Sculpting the Head and Face (Sculpting a Figure) (Digital Sculpting with Mudbox)

In this section of the tutorial, you may either sculpt the creature seen in the figures or sculpt a head and face of your own design. If you want to try the latter option, take time now to work out the design for your version of the head and face. There is plenty of opportunity to be creative; for instance, if you want your creature to appear thuggish, exaggerate the lower facial features by sculpting heavier jaws, minimize the size of the cranium, and emphasize the brows. Instead, if you want a cunning creature, make the size of the cranium larger, minimize the brows, enlarge the eyes, and make the jaws smaller. You may also incorporate animal features like an ape or a cat nose or a wolf-like snout – the possibilities are endless.

Facial expressions tell much about your character; is he angry, sad, afraid, or confident? For example, by moving both the brows and the corners of the mouth down, the creature will appear angry. Sculpt a snarl, and he will appear aggressive. The Grab tool is great for quickly changing facial expressions. You may experiment with different head and face designs without worry by using different layers in which to experiment. If you don’t like the design, delete the layer and try again. Also remember to save incremental files as you hash out your design. If something goes wrong, you can start over without having to start from scratch.

Regardless of your design, it is important to anchor your creature in reality by starting from normal human anatomy and proportions. In this way, no matter how fantastical your creature becomes, viewers can still relate to it.


Use the Wax, Sculpt, and Bulge tools to initially build up the forms of the head and face. As always, use the Grab tool to reposition sections or to pull and push on the model, and use the Smooth tool to work out kinks and to blend shapes. When sculpting the face, use the Freeze to protect certain areas of the model while sculpting on other areas. Once the basic shapes are sculpted, you may use the Contrast and Pinch tools to refine the facial features. Remember to enable mirroring across the x axis to sculpt both sides of the head and face, simultaneously. Subdivision level 3 should provide enough polygons to sculpt the general shapes of the face as shown in Figures 4.27 and 4.28. Before sculpting, create a new layer and name it as Head and Face. As you sculpt, rotate around the model to see how your work looks from different directions and remember to inspect the model by moving the scene light.

Use the Wax, Sculpt, and Bulge Tools to Sculpt the Basic Forms of the Head and Face on a New Layer. Rough In the Eyelids and Add the Eyes.

FIG 4.27 Use the Wax, Sculpt, and Bulge Tools to Sculpt the Basic Forms of the Head and Face on a New Layer. Rough In the Eyelids and Add the Eyes.

Sculpt the Nose and Mouth. Use the Smooth, Contrast, and Pinch Tools to Refine the Head and Face. Don't Forget to Work on the Back of the Head.

FIG 4.28 Sculpt the Nose and Mouth. Use the Smooth, Contrast, and Pinch Tools to Refine the Head and Face. Don’t Forget to Work on the Back of the Head.

The model already has a rudimentary head and facial features, so you may use these as your starting point. Make sure that you are working in the new layer and begin by roughing in the basic shapes of the brows, nose, cheeks, and jaw line as in the first panel of Figure 4.27. Because the creature in the figures has pointed ears, use the Grab tool to begin pulling the helix of the ear back. Although it is not officially part of the head or face, sculpt the lateral head of the sternocleidomastoid muscle. Remember that, earlier, you had sculpted the main body and medial head of the sternocleidomastoid at subdivision level 2, but that subdivision level was not enough to sculpt the lateral head, so that is why you are doing it now as subdivision level 3.

Once the basic shapes are done, refine the face by connecting the bridge of the nose to the cheeks and sculpting the nasolabial folds around what will eventually be the mouth. Because the creature in the figures has an apish head and face, the cranium size is reduced, the brows are emphasized, the forehead is sloped back, the jaws are pulled forward, and the chin is pushed back. As you sculpt the head and face from the front and side views, remember to also view the model from the top down and the bottom up to make sure that the head is round and is not flattened.

Roughing in the eyelids may take some time. First, build up the masses for the lower eyelid and then build up the upper eyelid. Rotate the camera so that you can see the corners of the eyes. Use the Grab tool to push back the inner or medial corner of the eye so that it is not visible when the face is seen from the side.

To create the eyes, go to the Create menu, choose Mesh, and then select Sphere. A relatively large sphere will appear in the scene. Locate the sphere object in the Object List and rename it as Right_Eye. Select the right eye and scale it down until the values in the Scale fields in the Properties window are about 0.02. Once you have scaled the eye, use the Translate tool to position it in the eye socket. At this point, there is a pretty good chance that the eye will not fit well in the eye socket. Sculpt the eyelids so that they drape over the eyeball. However, eyelids have thickness so make sure to leave space between the eye and the outer edge of the eyelids. Mudbox does not have Copy and Paste or Duplicate commands. So, to quickly create the left eye, select the right eye in the Object List, and then, from the File menu, choose Export Selection. In the export dialog, name the file, and select OBJ from the “Save as type" menu, and click Save. Then, go back to the File menu, select Import, browse to the file that you had just exported, and click on Open. If you look at the Object List, a second eye object is listed; rename it as Left_Eye. Select the left eye and use the Translate tool to move it along the x axis to the left eye socket (Figure 4.27).

If you are sculpting the creature in the figures, either sculpt the nose and mouth as in Figure 4.28, or continue with your own design. Remember to extrapolate your design from basic human anatomy and proportions. In addition to the Wax and Sculpt tools, the Grab tool is useful for sculpting the basic shapes of the nose and mouth. Use an inverted Bulge tool to push in the nostrils and to create details like the dip created by the philtral columns under the nose. Use the Bulge tool to sculpt the laryngeal prominence (commonly known as the Adam’s apple). The Freeze tool is very useful when sculpting the details around the nose and mouth. Use a combination of the Wax, Sculpt, and Bulge tools to rough in the lips. Once the basic shapes are in, refine your work with the Smooth, Contrast, and Pinch tools. At this subdivision level, there is not much you can do with ear details, but you should be able to indicate the helix, lobe, and antihelix. Don’t ignore the back of the head; take time to sculpt the muscle attachments at the base of the neck and to shape the back of the skull (Figure 4.28). Remember to move the scene light (press L + LMB and drag) around the head and face to study forms. Experiment with your design by adding features like extra skin folds or mixing in animal features. For instance, the creature in the figures has noticeable bulges on the top of the skull, which humans do not have. You can even try sculpting horns or spikes to give your version of the creature a fearsome look.

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