As you can see I have stated to play around with moving the face to make expressions. I did this using soft selection

As you can see I have adjusted the size and the colour of the eyes. I am very pleased with how real it is starting to look

Creases

This a new thing that I have discovered that is useful and I recomend. It has allowed me to use mesh smooth while still leaving strong contour lines (like the ones around the nostrils and where the eyelids retract) visible. I.E. it doesnt smooth out all of the detail!

You can see how effective it looks in the two images above.

How to use creases

It is very simple: First you need to apply the 'mesh smooth' filter. Now that it is applied turn down the iterations to 0 so you can easily see the yellow frame. Now click on the edge tab within the mesh smooth modifier see below imge

Then choose the edged that form the line that you want to stay prominent on the face. Then set the crease value up to what you want. (the higher value, the more prominent the line will look)

Finally just put up the iterations to about 1 or 2 depending on how smooth you need the face to look. You can see that the line that you altered will stay visible even with the mesh smooth.

As you can see in the above image, i have successfully modeled the lips and the nose on the face.
I am really happy with how the lips look!

For the nostrils

• As you can see in the previous images I had a bit of a problem with the nose. so I had to begin by creating polygons to fill the hole that was left


• I then had another problem because there weren't enough vertices and edges to work with, to make the nostril. I used 'cut' with the edge tab, to make more lines which ran along the nose and across the nose to the edges of the face. This didn't only benefit the nose but also created more edges across the face and this made it smoother.


• Then I started to extrude the edges on the inside of the nostils and gradually extruded them in and up in to the nose.


• I then played around with the nose and impoved the look of the septum because it was too large.

For the lips

• This was a bit more atraight forward. I began by extruding the inside edges of the mouth at first outward and then in towards the face.


• I selected all the vertices on the inside edge of the face (the line down the centre) and straightened them up so that there were no gaps when it was reflected.


• I then pulled the meeting parts of the lips in to the face and then the top lip up and the bottom lip down. This made the lips look rounded and smooth.
  

Modeling the face in max

The images show the almost finished face. The first one shows the reult of pulling out each vertex to the guide lines on the profile view of my face. I used the mesh smooth modifyer to make the face look more smooth and natural.

The second image shows the face after I reflected it and joined it to make the complete face. I then mapped the image on to the face.

You may notice that in the first image I have attempted to make the nose. I added some more polygons into the empty space.

Face alignment and Topology

I followed the online tutorials to align a front and a profile picture of my own face. I found the Topology aspect quite difficult, because it is important to get a good flow of line across the face. As you can see from the image, the forehead will need touching up when it comes to modeling in max.

I am currently setting up the 3D reference plates and will post the results very soon!!!