I love how you get straight to the point. So much tutorial content on youtube means well but takes so long to get to things. In 2016 content needs to focus on immediacy and you do it well. Thanks for this man.
Whoa your lesson is a lot more sensible than the way my professor taught us. The way he told us to do it was more complex but this is much more sensible and easy to understand. Thank you!
yeah, my teacher basically had us draw on or topology flat and then bring all of the verts forward or backward depending on where they needed to go. It took forever to do.
+James Taylor i understand streamlining, but like the other people commenting here i am being taught the hard way of doing things vert by vert, is there any difference overall? I mean overall the flow of polys is nice and topology but i really want to know what the catch is
These video tutorials are timeless. Often times you go to tutorials like this and they are outdated. But because you teach the fundamentals and not just some quick and easy trick, they will remain relevant 20 years from now.
Thank you so much! Your tutorial was really easy to follow along and you explained all the steps clearly. It made my modelling far less strenuous than it was before. Thank you again. Your technique is great btw.
Just getting into the basics of 3D modeling and watching things like this have me pumped for what I'll be able to tackle soon enough :) Great tutorial James
You have such a knack for content rich, easily understood tutorials. You blow me away every time. Learned a bunch of things in this one that will speed up some tasks. Great job as always!
You know , I always look for this one method that just speaks to me, that feels natural, makes sense. THIS is the method I will use for low poly heads from now on. The cylinder method works just awesome, all these loops already done! Thank you Sir
If you have any dificulties following dont be afraid to put the play speed at 0.5, plus if you're up late it all makes sense for James Taylor to be drunk.
Love the amount of explanation in this. A lot of people put stupid music over these types of videos, or do speed videos, or use maximum time, while failing to explain anything important. I've already made a face, and been through a good number of these videos, but I've learned at least a few things in just the few minutes I watched of this as I skimmed through. I'm just glad I found this before animating my face.
I've gone through this multiple times by now - and I need to say: my heads start to look decent. Here and there I got some trouble / things don't always work out perfectly. - But that's normal and everything looks fine if I spend a while tweaking stuff. However I can never imagine me doing a head at this speed. Like, the first head took me close to seven hours (okay, I wasn't familiar with Maya but still, that's a lot of time). By now I pretty much memorized the first half of the video and can kind of speed through - but the whole connecting-collapsing-bridging-process once you have your landmarks (mouth, eyes, nose) layed down is still so time consuming ^^ Though; I'm down to 2-3 hours. That being said: Once more thank you so much for your awesome tutorials :D They were kind of the fast track for me to realize my ideas/concepts and work very well for me. Thank you so much :D
+Anakiana thanks for sharing your process, I me to hear how artists are using my tutorials. :) I will have a new head modeling vid coming out next month, it is a bit more streamlined than this one!
+Anakiana the extended cut is available on my site now, still working on the youtube cut! methodj.com/methodj-downloads/character-modeling-video-tutorial-downloads/
+SSJKenpachiZaraki the extended cut is available on my site now, still working on the youtube cut! methodj.com/methodj-downloads/character-modeling-video-tutorial-downloads/
I started using maya for visualisation in my masters of architecture. So i´m familiair with orthogonal modelling, but this realy helped me starting to maybe create some characters and other organic objects as well. What´s so nice about your video´s is that you do not stretch the info regarding the method with which you create the typology. Your method is pretty straightforward, it just changes every time. Like a rubikscube ;) The concept landed(in my head) the first time I saw the video. Very much thanks. I'll keep in mind to support you through fan-support in the near future.
I want to be a video game character designer, and i saw that requirements from a lot of big games companies are art skills and 3d modelling using Maya or other software. I never knew I would have to do 3d as well to get ahead, so this has just broken my spirit and brain a little. It helps knowing that there are a lot of people in my position with little to no knowledge of this software, and that there are helpful videos like this to get me started. Obviously I need to start of something more simple than this to understand Maya, but I think its useful to see whats to come when i get better at it.
Bruh, you shouldn't start here. Start by doing basic objects like a mug a sword or a table. James Taylor is awesome but mabye someone like Mike Hermes would suit you better. Check his channel he does objects mostly probs.
is it just me or his voice is therapeutic? thank u for this james. being in a so called international level institute i couldn't learn properly but i have followed ur body modeling tutorial and i learned right away. this too helped me clear the loops and all my confusions about face modeling. Wish u good luck! :)
These tutorials of yours are all REALLY AMAZING!!!!! There are tons of tutorials out there, however yours look much more clear and straight to the point!!! Also very simple and fun to do, stimulating Maya practice instead of scaring the viewer away ;) . Congratulations and Thank You Very Much!!!
This has to be the best face modeling tutorial I have ever seen!. Great construction method and very good narration. Wish I have had a video like this when i was a student :)
I'm just modelling right now my first real 3D model with this tutorial and do you know what, it looks awesome so far! I watched 2-3 independent tutorials for 3D stuff that really helped me alot. Now I recognized, all of them were from you^^ You know how to explain stuff in a short and efficient way where everything makes sense. Thank you.
I wish you lived near so I could buy you a beer man, thank you so much for this. You have helped and saved so many of us. Will reference and credit you in my dissertation :)
Hey everyone, anyone who has a problem at 8:05 is because he has deleted that edge between the nostril edge and the center edge of the spectrum. If you delete that edge it would solve your problem. After that you may realise that you geometry doesn't look the same way as his when he makes the connection using the cut tool. Few seconds later the result will be the same when he deletes some edges. Let me know if it helped you.
yeah the face is the hardest part. my first 3d model came out pretty good but man it was super hard. and yes i did use your tutorial and than you for that james.
I've just been researching tutorials on youtube for future projects, and i wanted to say your channel looks incredible! i haven't properly delved into them yet but thanks for these tutorials. :)
Thanks you James. Been Learning Maya on my own before taking classes on animation. These Vids have been a huge help getting a base model before i get to specifically messing with the charterers to form them into fantasy characters.
I saw this video about a month ago, and I have since made several models using this technique, and I just now realized I had neither Liked nor expressed my gratitude. Thank You so much for this video! I'm no longer apprehensive towards modeling heads. I've watched this whole series, aswell as all Your available uploads, and You're a great teacher. Your enthusiasm is very contagious. Be safe! CÄ
I know I already thanked you on the other video (The body modelling video) but thanks again.. I have finished the body, and now I am working on the head thanks to you!
Your Videos are really good, I don't use them to make the same type of models you make but for the most part, your technique works. I don't need your paid versions bc these work fine for me but when I am able, I plan on getting them just simply because of how much help you are so you can get some contribution and keep posting videos.
I could cry you described things well in this cut I will be going for the extended I'm gaining my Bachelors in 3D Modeling and Animation and have struggled with heads I just couldn't crack the code thank you so much! You may have saved my bacon this semester!
As an aspiring Video Game artist I want to let you know just how much I appreciate these tutorials and I thank you for them, just one thing though, I've now got the head and the body and I know that much of this is problem solving but I don't know how to connect the head to the body as the head has a lot more subdivisions than the neck of the body, could you help please?
Hi James thank you so much for this tutorial it helps so much, Quick question: what on earth is going on at 8:05? a vertex appears suddenly and a bunch of edges? how did you do that? it looks like all you did was select the edge option. Im kinda stuck here so would appreciate your help thnx
The League of Cardboard Looks like I used the multi cut tool to cut from the corners of the nostril opening to the septum, basically adding two new points to that area, and also continuing the quad row the nostril opening is part of. It is possible that I used Connect Components, too, which would look like I just selected those edges and then suddenly they were connected.
Also your tutorials are among the best I've come across. its the clarity, concise, get to the point way you have of doing it. Will definitely be following you closely
This video is great. Very well presented on how to create a relatively simple head base mesh. Many other methods/approaches I've seen taught are much more unnecessarily complicated/poorly demonstrated.
OMG, this is waaaaay easier than my teacher taught me, I started with a plane and making it round the head and then started with eye and mouth. You doit way managed sir, Epic.
James your all tutorials are meaningful but here u are not showing how to setup eyes,tongue,teeth etc .in the character so i am confusing ....can u plz make me clear
I got some troubles about the way you did some topology. In the cheeks area for example.there are loops kinda confused. But I generaly took a lots of good informations. Thanks for the job.
@MethodJTV Animation? Walk while tossing a ball up, for instance? Texturing? Movement of characters and camera movements? I don't see these things on UA-cam much, and your videos are short, quick and to the point.
Hey James , god bless you , your tutorials are wayyyyyyyyyyyyy better then the others, they are really to the point and easy to follow. Can you please do a video for maya muscle ? there's not even a single helpful video on youtube for that. :(
+Mubbashir Irtaza Siddiqui I've been trying to think of ways to fake muscles using much simpler techniques, if I ever get there I will post a video on it!
Thanks for all of your videos. You should have way more views than you do. All of your techniques are very helpful, and you actually explain the reasons behind what you do (unlike most other instructional videos). I noticed that you do a lot of work in Maya, and not Max. Do you have any specific reason for choosing Maya for character modeling? I have done some basic modeling, retopology, rigging, facial / skeletal animation... but I've had a lot of trouble with max's performance with flex in both 2012 and 2015. Also, the UV editor crashes on me quite often, even when doing simple operations.
Fria Gram at this point I use maya out of habit. I started out as a max user, and switched to maya around version 4.0. At the time, the user interface was much better, faster and easier to use than max. Really the software you use is generally personal preference - though, if you want to do this as a living, you need to work with industry standard packages; max and maya are both good for that.
Ok, I've used max 2012 a lot. The UI has always been a little slow, but not too bad. It is a lot smoother in 2015, so I might try that. It's just a bit of an annoyance since many import/export plugins dropped support when the 64 bit support came out. This is unrelated, but do you have any tutorials/guides for creating hair/low poly hair for character models? I have seen a few different methods for creating alpha test materials, but nothing great that produces a seamless integration with the mesh/planes.
Terry Morse thank you! I shot these ref images myself in a studio. Definitely the best way to get high quality reference photos, just need lights, a good camera, and the right model to pose.
Marvelous tutorial. A bit fast at times, but nothing 0.25 speed didn't fix. In both this and your newest video, you skip the attaching to the neck though. With the mismatch of verts, I was wondering if it's more efficient to up the polygon count on the neck/body or if there is an efficient way to lessen the count on the head. I'm just beginning to grasp a more efficient workflow, so if you could answer that'd be fantastic!
+Mistook no, you don't want to add faces where you don't need them. The extended cut off the female head modeling video goes in depth on connecting the head and neck: some of it is turning rows so they go a different direction, and you can always triangle things out under the jaw the worst case scenario.
James Taylor Thank you so much for the response! I don't think I ever stared as intensely at any video as I did last night, but I managed to sort out the topology by turning one row, and removing a partial loop at the back. I didn't think I could get excited over something so trivial, but there you have it. You're awesome!
Hi James very great Tuto on modeling!!! Thanks for sharing!! One technical question though, do you use a special script to duplicate the side of the face and keep working on one side? Or is it the duplicate special or an other tool within maya? Got to say, looks pretty handy..!! Thanks anyway.
Melvic Sosa ha ha, right now even I am having trouble seeing what I did there! :D Looks like I used the multi cut tool to cut from the corners of the nostril opening to the septum, basically adding two new points to that area, and also continuing the quad row the nostril opening is part of.
What are your thoughts on a High poly to low poly sculpting workflow? In the context of games and animations. By the way, your videos rock. I don't say that often at all. Your tutorials are a lot more efficient than most videos out there.
InternetMan thank you, efficiency is what I'm going for! High poly to low poly is really up to the artist's preference at this point. Retopology tools make it easy to restructure even the densest meshes. I personally like starting the modeling process in maya, just because I like the control modeling gives me - and then that base mesh gets sculpted on top of, but I still have it as the basis for my low res in-game mesh.
Let me start by saying how helpful ALL of your videos are. I've gotta thank you for helping me get started with character modeling at all, but I am just looking for some more help with the general tools that you use in your tutorials. I apologize that some of these are likely basic, but I've somehow missed them while learning new techniques in Maya. How do you duplicate primitives so quickly, and where can I find the Soft Select and Connect Components tools? Also, I'm very curious about the workflow between Maya and Mudbox and where Mudbox fits into the char animation process. Thanks for all of your help thus far, haha it's really clear that you do a lot for this community of designers and artists that are learning more every day :)
Great tutorial! However, I did get lost on what happened after the laugh line collapsed. There was a change in topology, and you've mentioned there's an extended video covering what happened. Unfortunately, in Canada, I cannot access that video. I look forward to checking it out once it's available. Until then, I've just copied what I saw was in the final topology in the model before you started making the smaller adjustments. I look forward to watching all your other tutorials :)
AndrewG4d yeah, I basically rebuilt the entire area around there. Copying the final topology is a good idea! I am still waiting on youtube to approve the extended video that goes over it in more detail, I will message you when it is up!
Well this was sick to watch :) and completely different than what i learn from most vtms out there. I needed few days of hard work to do high poly head in poly by poly technique :/ You are real pro James. You could work and sell your own VTMs like lynda or DT :) Cheers
Zox Wolf Thanks for the support! I'm planning to do some much more detailed tutorials in the future (starting with a video game character, start to finish, concept to implementation in the engine) and releasing them for sale ala Lynda or dt. Stay tuned!As for the high res modeling approach you mentioned - I definitely don't like the approach of building any mesh face by face... that is missing the forest for the trees in my opinion. I think it is a better idea to nail down the broad shape first, then dial in detail progressively.
James Taylor I would be glad to have these tuts on my local drive for sure so i will be tuned :). I am more tech modeler (engineering stuff), and worked in LW briefly. Upon UDK release i learn to model in Maya. I am still struggling i need to be honest, though some of stuff i do few years ago are end up very nice (have few unfinished chars i need to complete). I am freaked at ZBrush interface though i would like to learn it. I touch briefly Mbox also. Thanx for your reply James :)
Hey James you seam to excelent expert artist what you just demostrated was nothing short of amazing I realy enjoyed the privlage of watching you create I'll be folling your work.
I loved the video. It's a very simple way to modeling the head. But I hated the cuts where you modify the mesh without showing it. Of course there's the extended version, but it should be to show the details and not to show the parts that are cut off from this video. You left some triangles unsolved. Won't them cause problems when animating?
James Taylor Thank you, it worked :) the mirror has appeared black for some reason, but it might be my computer or something I will fool around with it. Thanks again!
***** that won't work - because the objects are instanced, flipping normals on one of the duplicates will flip the normals on the other, too, leaving you with the same problem. And once combined, Maya unifies the normals, meaning they all face the same way, preventing the problem you mentioned.
One again thx for your great tutorials! I have few questions. Don't you have a problem if you connect 5 edges to 1 vertex, if its for animation? Is Maya 15 not buggy as hell? And could you please make a tutorial that show the modeling tools that you use? I can modeling ok, but I think you use some tools that I do not know :) Looking forward to watch you Unwrap tutorial :) Keep up the good work!
Jimmi Pedersen 5 edges to 1 vert (high valence) does cause problems. Not so much for animation (the ear doesn't move a lot) but Mudbox complains about it. The ear is an area I'll detail via sculpting though, so I planned on retopologizing then. A modeling workflow video.does sound like a good idea! Thanks.
Thanks for your answer that give me a better understanding, was not aware you would use Mudbox but now all make since to me :) Its me who say thank you for looking into workflow :)
Thanks for all these tutorials. They look very well made so I hope to start going through them soon. I've a sort of beginner's question: I'm modelling my first character, and I'm hoping to put him in Unreal Engine 4. How important is it what he looks like in low poly (press 1 in Maya)? Some of the topology looks funny in low poly but fantastic in the smooth preview (press 3 in Maya). I probably don't want to do any thing in Mudbox with him if that matters, but if I understand he'll be triangulated before he can function in UE4. He has 3931 faces before smoothing and probably won't need much more. After smoothing and triangulating I don't know what he'll have but it doesn't seem too high. If it isn't do I need to worry about normal maps and that sort of thing? meaning is it correct that all that matters is the smooth preview? Thanks a lot.
Ei’ríġ Proinsias Dammantaċ Ó Gamhna. sorry, there's too much in here for me to answer all of it! However: hitting 3 in Maya turns on smooth proxy - it doesn't actually smooth the mesh, as you no doubt have seen. If you want it to permanently look like the smoothed version, you have to apply a mesh smooth - go to the mesh menu, use smooth, and change the number of divisions to control the smoothness. You won't be able to smooth in the game engine, so you have to do it in maya before exporting.
James Taylor Sorry, I've a tendency to write a lot. My main question is if it looks good after smoothing does it matter that some of it looked rather wonky before smoothing? or do I need to make sure it looks good both ways? Thanks. (And thanks for responding so fast in the first place!)
Ei’ríġ Proinsias Dammantaċ Ó Gamhna. oh, got it. No, the low-res version doesn't matter. In fact, the low-res usually must look weird, in order for the smoothed version to look correct. So mesh smooth it and don't look back!
Thank you for your tutorial, but I have some questions. Your title says it's a head modeling for animation but, how are we supposed to animated the mouth of the character for this one ? Is it possible to have a tutorial where you can separate the lips and get a basic "inside the mouth" (not necessary how to create teeth, gums and tongue) to open the character's mouth properly ? Thank you.
+Will B ha, good point, I definitely focused on the face for animation! The make it animatable, yes, you would split the lips and add a mouth interior. Generally you create one mouth and reuse that for all your characters forever!
Question: Could you further sculpt the model using Zbrush or will it affect the quads and thus needing to be retopologized when you return it back to Maya? If I used ZBrush's GoZ or import it to Mudbox, what are the pros and cons? If there are any.
Marquis Miller it should sculpt fine, my next step will be to start sculpting in mudbox. Retopology will hopefully be unnecessary, because the base mesh is already close to the person's likeness.
Hey James. Great tutorials, i like them all and i've learnt alot from them. I have a question about this part though. How do you attach the head to the body? I have followed both your tutorials for the body and head so my characters topology is quite similar to the one in this video, And the last part for me is getting the head on the body, but as of now there is more verts on the head end of where the connection is going to be. What's your suggestion here on how to attach them and keeping a good edge flow.? Thanks!
Martin cets just triangle them out in the neck or at the base of the skull. Under the jaw, the skull, and the neck are all low-risk areas for deformation, so triangles there won't hurt.
James Taylor He Taylor! Thanks for the tutorial! I was just wondering, in the industry are triangles tolerated (at all) or does the modeler literally have to find every possible way to quad things out?
Prometheus in the industry, whatever gets results is tolerated. Triangles should be avoided when possible, but better to move on quickly to the next phase, like texturing, rather than spend hours retopologizing.
Hey, I am stuck at 7:52. When I smooth the nose by pressing 3 it deforms and kind of shrinks. It even distorts from the centre (pointy part) thus opening a gap there. For eyes and mouth the smooth is working great, even didn't find any problems while working on the body. Can't understand what's wrong. Please help!
I love how you get straight to the point. So much tutorial content on youtube means well but takes so long to get to things. In 2016 content needs to focus on immediacy and you do it well. Thanks for this man.
+Xtal TV that is exactly what I'm going for! Thanks!
+Xtal TV I completely agree with you, things should just go to the point but explain well at the same time, so as these tutorials.
can't believe this is free. this is the work of a genius.
Second Chance maya is not free.
Edvard Lorvik-Løken he mean the teachin of the easy work flow not the software
@@loukenart He said that about the knowledge gained in the video...
Whoa your lesson is a lot more sensible than the way my professor taught us. The way he told us to do it was more complex but this is much more sensible and easy to understand. Thank you!
+Matthew Nevarez thanks, good to hear, I focused on streamlining the workflow to make it easier to follow!
yeah, my teacher basically had us draw on or topology flat and then bring all of the verts forward or backward depending on where they needed to go. It took forever to do.
+James Taylor i understand streamlining, but like the other people commenting here i am being taught the hard way of doing things vert by vert, is there any difference overall? I mean overall the flow of polys is nice and topology but i really want to know what the catch is
I actually prefer doing it that way.
These video tutorials are timeless. Often times you go to tutorials like this and they are outdated. But because you teach the fundamentals and not just some quick and easy trick, they will remain relevant 20 years from now.
Thank you so much! Your tutorial was really easy to follow along and you explained all the steps clearly. It made my modelling far less strenuous than it was before. Thank you again. Your technique is great btw.
Just getting into the basics of 3D modeling and watching things like this have me pumped for what I'll be able to tackle soon enough :) Great tutorial James
Digital Salt good! Stay motivated!
You have such a knack for content rich, easily understood tutorials. You blow me away every time. Learned a bunch of things in this one that will speed up some tasks.
Great job as always!
msampson3d awesome, thank you!
You know , I always look for this one method that just speaks to me, that feels natural, makes sense. THIS is the method I will use for low poly heads from now on. The cylinder method works just awesome, all these loops already done! Thank you Sir
IGarrettI very cool, happy to hear it. :)
IGarrettI Oh god I thought the same thing, this method is really great! It's like this "where have you been all my life" type of feel.
Dennis Seldén Exacly! hahaha
+IGarrettI I can jus agree so much!!!
If you have any dificulties following dont be afraid to put the play speed at 0.5, plus if you're up late it all makes sense for James Taylor to be drunk.
HAHAHA....at .5 he DOES sound drunk.....but it works.
Love the amount of explanation in this. A lot of people put stupid music over these types of videos, or do speed videos, or use maximum time, while failing to explain anything important. I've already made a face, and been through a good number of these videos, but I've learned at least a few things in just the few minutes I watched of this as I skimmed through. I'm just glad I found this before animating my face.
all of those things are the things that annoy me about videos, so I try to avoid them. Glad it helped!
I've gone through this multiple times by now - and I need to say: my heads start to look decent. Here and there I got some trouble / things don't always work out perfectly. - But that's normal and everything looks fine if I spend a while tweaking stuff. However I can never imagine me doing a head at this speed. Like, the first head took me close to seven hours (okay, I wasn't familiar with Maya but still, that's a lot of time). By now I pretty much memorized the first half of the video and can kind of speed through - but the whole connecting-collapsing-bridging-process once you have your landmarks (mouth, eyes, nose) layed down is still so time consuming ^^ Though; I'm down to 2-3 hours.
That being said: Once more thank you so much for your awesome tutorials :D They were kind of the fast track for me to realize my ideas/concepts and work very well for me. Thank you so much :D
+Anakiana thanks for sharing your process, I me to hear how artists are using my tutorials. :) I will have a new head modeling vid coming out next month, it is a bit more streamlined than this one!
James Taylor I'm looking forward to next month then :D
+James Taylor sounds great!! I'd love to see that!!!
+Anakiana the extended cut is available on my site now, still working on the youtube cut! methodj.com/methodj-downloads/character-modeling-video-tutorial-downloads/
+SSJKenpachiZaraki the extended cut is available on my site now, still working on the youtube cut! methodj.com/methodj-downloads/character-modeling-video-tutorial-downloads/
Thank you for this! You've saved me from a lot difficulty in my modeling class. Your body tutorials are just as amazingly helpful.
+Brie R good to hear, thanks!
I started using maya for visualisation in my masters of architecture. So i´m familiair with orthogonal modelling, but this realy helped me starting to maybe create some characters and other organic objects as well. What´s so nice about your video´s is that you do not stretch the info regarding the method with which you create the typology. Your method is pretty straightforward, it just changes every time. Like a rubikscube ;) The concept landed(in my head) the first time I saw the video. Very much thanks. I'll keep in mind to support you through fan-support in the near future.
TheLineCutter thanks LineCutter, I'm glad to hear it.:)
This channel is nothing but treasure!
I want to be a video game character designer, and i saw that requirements from a lot of big games companies are art skills and 3d modelling using Maya or other software. I never knew I would have to do 3d as well to get ahead, so this has just broken my spirit and brain a little. It helps knowing that there are a lot of people in my position with little to no knowledge of this software, and that there are helpful videos like this to get me started. Obviously I need to start of something more simple than this to understand Maya, but I think its useful to see whats to come when i get better at it.
Bruh, you shouldn't start here. Start by doing basic objects like a mug a sword or a table. James Taylor is awesome but mabye someone like Mike Hermes would suit you better. Check his channel he does objects mostly probs.
Indeed man its very frustrating especially character modelling but have to swear and and keep going :)
is it just me or his voice is therapeutic? thank u for this james. being in a so called international level institute i couldn't learn properly but i have followed ur body modeling tutorial and i learned right away. this too helped me clear the loops and all my confusions about face modeling. Wish u good luck! :)
These tutorials of yours are all REALLY AMAZING!!!!! There are tons of tutorials out there, however yours look much more clear and straight to the point!!! Also very simple and fun to do, stimulating Maya practice instead of scaring the viewer away ;) . Congratulations and Thank You Very Much!!!
Gabriel Kimelblat that is exactly what I'm going for! Thank you!
Great tutorial BRO, You are clear, to the point without any confusion. Thanks 4 helping us all.
whutha thanks for the support! :)
You're doing the future of the industry an amazing service in this channel sir, I salute you!
Cazeoj thank you, I appreciate it.
Dude, you say QUADS with lots of gusto. Great tutorial too.
JorgeSSB ha, I didn't realize! :)
This has to be the best face modeling tutorial I have ever seen!. Great construction method and very good narration.
Wish I have had a video like this when i was a student :)
Ond Uden Grund thanks so much! :)
I'm just modelling right now my first real 3D model with this tutorial and do you know what, it looks awesome so far! I watched 2-3 independent tutorials for 3D stuff that really helped me alot. Now I recognized, all of them were from you^^
You know how to explain stuff in a short and efficient way where everything makes sense. Thank you.
+Robert Lange glad to hear it! :)
it's really easy to understand and i already seen a lot of head modelling tutorials,but you like king to starting this modelling,thank you
Revanth R cool, thanks!
I wish you lived near so I could buy you a beer man, thank you so much for this. You have helped and saved so many of us. Will reference and credit you in my dissertation :)
glad to hear it! :D
Hey everyone, anyone who has a problem at 8:05 is because he has deleted that edge between the nostril edge and the center edge of the spectrum. If you delete that edge it would solve your problem. After that you may realise that you geometry doesn't look the same way as his when he makes the connection using the cut tool. Few seconds later the result will be the same when he deletes some edges. Let me know if it helped you.
Raja Raza dude thank you for this, i was so confused about that part lol
Thanks, I was almost about to quit whole animation thing :)
Absolute hero, cheers
so much better than other ways of modelling heads I have seen, impressive speed as well!
This is an AMAZING head modeling tutorial. Thank you so much for posting this!
I just start learning maya, and modeling a mug could take me forever.
the human face is definitely the hardest challenge for any artist. Work your way up to it!
yeah the face is the hardest part. my first 3d model came out pretty good but man it was super hard. and yes i did use your tutorial and than you for that james.
Tell me about it getting a handsome looking head is tricky
bruh this is by far the most logical way to model a head, I am a student and starting with differnt parts is crazy good, thanks !!!!
Using the poly circles blew me away. I've never seen that technique before. Very cool.
I've just been researching tutorials on youtube for future projects, and i wanted to say your channel looks incredible! i haven't properly delved into them yet but thanks for these tutorials. :)
Thanks you James. Been Learning Maya on my own before taking classes on animation. These Vids have been a huge help getting a base model before i get to specifically messing with the charterers to form them into fantasy characters.
This tutorial has really helped me learning how to make a human head. Thank you very much James!
I saw this video about a month ago, and I have since made several models using this technique, and I just now realized I had neither Liked nor expressed my gratitude.
Thank You so much for this video! I'm no longer apprehensive towards modeling heads.
I've watched this whole series, aswell as all Your available uploads, and You're a great teacher. Your enthusiasm is very contagious.
Be safe!
CÄ
Clark Ädelheinz glad to hear it helped! :D
I already knew how to make the head. But this video helped me with a quicker process thanks. Keep up the good work.
Aaron Irving good to hear, thanks!
I know I already thanked you on the other video (The body modelling video) but thanks again.. I have finished the body, and now I am working on the head thanks to you!
Kareem Ismael this is what I like to hear! Keep going. :)
Your Videos are really good, I don't use them to make the same type of models you make but for the most part, your technique works. I don't need your paid versions bc these work fine for me but when I am able, I plan on getting them just simply because of how much help you are so you can get some contribution and keep posting videos.
+Joseph Smith thank you, I appreciate it! :D
I could cry you described things well in this cut I will be going for the extended I'm gaining my Bachelors in 3D Modeling and Animation and have struggled with heads I just couldn't crack the code thank you so much! You may have saved my bacon this semester!
thanks mr.james its super cool and easy way to character modeling .my each and every doughts clear after see your tuts.
So happy to find out this still work in 2020, thank you.
Bravo Sir, just bravo. As an animation student I tip my hat to you. Great tutorial! :)
This is what Ive been looking for. Amazing
Your tutorials are amazing well done James.
Balkeor Valinthor thank you!
you're the best on youtube!!! Really good teacher!
gagakacka thank you! I appreciate it. :)
Thank you for making your great videos! Some of the best tuts ive ever seen.
Love your videos! Really helps me with my current school assignments. Keep it up!
Great video! Interesting method by starting with the facial topology loops and then connecting the meshes. Thanks!
Great work! Thanks a lot - your tutorials are amazing and very helpful! All the best!
holy fuck! one of the best tutrioals I have ever seen for anything. Great job dude, really appreciate it! much love
As an aspiring Video Game artist I want to let you know just how much I appreciate these tutorials and I thank you for them, just one thing though, I've now got the head and the body and I know that much of this is problem solving but I don't know how to connect the head to the body as the head has a lot more subdivisions than the neck of the body, could you help please?
+James Brooks you can triangle out the head rows in the neck. The neck is not a difficult area when it comes to deformation.
Hi James thank you so much for this tutorial it helps so much, Quick question:
what on earth is going on at 8:05? a vertex appears suddenly and a bunch of edges? how did you do that? it looks like all you did was select the edge option.
Im kinda stuck here so would appreciate your help
thnx
The League of Cardboard Looks like I used the multi cut tool to cut from the corners of the nostril opening to the septum, basically adding two new points to that area, and also continuing the quad row the nostril opening is part of. It is possible that I used Connect Components, too, which would look like I just selected those edges and then suddenly they were connected.
Great, Thank you so much for your help and your very quick response! you the man James
Also your tutorials are among the best I've come across. its the clarity, concise, get to the point way you have of doing it. Will definitely be following you closely
The League of Cardboard thanks, glad to hear it! :)
This video is great. Very well presented on how to create a relatively simple head base mesh. Many other methods/approaches I've seen taught are much more unnecessarily complicated/poorly demonstrated.
thanks! I strive for simplicity.
More modelling gold James Taylor
Ben Kirkness thanks Ben!
Your tutorials are excellent. Thank you.
You are an absolute legend my friend. Amazing tutorial series.
+buttbuttyawn thank you!
OMG, this is waaaaay easier than my teacher taught me, I started with a plane and making it round the head and then started with eye and mouth. You doit way managed sir, Epic.
+shivanshu sharma thank you!
James your all tutorials are meaningful but here u are not showing how to setup eyes,tongue,teeth etc .in the character so i am confusing ....can u plz make me clear
I am hoping to do a tutorial on teeth, tongue, mouth, etc, I just have to find the time!
I got some troubles about the way you did some topology. In the cheeks area for example.there are loops kinda confused. But I generaly took a lots of good informations.
Thanks for the job.
Hey, thanks for posting. Your videos are easy to follow and you
have great technique.
glsumpter thanks you!
James, why not continue making these videos? You got some gems here, and they're still relevant and usable.
Thank you, I appreciate it! I've thought about making more videos, but nothing has really sparked joy, so to speak. Still searching.
@MethodJTV
Animation? Walk while tossing a ball up, for instance? Texturing? Movement of characters and camera movements? I don't see these things on UA-cam much, and your videos are short, quick and to the point.
@MethodJTV
Interactions? Collision, keeping feet on the surface while avoiding sliding? Cloth physics? Hair physics?
@@MethodJTV
Pretty much giving those characters you made some life.
@@tempstep4058 hey, these are all great suggestions, thanks for the input! 👍
Hey James , god bless you , your tutorials are wayyyyyyyyyyyyy better then the others, they are really to the point and easy to follow.
Can you please do a video for maya muscle ? there's not even a single helpful video on youtube for that. :(
+Mubbashir Irtaza Siddiqui I've been trying to think of ways to fake muscles using much simpler techniques, if I ever get there I will post a video on it!
Thanks for all of your videos. You should have way more views than you do. All of your techniques are very helpful, and you actually explain the reasons behind what you do (unlike most other instructional videos). I noticed that you do a lot of work in Maya, and not Max. Do you have any specific reason for choosing Maya for character modeling? I have done some basic modeling, retopology, rigging, facial / skeletal animation... but I've had a lot of trouble with max's performance with flex in both 2012 and 2015. Also, the UV editor crashes on me quite often, even when doing simple operations.
Fria Gram at this point I use maya out of habit. I started out as a max user, and switched to maya around version 4.0. At the time, the user interface was much better, faster and easier to use than max. Really the software you use is generally personal preference - though, if you want to do this as a living, you need to work with industry standard packages; max and maya are both good for that.
Ok, I've used max 2012 a lot. The UI has always been a little slow, but not too bad. It is a lot smoother in 2015, so I might try that. It's just a bit of an annoyance since many import/export plugins dropped support when the 64 bit support came out.
This is unrelated, but do you have any tutorials/guides for creating hair/low poly hair for character models? I have seen a few different methods for creating alpha test materials, but nothing great that produces a seamless integration with the mesh/planes.
Fria Gram sorry, I haven't worked up a hair tutorial, I think that will be one of the topics I cover in a forthcoming video series.
Ok, cool!
James as usual, FANTASTIC tutorial. I am curious where do you obtain your reference images? Keep up the great work, I am truly a fan.
Terry Morse thank you! I shot these ref images myself in a studio. Definitely the best way to get high quality reference photos, just need lights, a good camera, and the right model to pose.
Thanks for explaining all your steps, it’s super helpful!
James Taylor is a genius and this video is GOLD. Thanks man!
Marvelous tutorial. A bit fast at times, but nothing 0.25 speed didn't fix.
In both this and your newest video, you skip the attaching to the neck though. With the mismatch of verts, I was wondering if it's more efficient to up the polygon count on the neck/body or if there is an efficient way to lessen the count on the head. I'm just beginning to grasp a more efficient workflow, so if you could answer that'd be fantastic!
+Mistook no, you don't want to add faces where you don't need them. The extended cut off the female head modeling video goes in depth on connecting the head and neck: some of it is turning rows so they go a different direction, and you can always triangle things out under the jaw the worst case scenario.
James Taylor
Thank you so much for the response! I don't think I ever stared as intensely at any video as I did last night, but I managed to sort out the topology by turning one row, and removing a partial loop at the back. I didn't think I could get excited over something so trivial, but there you have it. You're awesome!
Awesome, I picked up many new way of molding that will speed up my work flow
Hi James very great Tuto on modeling!!!
Thanks for sharing!!
One technical question though, do you use a special script to duplicate the side of the face and keep working on one side?
Or is it the duplicate special or an other tool within maya? Got to say, looks pretty handy..!!
Thanks anyway.
+mike sarfati just Duplicate Special with Instance set in the options
Awesome tutorials James, thank you!
Matthitizidu my pleasure!
I purshased your extended cut! thanks a lot! :D
Cool, thank you!
I have a question, do people in game industri etc work from high to low polly or low polly to high polly? whats the right way?
Another quick question, these triangles on the face you left. why dont you fix them?
both ways work. Some people make the high res in zbrush and retopo, other people work like me and build a low res mesh and then sculpt on top of it.
www.methodj.com/why-are-triangles-bad-when-modeling/
In 8:06 - 8:07 did you collapse the edge or did you multi cut it?
Thank you for this lesson sir. Very appreciated
This is a very great tutorial, but not for beginners. easy to follow and very detailed from each steps!
Great Tut, but im stuck at 08:06 - 08:07, its really confusing and frustrating.. hope you can explain that part
Melvic Sosa ha ha, right now even I am having trouble seeing what I did there! :D Looks like I used the multi cut tool to cut from the corners of the nostril opening to the septum, basically adding two new points to that area, and also continuing the quad row the nostril opening is part of.
James Taylor Thanks for answer so fast, i will try it and let you know, Thanks a lot!
What are your thoughts on a High poly to low poly sculpting workflow? In the context of games and animations.
By the way, your videos rock. I don't say that often at all. Your tutorials are a lot more efficient than most videos out there.
InternetMan thank you, efficiency is what I'm going for!
High poly to low poly is really up to the artist's preference at this point. Retopology tools make it easy to restructure even the densest meshes.
I personally like starting the modeling process in maya, just because I like the control modeling gives me - and then that base mesh gets sculpted on top of, but I still have it as the basis for my low res in-game mesh.
Thanks for expanding my knowledge base with your work!!
Great tutorials
Great! Simple and easy to understand
This models got some crazy eyes
Let me start by saying how helpful ALL of your videos are. I've gotta thank you for helping me get started with character modeling at all, but I am just looking for some more help with the general tools that you use in your tutorials. I apologize that some of these are likely basic, but I've somehow missed them while learning new techniques in Maya. How do you duplicate primitives so quickly, and where can I find the Soft Select and Connect Components tools? Also, I'm very curious about the workflow between Maya and Mudbox and where Mudbox fits into the char animation process. Thanks for all of your help thus far, haha it's really clear that you do a lot for this community of designers and artists that are learning more every day :)
Great tutorial! However, I did get lost on what happened after the laugh line collapsed. There was a change in topology, and you've mentioned there's an extended video covering what happened. Unfortunately, in Canada, I cannot access that video. I look forward to checking it out once it's available. Until then, I've just copied what I saw was in the final topology in the model before you started making the smaller adjustments.
I look forward to watching all your other tutorials :)
AndrewG4d yeah, I basically rebuilt the entire area around there. Copying the final topology is a good idea! I am still waiting on youtube to approve the extended video that goes over it in more detail, I will message you when it is up!
AndrewG4d hey, I've just posted the extended head modeling video on my site, available for download, see here: wp.me/P3V1aP-Bl
It is 10/06-2017, This is still amazing at many levels.
thank you!
oh wow, this is very technical and specific. I feel like sculpting is more forgiving.
Well this was sick to watch :) and completely different than what i learn from most vtms out there. I needed few days of hard work to do high poly head in poly by poly technique :/
You are real pro James. You could work and sell your own VTMs like lynda or DT :)
Cheers
Zox Wolf Thanks for the support! I'm planning to do some much more detailed tutorials in the future (starting with a video game character, start to finish, concept to implementation in the engine) and releasing them for sale ala Lynda or dt. Stay tuned!As for the high res modeling approach you mentioned - I definitely don't like the approach of building any mesh face by face... that is missing the forest for the trees in my opinion. I think it is a better idea to nail down the broad shape first, then dial in detail progressively.
James Taylor
I would be glad to have these tuts on my local drive for sure so i will be tuned :). I am more tech modeler (engineering stuff), and worked in LW briefly. Upon UDK release i learn to model in Maya. I am still struggling i need to be honest, though some of stuff i do few years ago are end up very nice (have few unfinished chars i need to complete).
I am freaked at ZBrush interface though i would like to learn it. I touch briefly Mbox also.
Thanx for your reply James :)
what did you delete at around 5:58? You said "just delete that little bit" whilst using the crease but i have no clue what that is D:
Hey James you seam to excelent expert artist what you just demostrated was nothing short of amazing I realy enjoyed the privlage of watching you create I'll be folling your work.
I loved the video. It's a very simple way to modeling the head. But I hated the cuts where you modify the mesh without showing it. Of course there's the extended version, but it should be to show the details and not to show the parts that are cut off from this video.
You left some triangles unsolved. Won't them cause problems when animating?
www.methodj.com/why-are-triangles-bad-when-modeling/
I loved this tutorial. You have a cool voice too. You should voice characters if you don't already.
+Nadia Egan thanks Nadia!
Quick question, how did you mirror the eye, nose and mouth? at 6:54. thank you.
Kevin Taylor Edit > Duplicate Special options > turn on instance > set X scale to -1 (or whatever axis you are flipping it over)
James Taylor Thank you, it worked :) the mirror has appeared black for some reason, but it might be my computer or something I will fool around with it. Thanks again!
Kevin Taylor turn on two-sided lighting in your viewport's lighting menu. Or switch to the legacy default renderer.
James Taylor Thank you :) love your tutorials
***** that won't work - because the objects are instanced, flipping normals on one of the duplicates will flip the normals on the other, too, leaving you with the same problem. And once combined, Maya unifies the normals, meaning they all face the same way, preventing the problem you mentioned.
Great tutorial!! really worth to watch.
+Yantram Studio thanks!
Very inspiring! Great stuff!
Chris Gilbert's thanks!
One again thx for your great tutorials! I have few questions. Don't you have a problem if you connect 5 edges to 1 vertex, if its for animation? Is Maya 15 not buggy as hell? And could you please make a tutorial that show the modeling tools that you use? I can modeling ok, but I think you use some tools that I do not know :) Looking forward to watch you Unwrap tutorial :) Keep up the good work!
Jimmi Pedersen 5 edges to 1 vert (high valence) does cause problems. Not so much for animation (the ear doesn't move a lot) but Mudbox complains about it. The ear is an area I'll detail via sculpting though, so I planned on retopologizing then.
A modeling workflow video.does sound like a good idea! Thanks.
Thanks for your answer that give me a better understanding, was not aware you would use Mudbox but now all make since to me :) Its me who say thank you for looking into workflow :)
Thanks for all these tutorials. They look very well made so I hope to start going through them soon. I've a sort of beginner's question: I'm modelling my first character, and I'm hoping to put him in Unreal Engine 4. How important is it what he looks like in low poly (press 1 in Maya)?
Some of the topology looks funny in low poly but fantastic in the smooth preview (press 3 in Maya). I probably don't want to do any thing in Mudbox with him if that matters, but if I understand he'll be triangulated before he can function in UE4. He has 3931 faces before smoothing and probably won't need much more. After smoothing and triangulating I don't know what he'll have but it doesn't seem too high. If it isn't do I need to worry about normal maps and that sort of thing? meaning is it correct that all that matters is the smooth preview? Thanks a lot.
Ei’ríġ Proinsias Dammantaċ Ó Gamhna. sorry, there's too much in here for me to answer all of it! However: hitting 3 in Maya turns on smooth proxy - it doesn't actually smooth the mesh, as you no doubt have seen. If you want it to permanently look like the smoothed version, you have to apply a mesh smooth - go to the mesh menu, use smooth, and change the number of divisions to control the smoothness. You won't be able to smooth in the game engine, so you have to do it in maya before exporting.
James Taylor
Sorry, I've a tendency to write a lot. My main question is if it looks good after smoothing does it matter that some of it looked rather wonky before smoothing? or do I need to make sure it looks good both ways? Thanks. (And thanks for responding so fast in the first place!)
Ei’ríġ Proinsias Dammantaċ Ó Gamhna. oh, got it. No, the low-res version doesn't matter. In fact, the low-res usually must look weird, in order for the smoothed version to look correct. So mesh smooth it and don't look back!
James Taylor
Oh, brilliant. You're a good person, Mr Taylor. Thanks again.
Very professional tutorial.. Keep the good work up👍
thank you! this video is so helpful!!
Good tutorial, make me happy.
Thank you for your tutorial, but I have some questions.
Your title says it's a head modeling for animation but, how are we supposed to animated the mouth of the character for this one ? Is it possible to have a tutorial where you can separate the lips and get a basic "inside the mouth" (not necessary how to create teeth, gums and tongue) to open the character's mouth properly ?
Thank you.
+Will B ha, good point, I definitely focused on the face for animation! The make it animatable, yes, you would split the lips and add a mouth interior. Generally you create one mouth and reuse that for all your characters forever!
Question: Could you further sculpt the model using Zbrush or will it affect the quads and thus needing to be retopologized when you return it back to Maya? If I used ZBrush's GoZ or import it to Mudbox, what are the pros and cons? If there are any.
Marquis Miller it should sculpt fine, my next step will be to start sculpting in mudbox. Retopology will hopefully be unnecessary, because the base mesh is already close to the person's likeness.
Hey James. Great tutorials, i like them all and i've learnt alot from them.
I have a question about this part though.
How do you attach the head to the body? I have followed both your tutorials for the body and head so my characters topology is quite similar to the one in this video, And the last part for me is getting the head on the body, but as of now there is more verts on the head end of where the connection is going to be. What's your suggestion here on how to attach them and keeping a good edge flow.?
Thanks!
Martin cets just triangle them out in the neck or at the base of the skull. Under the jaw, the skull, and the neck are all low-risk areas for deformation, so triangles there won't hurt.
James Taylor He Taylor! Thanks for the tutorial! I was just wondering, in the industry are triangles tolerated (at all) or does the modeler literally have to find every possible way to quad things out?
Prometheus in the industry, whatever gets results is tolerated. Triangles should be avoided when possible, but better to move on quickly to the next phase, like texturing, rather than spend hours retopologizing.
Hey, I am stuck at 7:52. When I smooth the nose by pressing 3 it deforms and kind of shrinks. It even distorts from the centre (pointy part) thus opening a gap there. For eyes and mouth the smooth is working great, even didn't find any problems while working on the body. Can't understand what's wrong. Please help!