Week 2.cont - Reference Planes

I now had the Topology mapped out for my head. The next step was to take the files that I had created in Photoshop and put them into 3DS Max2010 , which is where I would actually be modelling the head. I used the tutorial to do this however I already had quite a good idea of how this part of the task was going to be done from the skills I had learnt in years 1 and 2.

The images with the lines of Topology would be used as Reference Planes to allow me to build the shape of the head. To start with I created a simple plane in 3ds Max. I then opened up the materials menu using the hotkey “m”. I then went to diffuse and selected to look at more options, which I then selected Bitmap. This would allow me to put an image of mine onto the Plane as if it were painted onto it like a poster.

After using the gizmo tool that I had used in previous years, I moved it so that the image was in full view of the plane. This meant editing the size of the plane but this was not an issue. A key thing to note was that although you can only see the forward look of the head, the side view is also there but due to the size of the plane it is hidden. This is good because we would then use a separate plane to add the side view.

You may notice that the lines of Topology seem very distorted and unable to see. This would cause a problem as it would make it impossible to work from. After speaking to people in the class and the lecturer, we found that this was a small issue that 3DS Max 2010 has when trying to add High Quality Images from Photoshop as Materials. The simple method to get round this is shown in the tutorials and would allow me to restore to the intended image.

I now needed to create the Reference Plane for the side view. To do this I created an instance of the plane that I already had. I then used the gizmo to move the material image so that the side view of the face was now clear to see. I then used the Move tool on the plane to place it correctly so that I would be able to work from it.

I now have my Reference Planes ready to work from and start the actual modelling of the Head.