Greenehouse Tutorial Part 3: Modeling a head with Editable Poly.     Part 1     Part 2     Part 3


20. Finish off the ear by moving vertices and/or using extrusion in conjunction with the Cut tool to get things defined correctly.

21. Exit Sub-Object mode, and create a small cylinder that will be a tooth. Ensure that you are not using too much segmentation. Move it into position, so that it is roughly aligned with the reference image. Select the Head, go to the Editable Poly level click on the Attach button, and click on the cone. Move any vertices around that you need to,and make sure that the vertices at the tip of the cone are welded together.

22. Now the model is basically done, but you may want to add some asymmetrical elements to one side of the model. Exit Sub-Object mode, and go back up to the Symmetry in the Modifier Stack. Right click on the top of the stack, and choose Collapse All. (This is the same as Convert To from the Quad Menu.) Go ahead and make changes to the model as desired, taking into account that Symmetry will not be mirroring the alterations.

23. Check your work. Now, ideally you've got a clean mesh now, consisting of 3 elements: The main head, and two teeth which are non-contiguous elements. You should have a hole at the bottom of the head, which will be sealed up if we were to connect the neck to the body of the character. There should be no other holes in the geometry. To check that this is the case, activate Border Sub-Object mode, and click and drag around your entire model. Switch to wireframe view by hitting F3 on the keyboard. The edges around any holes should be highlighted in red. If you see any holes other than that at the neck area, zoom in and see what the problem is, and weld any vertices that you need to, so that the area is sealed up. If an area looks very messy, don't be afraid to delete it, and create new polygons.

24. The model is done, but the light hitting it makes it look very faceted. Activate Polygon Sub-Object mode, and click and drag around the entire model so that all the polys are selected. Scroll down in the Modify Panel to the Polygon Properties rollout. In the AutoSmooth text field, type in a value of about 70, then click the AutoSmooth button just to the left. Smoothing groups are assigned, based off of the value that you entered. This value is actually an angle in degrees that you entered. Any polygons that are rotated less than 70 degrees to their neighbor will share the same Smoothing Group. Smoothing Groups are sets of polygons which light hits smoothly. They appear to blend together, even though the geometry itself is not altered.

25. Examining Smoothing Groups. AutoSmooth got you in the right direction, but some definition was lost where you wanted it. So now you've got to manually re-assign some Smoothing Groups. Lets work on the crevice where the lips meet first. Zoom in on the lips, and click on one of the polygons on the lips. Under Polygon Properties, see which Smoothing Group button is depressed. Notice that the polygons for the upper lip and the lower lip are all assigned to the same Smoothing Group, causing them to blend together.

26. Select all of the polygons at the top of the lower lip. Under Polygon Properties, click on whichever group they are currently assigned to, so that they are un-assigned from that group, and the button is no longer depressed. Now, click on a new group Number, so that these polygons blend together. The number you pick is somewhat arbitrary, but I'm going to choose 2. Now these polygons blend with themselves, but not with the upper lip. See the following image.

27. Now the seam between the lips is good, but the polys that we just re-assigned are not blending with the rest of the bottom lip. To fix this, select the polygons that are just below the ones we re-assigned. Check their smoothing group, and notice that they are all assigned to Smoothing Group 1, meaning that they don't blend with 2. To fix this, click on the Smoothing Group 2 button, so that they blend with both Groups 1, and Group 2. Cool!

28. Any time there is a drastic change in angle, you can get some bad shading if the polygons are assigned to the same smoothing group. Keep this in mind as you re-assign any other Smoothing Groups that you want to. I would recommend adjusting the bottom and sides of the nose, possibly the ears, brow, etc.

29. If you come to any areas where the interior of a polygon is not behaving properly, you may need to turn the interior edge manually. EPoly tries to be smart and manage interior edges automatically for you, but some times you just have to tweak things. To turn an interior edge, go to Polygon Sub-Object mode, and click on the Edit Triangulation button. Just click on the vertex where you want the interior edge to start, and the vertex where it should end.

30. Feel free to add more detail, accessories, etc. Polish things up a little, and you're done! I hope you had fun with this tutorial.