FaceBank for FaceGen
Sample celebrity faces
Here are a
bunch of .FG files to play with. Some
of the models work
better than others. FaceGen's default rendering output is simple
surface rendering, which means that skintones tend to look a little
like they've been painted onto a surface (you tend to get a
similar "look" when you hand-paint a diecast model). For "pro" image
rendering, a graphics person might use FaceGen for previewing and
initial editing, export a model as an .obj object file, and
import it into a more advanced rendering program, which could
do more
sophisticated things like taking into account the effect of skin
translucency to produce a more photorealistic, less "flat"
image.
And of course, to add other things like hair, and
clothing, and bodies, and scenery and props.
The grid of 160-pixel images below actually uses
the 400px .jpg
files output by default by FaceGen, scaled down by your
web-browser – click on any of them to see them in
400×400.
You can download the original 3D .fg source files
for
each image by clicking on the names further down the page, and load
them into FaceGen for further tinkering.
Preview Images |
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3D Model Source
Files (in .fg format): |
/div
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Some of these head shapes look slightly iffy, but
with real people, its not always obvious what their actual head shape
is
underneath all the hair. For a couple of the better images here, I made
a tiny tweek to the cranium width, and that made a big difference.
FaceGen concentrates on trying to get the facial region right, and
extrapolates the rest of the head from the facial proportions, so
sometimes a series of slight errors in the facial proportions can lead
to a funny-looking head. Then again, most of us aren't surrounded by
bald people, and probably don't have a good idea of the what the
natural range of headshape variations. I resisted the temptation to
edit all the heads to make them look "normal", partly because most of
these are going to end up with hair, and partly because, for all I
knew, perhaps this is what these people's heads really look
like
under all the hair? Who knows?
(16th Feb: Yes, Vincent
Price's head really WAS that shape! See him playing "Egghead"
in the Batman TV series)
Once you've
downloaded one of these heads in .fg format, making these sorts of
tweeks is easy. Instead of trying to decipher which FaceGen slider to
use, you can simply hold down the Ctrl key and
click and drag on just
about any feature on the face, to pull it around in real-time. With
Ctrl-Click, your changes will affect
both sides of the face
symmetrically, so if you think that a head looks too narrow or too
wide, you can Ctrl-Click next to the temple and drag the mouse a few
pixels to one side or another. Ctrl-Z is
"undo", and "redo" is
Ctrl-Y.
Have fun!
PS: the
same disclaimers apply as on the previous page: I don't know SI, they
don't know me, and if you use anyone's faces commercially
without
permission from the people whose faces they actually are, their lawyers
will probably track you down and have you shot. Nuff said.
External Links:
- FaceGen
– @ Singular Inversions – "smart" face creator/manipulator,
highly automated. They're nothing to do with me! The free version lacks
.OBJ export
- Poser
– a
full-figure modelling and animation program. Poser is probably the the
best-known "computer mannequin" program
- DAZ
3D
– a free program that reads Poser files. DAZ make their money from
selling
add-in computer models for people to use within the program..
- Blender
– a free generic 3D modelling program (but with a notoriously
long
learning curve due to the "quirky" user-interface).
- Wikipedia:
Anatomical simulation – a useful category that I created on
Wikipedia
all original material
copyright © Eric Baird 2007-2009
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