Primative Extension

The basic objects around the face have now been created, so now to move onto the skull. Back in Photoshop using the side view, more topology lines need to be drawn, that will make drawing the skull a little easier. These lines are not as important as the ones for the face so there is no need to spend a whole lot of time on them.

First choose the sphere shape and draw a sphere over the head, then adjust it to match the images as much as possible. Due to lining up key aspects of the face the side view looks a little bigger than the front view, so choose a size for the sphere that fits somewhere in the middle. This can be adjust later if needed.

Next delete one half of the sphere, so that the half you are using matches up with the half of the face that is being edited. Also delete the middle and about half of the sphere so that you have vertices from the top of the face, to the back of the head. Connect the vertices from the sphere to the top of the face using the snap tool. Don’t weld them yet because the skull needs to be completed before permanently attached.

Next switch to the line select, in edit poly mode and select every other line on the inner semi-circle.  Click ring and it will select the rows of lines as shown below.

Underneath the edit geometry in edit poly mode click on collapse, which will remove unwanted polygons, leaving a much simpler shape to work with for the next step.

To start making the skull, select all of the lines at the bottom, by the back of the head and holding down shift and moving the objects. This will allow you to extend down to the back of the neck. Keep on doing this all the way down the head, remembering to connect the vertices to the face where needed.

This leaves a few gaps in the head, but using the cut tool new polygons can be created and the vertices can be connected. This can also be done using the connect tool. First by selecting the lines in-between where the new lines will be placed and clicking the connect button. This will make a line joining the two lines you selected.

This then allows you to connect the vertices together making the shape solid.

Now the shape can be mirrored using the symmetry modifier. In the modify panel select symmetry and click on the cross next to it to bring up the mirror drop list. Select the z axis and flip the image, then drag it out to close off the skull. A few alterations may need to be done if there is a gap in the skull, such as moving the vertices a little. When the skull is in place, go back to the modify panel and select turbo smooth, which will smooth the skull out.

This is roughly what the final skull will look like. From this view it is clear to see that the sides need to come out a little to make the shape a little more rounded rather than dented.