Week One

On Your Marks...

Ok so to begin with assignment one.. deep breath!

To start modeling one's own head we need some kind of reference on which to base the model. The easiest and most reliable way to do this was to take photos of my own head. One was taken front on and one taken from the profile view. The photos were taken as close as possible to being the same distance from the lens and therefore will (hopefully) match up pretty closely.

Here are the original photos taken of the front view and profile of my head.



To create the best frame of reference for these photos I need to adjust them slightly to assure that they line up as closely as they possibly can. This I am sure will help when using them in 3D Max as references planes. To start with, the photos although looking pretty flat to the untrained eye, may have a slight convex effect due to the camera that was used when they were taken. Similarly, when the photos were taken the camera was not placed on a tripod but instead held in the hand. This could have altered the angle and height of the photos. It is relatively simple to correct these issues to some degree in Photoshop. To remove the convex appearance I used the Lens Correction option in Photoshop and removed the distortion. Then I used the vertical perspective option to try to match up the photos as much as possible, using natural features to match up the photos such as the tip of the nose, the eye or the lips.

Here are the same photos after being manipulated within Photoshop as detailed above.

Here are the photos together and lined up to the best of my ability.