Hoping to create a character that looks something like the real Bruce for an animation I’m working on.
Current face topology:
I saw Bruce Lee straight away. Definitely a cartoon style face, but keep up the good work.
haha. ok that’s him
Oh that’s him alright. Great job, I’d like to see where this goes.
really nice start, definatly keeping an eye this one, cant wait to see his crazy phsyco face 
peace
Thanks for the positive feedback! 
Not much further (ears can be tricky), though I’m thinking he’ll look a lot more Bruce-like when I add those thick eyebrows and hair (just wondering whether to go for particles or solid, given that this will be for animation). Might work on the body.
I see the resemblence.
Nice job man!
Erm … I wasn’t going say anything (I usually don’t participate in critique here … anymore anyway) but since when I was a very young boy (a very long time ago) and Bruce Lee was a sort of idol of mine and all … could I remind you he was a Cantonese Chinese American ? And also the fact that I am also from that part of the world (Korea) originally … I just have to say that your current mesh does not look very much like him … He was a man from the Far East and had certain characteristics that almost all “Han” people have (the Han are the largest ethnic group in China … they speak Mandarin etc. but for certain generic facial characteristics they can stand in as the stereotype “Northeast Asian”) like a general flatter face/profile in most cases … in short he doesn’t look “Asian” enough … right now he reminds me more of James Woods …
Actually let me just give you a bit of “kung fu” cinema history from Hong Kong so that hopefully I don’t give you the impression that I am just trying to be mean … Right after Lee died there were a host of “Bruces” running around in the kung fu movie genre … there was Bruce Le, Bruce Lu, Bruce La … well you get the picture … all “action stars” who all sort of looked like him somewhat with the same “Beetle’s” hair cut that the original had … And I have seen almost all of the god awful lot … and none of them looked like him nor for that matter had as good a sense to as to how to make a good martial arts film as he did …
Hell, not to brag or anything but when I was a teenager I used to amuse my friends by doing the “classic” expression that he did in almost all his movies (he was a great choreographer. not a great actor) … Like the expression you have your image so far, though in the movies he slides his gaze from side to side … Which btw is actually a visual conceit from the imagery found in Classical Chinese and Japanese painting (the really pissed off god/warrior images … also look at Kurosawa’s use of the same) …
And finally and hopefully some pointers about the face (I am not using any referances btw, just generalizing from memory) : 1) his face is too “pointy”, as in his cheek bone should be more prominent relative to the corners of his eyes 2) his face is too long top/down wise - his face is quite a bit more “square” then that 3) his eyes are waaaay too big (I know with the proviso of what I said above) but even still I think they are too big even if you are going for a caricature … (also I did mention that he was Cantonese … and actually the further south you go down the northeast Pacific rim the epicantal(sic) fold “softens” to where say the Cambodians don’t always have the “uni-lid” and you get something in between “Caucasian” eyelids and “Chinese” ones - and Bruce Lee was about 90% towards asian but he did have a second layer) … but 4) I think you got very close to getting his nose right …
I hope you don’t take what I’ve said the wrong way but hey you’re not that far from the Pacific Rim yourself … and trust me just because they (we) don’t say it to your face (not that you are dealing with Asians at all in this case) they don’t think it … I was often told by even my own countrymen that they thought that I was Chinese or Japanese and not Korean even though both my parents are Korean … When you grow up in the localized Northeastern Pacific rim culture you get sensitized to certain facial characteristics (odd by European standards) but it is still there, an odd cultural “heritage” but still something perceptible none the less …
If you are using references would you mind posting them the next time you up date ? … It seems a lot of people are reacting to the the “pissed off god/warrior” thing then to what his face really looked like …
Also if you are going to animate you might have more loops/verts then necessary in the face in the first place …
yeah! love it!
I don’t like posting reference shots because it invites too much of the wrong kind of criticism (turning the feedback to “spot the individual discrepancies from the photo” instead of an exercise in creativity) although I’d already been considering some of the things you were saying. I made a few hand drawings of Lee prior to modeling although my main “backdrop” reference is this one.
I had found that once I made spherical eyeballs they did not “sit right” in the eyes until quite a bit of reshaping.
I’m in half a mind about whether it’s the right thing to post the reference image or not as there is a good chance the feedback quality will fall flat from herein as a result. Please understand that I’m not trying to reproduce the reference photo… it’s only a starting point and there are other images of Lee other photos as well as owning some of his films which I am keeping in mind.
That said, hope you can help me to make this look great like I want it to. Thanks again those who have been giving feedback.
Well actually the references do help me out since I was going from memory (yes I could have googles it but … just lazy) though I think some what I said is valid and I am glad you are taking this as constructive criticism .
Seeing it next to the reference I can now point out a few things with a bit more precision :
- the lower part of the face and the nose are pretty close - except for where the corners of the mouth and the cheeks meet - you might want to rotate that “triangle” a bit more …
- one of the problem with the “non asian-ness” in my eyes are right below the eyes, the zygomatic bone I think it is called, the part of the skull bone that makes up the lower portion of the eye socket, isn’t wide enough and should be pulled foward a bit more - this is the part of the face in most asians that produce the impression of “flatness” in the face along with a smaller nose
- the eyes need some more work too … yes the existence of the epicantal fold gives some people the impression that we have no eyelids to some people but from the brow to about mid way to the eyelashes you should put a crease for at least an indication of the shape of the eyes underneath … especially with Bruce Lee … He was Cantonese and he did have non-epicantal lids along with epicantal ones, a bit of a hybrid if you will, though it was very close to his eyelashes - though this might be too much detail then what you want … also right now you have the upper eyelid a bit too close to the eyeball - if you “thicken” that up a bit more along with the above changes the eyes I think will give you a more “asian” impression
- his head/skull is too big - I guess you got confused by the puffy hair
And another thing that seeing the reference photos helps me see is the fact the the side view is a bit off (5-10 degrees) which when you are using them to model off of isn’t very helpful especially when you are trying to get someone’s likeness . I don’t use “in-screen” background references because this anymore . The last time I tried to a likeness I just opened up a UV image window and put the reference image there so I had something to look at . This can be more helpful then a slightly off photo that you are snapping verts to …
And I agree with you about “not trying to reproduce the reference photo” . Making portraits of any kind is trying understand the impression that a face gives the viewer not trying produce a “scanned” clone . And in the spirit of that, another excerise you might want to do is to do a few quick caricatures of Bruce Lee to see what the essential elements of his face that reminds you of him . I used to do that when I was younger and making a few bucks doing portraits in oils and it usually helped to get a resemblance a lot faster .
And lastly, just a personal/technical point … it has been my experience that having a lot fewer vertices to work with means an easier time getting to the model you want . Usually for a face/head around a 500 poly count with the mirror modifier on (so around a 1000 when finished) is more then enough to get a “realistic” head . And also turning the subsurf modifier off once in while (I don’t turn it on until I am well done blocking in the main features) also helps tidy things up .
Good luck with your project !
Thanks for your input.
To be honest, I’m feeling a little disillusioned with the character at this time. The more I play with it the less authentic he looks. Decided to stop work on the head for now because the deadline I’ve made when I’m supposed to start animating is looming… I need to get the bigger picture done fast, so have started roughing out a somewhat less poly-intensive body.
So, brief update while I go for lunch…
I’m not looking that pleased with how tis is turning out. It doesn’t have to be Bruce, but would be good if I could get him close. Going to be a bit of a job cutting down facial verts to match the head to the body verts.
really really nice!
Thanks. :o
There’s not much difference here. Mainly sewed the neck and somewhat unsuccessfully tried some of Vertex Pusher’s face shaping suggestions. I thikn the mouth needs to be a lot smaller although doing so while keeping it in proportion to my reference photos is difficult and I’m also having a hard time trying to flatten out the sunken eyelids whilst keeping the edges of the eyes touching the eyeballs (I have moved the eyeballs slightly forward to try). The mesh is going to need a lot of reworking, and also likely a fair bit of getting rid of excessive edgeloops.
I think it looks quite good and it might be that it doesn’t look like Bruce do to the missing hair and the missing eyebrows. The eyes don’t quite look like they match up.
It’s been ages since I looked at posting anything on this, but my production deadline is very due, so I’m putting it up somewhat incomplete to get maybe a little last minute feedback.
I know the hair looks plastic, UV seams are showing etc. The reel is animation based so textures, and even models aren’t really counted… but here you go…
Modelled with Blender, animation in Maya due to the course I’m on (glad they allowed me to mix Blender in).
…I hope the putfile link works for everyone.
It’s a very good video. If you wanted any critique, I’d say that perhaps you should focus on the smaller point of Bruce Lee’s movements? Watch any fight movies (best to be actually bruce lee) and watch body movement. You have the position doe really well, I think if you wanted to get a better result, you should work on the speed of his movement and work on portraying power behind his hits. Othehrwise it’s lookin pretty good 
Thanks. Yes you are right… animation is very much about motion and timing. Single frame can make a big difference to the ka-pow factor.
At this point, I won’t be able to change much as the deadline for the whole reel is Thursday and I’ve got lots to touch up on other animations. This particular one is tricky because it uses two people with on-and-off “lock” (Jim’s hand sticks to Bruce’s body, whose own hand then sticks to Jim). When you do this kind of thing, changing timings during the grip can completely throw keys causing a near-impossible to repair pop when the grip is later released. Also, if I were to speed up, say, the pull down from Bruce, then I’d need to adjust reactions from Jim to compensate (or else their arms could start going through each other etc).
I’m feeling lazy knowing the deadline is near. It’s so strange. I have lots to do.
Hey, I’m not saying it’s essetial 
It still looks good Good luck with al your deadlines