My Thoughts and Feelings

Firstly I'm really happy with how the model came out. I truley feel that it looks like me.
I have made heads in 3DS Max before but I found this time a great challenge. This was due to the fact that, before, I was making a head that did not need to look like anyone. Whereas this time I needed to make a head that looked like me. This meant that every verticy and edge had to be in an exact location.

As before when modelling I spent a lot of time making sure the topology and edges flowed smoothly. I also took great care in ensuring that there were only four sided polys.

When I have modelled organic objects before I have not had access to good reference images that can be used in 3DS Max. Instead I have only had pictures from different angles to look at. Having reference images that are lined up was a great help to me while modelling.

In the tutorial we used for this assignment we were shown the method of spline modelling. I usually use, and am most comfortable with using, plane modelling where I create a single plane and extrude the edges out. I found the method used in the turoial easy but still prefer the method I have used before. The spline method I found very complicated during the ear and would have prefered using another method.

After I had gone a great distance into modelling my head I realised that the front reference image was at an angle. I thought I had taken care of this when preparing my images but I had not. This did not make any big changes to my model because I only used the reference images and topology at the beginning of the modelling process. When I had followed the original topology I made a lot of changes to make the model look more like me. To do this I found is useful to have a mirror next to the computer. This also helped when animating.

When making my hair I decided to model it and add a texture. I chose this becasue in my experience the hair and fur modifier is a huge pain to use. Not only does it use a lot of memory and render time. It is very difficult to style and colour.
The hair texture resolution, when on the model, does not look as high as the face texture. I do not know why this is as they were taken from the same reference images.

When making the texture diffuse map for my face, I found that the reference images varied in lighting. This meant that the skin tone in the left photo was more yellow and red. Wile the skin tone in the front photo was more white and pink. I spent some time using the colour balance and hue and saturation features in Photoshop CS4 to blend the two skin tones.

In the textures there are some very pronounced seams. I could have spend a long time patching these up because I found a good tutorial on the internet. However, I decided not to do this as the hair and shirt I modelled covered them up.

As per usual with all 3D modelling and animation assignments, I reall enjoyed myself. I relished the new challenges I faced I think I am now a better 3D modeller because of them.
As I have said before, I really think the model looks like me. The model textures and even animation all combined to create something I am quite proud of.