Would someone like to help me with a morph for M4?
Zaarin
Posts: 365
I've been smashing my face in trying to make M4 look like Mass Effect's Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. After several sessions of trying to create a convincing morph with each attempt seeming to veer further away from a likeness, I think it's time to ask for help. Some reference pictures:
Sorry for all the cool lighting. Mass Effect seems to like blue light. ;) If anyone would be willing to do this for me, I'd be eternally grateful--and I'm sure it would be appreciated by other fan artists as well. :)
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I can see what I can come up with. I'll post pics when I hash something together. XD
Is there a time frame for when you'll need this? If you're in no rush, I'd love to play as well. :)
No, no time frame--I've been working on setting up a Shenko scene for a couple months, but I'm in no rush. The more the merrier. :)
Whelp- I was 3/4 of the way through most of the major morphs when Studio 4.6 decided to hit 6.9 mil processors on my hd and kill everything- had to cancel the program before I was able to save my freakin' process. Going to re-do this dude in Poser Pro. Oi.
Ouch--I hate it when something like that happens. :(
Did you find a good texture for him too? Likeness is as much about texture as about morph.
I had been using Zane by Gypsyangel, and DarwinsMishap suggested Kai, either of which I think works pretty well.
I have the basic morph worked out I believe- some tweaking needs to be done but I slapped a couple of different skins on him, added a hair (that doesn't look anything like his) and one of XSurge's Haas suit on him to see how it would look with props/textures. The first texture is one of the Hunk Series from Mec4d (Love her stuff), the second is from Red for M4 that I had gotten from Rendo.
Definitely needs more tweaking- his nose is giving me issues as were the way the cheekbones are in the stills; haven't tweaked them enough either.
The textures matter, definitely- neither of which I have. *Snirk*
One more with different lighting- just because I freakin' love this suit. I'll work more on the morphs tomorrow after work and update accordingly.
With Kai and a change of eye color. Still tweaking.
One last one with the promo lights with the texture set- back to the tweaking. Will post more later.
Still working on him. I took a screen capture of Poser Pro with one of the many stills I snagged from online searches: Barring the expression on the screen capture, he's close. The ears can't be helped unless I tweak the mesh itself, and I haven't had a great run on saving those for others to use. The nose is about as close as I think I can get it, but I'll keep tweaking to see if I can get that upward curve on the edge of his nostrils. His mouth is really close, and the cheeks are better. His jawline has been tricky, but again- it's closer, I think.
I took the hair off simply because it was distracting. lol
I can't seem to find a simple profile capture of his face, and that would help a great deal. I'll keep looking.
Got his body working after finding some stills of this one half-naked in the game, he's fit if lean.
That'll be it until late- I'm going to sign off to get ready for work. Let me know your thoughts.
@DarwinsMishap: I think you've got the general shape already though the eyes look a bit off, although it may be just the texture.
I found these side profile images:
(1)
(2)
Here's what I've worked on so far. It might help to know that Kaidan is based on model Luciano Costa, though there are still some small differences. I used some D-Formers for the nose and also cheated a little by making a texture from Luciano Costa's photo. I've been looking at too many references that I probably need fresh eyes to look at it. Thoughts?
@DarwinsMishap: Getting very close! :D I have to say noses (especially nostrils and tips) and lips always give me the worst fits when trying to make a morph look like someone--DAZ really could have given us a more a versatile set of morphs there. :( Lips look pretty close to perfect on yours, though--maybe try dialing in some UpperLipEdgeCurve? On a side note, I think I need to get that HAAS outfit. The moment I saw it it made me think of N7 armor, and it really looks great in your renders.
@oro_snake: Yes, Luciano Costa is the face model, though they definitely aged Kaidan a bit (which makes sense--he's in his mid thirties [35, I think] by Mass Effect 3). Your eyes definitely look closer to Kaidan's than Darwins', though something seems slightly off about the nose IMO. I think Kaidan has a slightly stronger bridge, and the tip is slightly turned up. I also think Kaidan's lower lip is a little narrower, and the sides of the upper lip rise a little (which is part of what gave me headaches when working on him). Jawline, eyes, cheeks, and brows look perfect though.
Thanks again to both of you--your ability to transform M4 into someone I can recognize seriously blows me away. :D
Thanks- The curve was dialed down from the original only because on the side view it looked like his upper lip was trying to fly off. XD I'll keep cranking, and you're right about the eyes, Oro, and thank you for those still shots. They'll help immensely. I snagged the model pictures- so I'll reference them as well with the tweaking later tonight after it cools down (no AC working at the moment- and it's 97 degrees outside..inside, a bit hotter.).
I got home late, but worked on him some more. Eyes, lips, nose, jaw- thanks again for the profile shots. I've included two screen shots of quick test renders with the reference still in it- I've got an early am tomorrow, and I'm beat (not to mention I have a Cuban party going on next door and have since before I got home, evidently) and going to try to sleep.
I noticed the bridge needs to lower and sink in a little right off doing the profiles. Not sure if the nose, after really looking at the model he seemed to be based off of, should get too much more tweaking at the tip and below- I've tried that on another model and he looked like Pinocchio in a way- but I can see if I can work the mesh via the morph tool in PP to see if I can do that and avoid the "fake" look. To me it'd be your call, my personal preference aside. XD
The mouth is much better now- thank you for the advice. His eyes, now, are a mix of the model and the still- and PP crashed on me right after the last save/test render otherwise I'd have a full front face of the last work I've done. Fft.
I'll update more tomorrow.
Yes, the lips and eyes look much better. With the nose, as you mentioned lowering the bridge and perhaps some negative "NoseBump" would probably be about right.
Ok-
The negative nose bump added to what I already had went with more of a negative slump- but notice on the profile when I lowered the brow ridge it started to cause a hump on the nose bridge. That is the lowest I could have it go without warping the mesh further without any added deformers from Studio or using the morph brush in Poser Pro. Here is the profile and front face shots for you- if you like, I will create the inj/rem files this evening when I come home and email the zip file to you tonight.
I made the full in/rem files, zipped them into a Runtime folder format and sent them to you via email if you want them! Let me know if you have any issues.
Dar
EDIT: Ah, I see your post now--didn't get any notification. :( I just saw your e-mail; it got put in my spam folder. :/ I'll give the morph a shot tonight. :)