is this plan a good one

[sdac1]

Hi, I'm completely new to the 3D design world. While trying to decide what software to begin with, I found out about MakeHuman and Blender. I need to make a simple 3D animated female face and I have about 4 weeks to do it. I have some hand drawings of what the female should look like and i want to make it as similar to those drawings as i can.

Do you think the following plan is solid ? :

1) Create a good female face with MH 0.9.1RC1

2) Import this collada model into Blender.

3) Now since MH creates the facial bones .... I can now modify the exact look of the face using Blender (as well as move the bones around to match)

4) Once i have the final face in Blender (perhaps also replace the default MH texture with my own)... I can then start adding animation.


Questions:

A) Are there any flaws in this plan that should be completed within 4 weeks ? I am watching tutorials and reading books to learn what i need from Blender/MakeHuman quickly.

B) How difficult is it to modify the facial bones in Blender after i have changed i have tweaked the face (again in Blender)

C) I have been facing a lot of trouble with making a female face, it still looks male regardless. Will the upcoming version of makeHuman make this task easier or it will add other un-related features ?

D) I have not been able to find online any BodySettings .bs makeHuman sample files. I want to download a makeHuman female design made by someone then start modifying from there. Would anyone be willing to share their female face designs please ?

Thanks

[andrewPavlick]

I've only used the .obj exports from MH so I went and tried your idea out quickly and there might be a few hiccups. Since you asked this question a bit ago hopefully you might have found out about them and have some solutions since your running on a tight time line. The bone and joint (b&j) system that is exported into blender is mainly for the body, no facial bones are exported. Also the b&j system isn't bound to the mesh when it is imported into Blender, so you would end up having to paint weights for the body if you want to use animate it.... It doesn't sound like you plan on it but it seems you'll still need to create facial bones and paint their influences. Here's what I would suggest and this is what I've done in the past at work... Your right its hard to get a 100% completely convincing feminine face. I would get it as close as you can inside MH and then export it as either .obj or collada.... It really won't matter in the end since we won't be using bones in the end. Take that model into blender and using its sculpt tools finishing sculpting the face into the form you want. from there if you just sticking with facial animation and nothing horridly complex I would suggest using blend shapes (OR morph targets, their the same thing). This will allow to avoid having to paint weights, you simply create multiple sculpts of the various poses and blend between them.... Should give you the results you need and probably in a shorter period of time as well. If you have any questions ask away.

[KrownProducts]

The upcoming version of MakeHuman is going to be your best bet. But it isn't available yet. In the meantime, I might suggest DAZ|Studio to quickly get started animating the face for your project. DAZ is a lot easier to use then Blender, especially if your not trying to build your own female head mesh.

To help you get started, take a look at some of the figures available in the 'Models Gallery';
http://www.krown-products.net/meshworks/Gallery.html

You can also find some useful links there as well. When the new version of MakeHuman is available, I am hopeful that it will be able to export to a Poser/DAZ skeleton. If so, you can import the obj file created by MakeHuman directly into DAZ for animation.

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MeshWorks at Krown Products Ltd.
http://www.krown-products.net/meshworks/index.html