Sergi Caballer – Facial Modeling

Sergi Caballer, Character Modeler & TD/Rigger. He shows in this timelapse his modeling techniques of facial modeling. From blocking out the shapes and thinking directly of topology. Which is a very important for later process and for getting a clean model. He creates in this three (3) timelapses a full facial model with relevant topology for animation purposes and that can be used in production. He explains his workflow in a well described matter in his article. He explains:

Step 1, Blocking Topology: The goals at this point are to define the character’s overall volume and to make the main topological areas ready to add more topology in the next step or to send it to our sculpting software.

Step 2, Final Topology: Added all required topology to achieve nice, fleshy, sliding skin, as well as wrinkles & folds for the character’s future expressions and facial deformations.

Step 3, Final Modeling: Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in through the nose, and out through mouth. Wax on, wax off…

If you are using for example a 3d application like Autodesk Maya and want to start with a good base for a facial model. This is the way to go even if it differs a little bit from stylised to more realistic modeling, the topology is nearly the same. As Sergi Caballer applies box modeling which is his personal taste, you can also use edge modeling techniques for doing the same type of model or realistic ones. You should have topology in mind always.

This a good practice for everyone who want to know the art of poly modeling and understand what topology is, as also stated by Sergi Caballer. This is a great reference for everybody and we hope for more of his advices in the future through timelapses or tutorials.