’s :slight_smile: I always aim to be a good sculptor, and these have really helped me out loads,
Thank you all! :slight_smile:

Thanks doris, this will be really helpful! I always struggle with cheekbones, but to see it in “true 3d” really makes it more clear. Thanks again, that you do that for the community is amazing ( I mean, what a pain must have been the retopo of the skull :P)

thanks bonwr1
thanks suboptimal…glad it solves some problem for you, this is exactely what i hoped for … oh, the retopo was not that hard, it looks more complicated than it actually is. and, from time to time, i like the zenlike state working on retopo creates :slight_smile:

Just one thing: does anyone know where to find good head textures free?

Started checking out your sketchbook. Wow - superb sculpting! Thank you for the Blend file with the head reference material. I cant do dynatopo at the moment because the laptop I use blender on is a Thinkpad and not up to it - I wish I could sculpt with your skill and I wish I had a decent system to practice on !

thank you bunc for checking out my sketchbook… hmm, actually when i started using dynatopo i also had just an old weak airbook,the small one even, and i was able to sculpt in dynatopo. of course, on such a little machine you cannot push the polygon count too high, but for roughing out the sculpts it does a fine job. and, that is what dynatopo is meant for. the fine sculpting then has to be multires anyway, for a clean result… so, try it, but keep the detail size fairly large to keep the mesh relativley lowpoly. i dont know a thinkpad, but i guess it is similar to an airbook…

Thanks for this. Found this thread from the post on BlenderNation.com
One can never have too many skull models :slight_smile:

Many thanks!!! :smiley:

yes, so right! everyone is different, and each a learning too for sculpting (or a fun piece for render :-))

Thanks Doris, I want to develop my sculpting skills and this is a great way to start learning. :slight_smile: