Ok� I've put this off for a long time, so I've finally decided to sit down and write a tutorial on modeling. After going through tutorial after tutorial on modeling in poly's/sub-d's, I've come up with a workflow that works very well for me and hopefully you too. My co-workers jokingly call it "the Dave Way" .

First off you should have a side and front view of the object (sometimes top too, but I don't need one in this case because most of my detail can be defined in the front and side). When creating these pictures it's a good idea to use graphpaper so that you can make sure your detail is lined up horizontally.

Once your pictures are drawn, scan them in and save them as jpegs (it's a good Idea to make them no larger than 400 pixels wide. The larger your images are, the more memory they will take up and it will slow your progress). Then create a project directory in maya and save your images in your source images folder.

1.) it will allow you to reference the planes so that you don't accidentally select them while you are modeling.

2.) it will allow you to make them visible and invisible at the click of a button.

After you've created your polygon silhouette, the next thing you're going to want to do is subdivide it using your split polygon tool (located under edit polygons>split polygon tool). The trick to keep in mind here is to follow the contours of your drawing while keeping the amount of subdivisions down to a minimum. The more subdivisions you put in on this step, the more points you will have to move in the future. Keeping your subdivisions low while placing them in points of detail will make your modeling go much smoother.

1.) Start out by creating the contour that defines your eye and cheek bone. You should end it off at the bottom of the chin.

2.) Then create a split in the opposite direction that begins on the ridge of the nose, goes through the center of the eye, and ends in the back of the head.

3.) Now is probably a good time to define the jaw line. Take this split up through the top of the head. When placing your splits, try and stay half-way between the two outer edges (this will create a cleaner mesh in the end).

4.) Next, define the line where the mouth will be. Then bring it to the back of the head (notice how I'm placing my edges half-way between the outer edges).

5.) Then split up the top of the head a little by drawing an edge from front to back.

6.) Define the lower edge of the brow by running an edge from front to back.

8.) Break up the neck a little by running an edge half-way between your two outer edges.

9.) Next, define the outer radial of your mouth by creating an edge that meets with the corner of the mouth.

10.) Finally... split up your mesh a little more so that you have even spacing between your edges.

Once you have subdivided your mesh you will need to clean it up a little. You might have created more points than necessary and we want to keep our points to a minimum so that it will be easier to edit further up the road.

To do this you must first select all the verticies within your silhouette. Leave the border edges alone for now they are still needed to define the shape of your object. Also slelect the inside verts of the neck border leaving the outer 2 alone.


Then press the delete key on your keyboard. This will clean up any hanging verts leaving only the ones that exist at intersections.

Once your mesh has been cleaned up, again select all the inside verts (including the ones on the inside of the neck).


Next thing we want to do is bring this model into the third dimension. We do this by simply going to the front viewport and pulling the selected points toward the the outer edge of your drawing.



To create your instance, go to edit>duplicate and open your options dialog box. Check -1 on the scale X direction, then under geometry type check instance.


Now you have the beginnings of your head... not much to look at now but it soon will be.


When modeling, I find it easier to see my wireframe while I'm working. To view your wireframe in your viewport go to shading>shade options>wireframe on shaded.



Next look at the point where your eye is in your side viewport, make sure that it is directly in the center of your eye in the front viewport. Then create a diamond shape with your split polygon tool . This will begin the radial of your eye socket.


Then subdivide the diamond one step further so that you may better define the socket of the eye. As you split your edged try and split as close to the center as possible.


To visualize the eye better, create a nurbs sphere and place it in world space according to your front and side viewports. This doesn't have to be your final eye... just a place holder so that we can form the eyelids around it correctly.




These points will define the eye lids of your head. The next thing your going to want to do is create another radial around the lid to help define that shape a little more.

Grab the verts of this radial and push and pull them in space until you get a good looking eyelid.

Our guy is still a little rough but he's shaping up quickly. It's good to work as light as possible to define your shapes quickly. Don't go overboard trying to add in detail... that will come later. Right now just concentrate on creating the form of the head.

Next thing we will work on is the nose. To start out, draw an edge starting at the upper lip going straight up passing through where the center of the nostril will be and continuing up into the forehead.

As you add in new edges, you should push and pull the points to define your shape better and make it rounder.

Also keep in mind that when you draw these edges you are trying to stay directly between your two outer edges.

The next step is to start to draw in the radial of the nostril. Draw a diamond around the nostril center.

Sub-divide the nostril just as you did with the eye so that you can make it rounder and give more detail to that area.

Then push and pull these points to define the nostril a little better. Notice I'm not adding too much detail to these areas before I move on to the next area.I'm just defining the shape a little, then moving to the next area that needs a little more definition. The reason for this is that if I need to rearrange the direction in which my edges go later... it will be much easier to do with less detail.


Next, we'll go in and define the shape of the lips a little better by adding another radial inside the existing one. This will give us the information needed to define the roundness of the lips.


Next, add some information to the lower lip, going in the opposite direction, all the while splitting the edges evenly.

Push and pull the points you just created to give more roundness to the lip. Our guy is really starting to shape up. With very little effort we've begun to define the shape of his head quite nicely. The main thing to keep in mind (and I can't stress it enough) is to work rough and loose. Try not to get caught up in adding too much detail... that will come in time. It makes it a lot easier to define your shapes when you only have to move a few points as opposed to moving a bunch of them.