Quick Head Edge Loop Test - Blend included

Artwork Finished Projects
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http://65.26.113.38/www/smerity/loophead.jpg

This is my quick head loop test… Most of the time spent on it has been starting a head, doing some random edge looping, finding out what I did well and what I stuffed, untill I got this (not finished, but I’m so bored of it lol) final image…
I think I went thru 3-4 revisions of each iteration of the head…

Anyway, I have had no previous experience with edge looping, this being my first major test, and some areas I stuffed up (or didn’t finish lol), with the main area I stuffed the mesh being the right part of the eye, you can see the seriously sharp corner there etc etc

Anyway, I hope it helps someone, and no, I really can’t be bothered to finish the mouth, but he sorta has a grin, altho freaky one lol

Blends -
rar http://65.26.113.38/www/smerity/rp8fin.rar
zip http://65.26.113.38/www/smerity/rp8fin.zip

PS. Just a tip, if you are worried you may screw up a section, seperate it out from the rest of the mesh and do it as usual, you may notice I edge looped around the nose and worked in (cuz I suck at noses… heads also for that matter lol)

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It’s a very good model. That’s all I need to say about it.

btw, For some reason I don’t know what edge looping is, could someone explain it to me please?

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Wiggie:
http://maxrovat.sns.hu/subdiv/
Look under “Subdiv modeling” and scroll down.

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Head modeling’s a bitch, innit;)? Ain’t no expert myself, but I do think I see one potential problem. Outside the corner of the mouth, there’s a weird intersection creating a pole and thus interupting the flow. I think you should break it up and have the line coming from the nosearea continue below and around the lowerlip, and let the line coming from the cheekarea connect with the edge of the mouth. Wish I could show you a picture of what I mean, but I don’t have internet access on my home comp, so:/
I’m no expert modeller of course, but I have studied a L-O-T of wires %|

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Oh that! I know what subdividing and ‘cutting’ is and I’ve been using it too, I just didn’t know it was also called edge looping. :expressionless:

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Wiggie:
It is not one and the same! Edge loops are a concept in subdiv modeling. I guess you’ve forgotten the “scroll down” part … (it’s the last thing on that page, under the headline “Edge loops”)

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ok, i should really know this, but how do you get the wireframe render to have curves… i know how to set my material to render jsut the wireframe, but you got the wires looking curves…almost like a NURBS “wireframe”…or does blender always make curved wireframes when u set it to do so in the material window? argh… i cant play around with blender, as im @ school.

–upgrdman

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Try rendering with subsurf off. :slight_smile:

Nice looking model so far. Just above the bridge of the nose where the eyebrows would meet, it looks a little strange. A little flat I think. Also between where the outer edges of the eyes and eyebrows are, looks too pinched. There is lots of shadow there. Are you planning on modelling the whole head?

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looks good!try making the stretching around the mouth area a bit less…and you are there!

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Nice face you got there! I have been looking into modelling a head in Blender, and would love if you would post a little more info on how you did the edge loops. I have done a lot of research into the technique and think it might work best if I could use this method. There is an excellent tutorial on http://www.thehobbitguy.com/tutorials/polymodeling/ but using Maya. My biggest problems are cutting good loops (using knife?) as I end up loosing a lot of my quads and creating a lot of weird faces. I can’t even start right, as I try to create an outline but cannot cut it because it has no faces, only edges. Any ideas on modelling a good head or using edge loops?

If anyone is interested check out http://cube.phlatt.net/home/spiraloid/ for some artwork and tutorials by Bay Raitt (the guy who made Gollum on LoTR) he explains a little about modelling/sculpting.

Sorry if this was long winded, my first post here :slight_smile: I love blender!

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hey guys, thanx for all your comments =)

Bellorum - Yeah, certainly is a bit of a bug. If I was going to continue modelling this head it would be an issue, and well noted, so thanx =)

upgrdman - Just hit the Wire button like normal and render out the model with subsurf on for that smooth look. I think that shows the edge loop example better than a hard non-subsurfed box poly look (and about school, I feel your pain, I’m going back in two weeks for Year 9 :-?)

three-dee - I wanted the mesh to have a very smooth look, cuz thats the way I thought of my edge modelling while constructing it =)
Yes, I do have quite a few issues with my head modelling lol, and I’ll remember them next time I create a head ! =) But no, I only made this as my first experiment into edge looping, and I really can’t be bothered to finish it lol (like most of my things sigh), but if I keep going the way I am, I should be creating a character soon :slight_smile: Also, about the right part of the eye, I noted that in my original post =) I tried making a quad at a very weird angle lol, but they eyebrow part I will need to work on

kos - thanx, next project I’ll keep an eye on the mouth area

sector0 - I’m at my dad’s work right now and doing maintenance on his comps, but once I get home I’ll post some of my edge looping shots…

Anyway, I’ll just write something to keep you enticed till I get home… What I did was I got a reference face image, and actually drew the mesh over it to begin with, and after 3-4 quick tries and noticing too many polies here or there etc, I had it… Then I went into Blender, and made it exactly as the example image I created, but as a note, it doesn’t always work perfectly cuz sometimes you get a vert in a very weird angled area, or don’t have enough verts to preserve the general structure. With the new Edge Cut tools (I don’t use Select too much =)) it’s really easy to get the detail needed into those areas. So, just as a note, I modelled hand by hand until when I started fixing up some of the low detailed areas, which I then used Knife.

BTW, I love the hobbit guys tute, his ogre RULES! =) And also, Bay Raitt’s Gollum gave me LOTS of inspiration, as I got a book for Christmas with a pic of Gollum’s perfectly edge looped face :slight_smile:
(and are you joking about long winded, I’ve seen posts 10 times as long with 5% as much sense =) and welcome to Elysiun btw lol, great community, just get into it!)

Anyway, as I said, when I get back home I’ll post some more details on my edge loop construction.

Thanx everyone, happy blending :slight_smile:

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Well, you’ve done well! Edge looping is excellent for head modelling. :slight_smile:

Oops. Missed that. :stuck_out_tongue:

You should check out the gallery. There is a goblin in there that is excellent. There is also a small animation of the goblin in the animation page.

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Hey, soz for the delay, spent the last 4 hours at home fooling around with a Wacom tablet my dad bought me out of the blue (well, I did about 9 hours of computer maintenance at the small law firm he owns)…

Just to show u I’m not bullshitting (and just want to show off lol), my first ever project was to colour and shadow a sketch from Feng Zhu’s site (awesomest sketch artist in the world lol, http://www.artbyfeng.com/) and this pic was originally black and white with no shadows… Still not done, but meh
http://65.26.113.38/www/smerity/char_02rev1.jpg
Just a note, I was trying to shoot for anime magazine style =)

Anyway, back on subject, to finish sector0’s question on how I did edge loops… What I did was I sketched on wires of where the edges should go for me and noted every vector… The inspiration I got for that was from this, forever ago, from CGTalk Forums (can’t remember link, soz)… I’m not showing mine, because in comparsion to the quality of this one, eek
http://65.26.113.38/www/smerity/topology_study.jpg
Just do that to one reference image and work generally off that… One tip tho, its better to start super low poly and loop cut later on, since then you are only adding the detail u need nessacary =) High poly meshes seem to very inorganic bumpy unless in uber professional hands…

three-dee, yeah, saw the Goblin mpeg on his site a while ago, don’t believe I forgot lol, at the start of it he has the wisest “I know everything, welcome to my world” kinda smile lol

Thanx once again

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An update to the Wacom tablet painting thing, it’s finally done :slight_smile:
http://65.26.113.38/www/smerity/char_02rev2.jpg

I’m sorry for clogging this thread, but since I posted one part I thought I may as well do the conclusion :slight_smile:

Anyway, blend on! =)

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Thanks for the info (ooo I want a wacom!). I guess my question is more on how you actually did the loops in blender (technical details). I can’t seem to get loops going right, they end up just cutting up the mesh into tris and it doesn’t look anything like what I just cut. Your model has all nice quads (i think) and flows nicely! I know you explained a little but I am dense and cannot really follow well :frowning:

Taking the ogre tut for example, I tried to draw an outline using verts and that worked, but it was not filled with a single face and would not cut. I tried making my own faces, but when I cut them all it did was make a huge mess. I am correct in assuming you use the knife tool? (Shift-K)

EDIT: Sorry for taking up this thread, I am going to start a new one in Blender General since it is more of a Q&A thing.

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secto0 - lol, man, trust me, ur not thick! :slight_smile: It takes quite a bit of time to get used to 3D, Blender, and all the techniques nessacary for it, just keep going… BTW, don’t worry about clogging this thread, its weird as hell already lol

Anyway, faces don’t form automatically, you need to use the F key, and don’t ever trust Blender’s control-F (I think thats it lol, never use it =)) cuz it makes lots of unnessacary tris, and weird connections.

Anyway, the main idea is to have exactly the same number of verts so they connect line by line, to form quads… Look at the wire over a face painting thing above, and notice how its all the lines interlap and close off a quad…

Finally, I don’t use the Knife tool! Don’t use it for edge looping, Blender got some fabulous loop cutting and selecting tools recently from Goofster! =) The buttons for it are Control R and Shift R… Shift is I think select an edge loop, and control is for cutting =) (I think I don’t think well =))

If you’re still having trouble, don’t hesitate to IM me, or private message me =)

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Thanks for sharing, Smerf! 8)
Congrats on the Wacom tablet, looks like you are doing a great job putting it to use so far. :slight_smile:

-Natron