First facial expressions

All parts of the process are fun, but this part is especially rewarding. There were some minor problems in rigging and wiring. Getting the teeth right took a while. But overall, things went pretty smooth. I'll probably spend some time fine-tuning it all. And I need lots more morph-targets. Still, the main work is done.

Up next: Hair, eyebrows, moustache, maybe some eyelashes. More sculpting for the normal map. The diffuse channel. Creating some really good shaders. Improving the lighting and background. 

And then, finally, I must find an English speaking Indian to record some lines. Any suggestions?

Normal map problem fixed

Omg.... I hate normal maps!

So, apparently, when I render a normal map in Mudbox, it will show seams in Max. No matter what you do. I've tried all kind of render settings, different unwraps, different shaders, different lighting, .... Nothing worked. 

Finally, I tried baking the normal map in Max. Problem solved. After some serious googling, it turned out all the real pro's know about this problem. Well, now I know too. (The problem did not occure with Vincent. Weird.)

By the way, this is far from the final normal map. Lots and lots of sculpting to do. Also, I did a test with morpher, hence the smile. That works like a charm. Only a few minutes work. At some point, I will need to start thinking about the hair, eyebrows and moustache.