How To Model A Face In Maya

Whenever I do a human or alien or for most any model I start out with a plane. In the case of a human face you might want to start with the eyes... Its hard to explain in text but here goes.

First you need reference images. its difficult, but not impossible, to do any organic modeling (or most other types of modeling) without using reference material. Google for images such as human model reference etc and you can find images... For a human face/body you want both frontal and side views so that you can get the shape correct in the 3D environment.

Once you have a side and front view of the human you want to model you'll want to create 2 planes in maya and create textures for each of those. Position the two planes with the understanding that one plane will be for the front reference picture and the other for the side reference picture. You might want to make these images (using hypershade options) more transparent than the basic lambert texture you'll be using for the model itself.

Now that you have these reference planes its time the start the model. I would suggest starting out with a plane around the nose or eyes. WORK IN HALFS!!! By working in halfs I mean that you want to position your starting plane so that you are only working on half the model at a time and then later mirror the object over creating the entire face/body model.

Ok I'm going to suggest that you start with the eyes. If you look in the mirror you can, hopefully, see your face in wireframe mode :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: like I can.... If you can, or can't, you should notice that your eyes are essentially a circle and that if you were to take a plane and move around the rim of the eye you could also create a circular shape with the polygons.

Now, position that plane so that it is at the top of the eye. (use the front reference image to align) You will then want to extrude the edge around so that the polygon eventually comes full circle. You will then continue this process for the rest of the face. Take into consideration the lines of the reference images to get a better idea of how the face curves on the forehead, chin, cheeks, etc. Once you have the model in 2D, having only used the front reference image you can then use the side reference image to give the model a 3D quality... I find it useful to start with the nose as that is usually the longest part of the face.

Heres an image.... http://www.secondpicture.com/tutorials/3d/3d_low_polygon_human_head.png

Heres a tutorial I found, though its not using Maya I don't think the principles will remain the same.

http://www.secondpicture.com/tutorials/3d/3d_modeling_of_a_human_head_3ds_max_01.html
-Aiden