face modeling practice

I’m going to pull a hoax on social media to see if untrained people can spot a fake face
Everything on this face is fake, no real skin texture was used. The HDRI background is real though.


So what do you think ?

the modeling, the eyelashes, eyes are well done! maybe the end part of the hair cut, need a slight ajustments because looks like as feathers, maybe with another hair layer with another configuration could be help to improve that part.

the hair is throwing it off, it should have more luster.
(edit) suggest making it slightly asymmetrical to add realism

What? It’s not even photoreal? Looks like a poser face.

The face looks good. Feels like the loops are on the right place. The eyes looks good too.

Honestly, and I don’t mean this unkindly, because the modelling is good, but you haven’t a hope in hell as passing that off as real. I experimented sone years ago with a similar experiment, except not organic. I composited four fake items onto a photo, and threw it out. The challenge was to spot the fakes (except this was to professionals). It took them three days to get all four, which I was proud of, but they still got them.

Your render wouldn’t last five minutes on the same challenge. It’s not your modelling that’s wrong, it’s the light and texture.

EDIT: I should qualify it with what’s wrong:

The skin looks fake. If you want realistic skin, you have to forget procedural textures, they will never cut it.
the hair is a good start, but again, the texture fails. It doesn’t have the crisp specular and translucency that real hair has
the lighting is flattening the image. Try combining IBL and lights
The eyes look dead, try multi layer reflection

Just for starters

BUT, with work, you could get there.

EDIT 2: Look at this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjHiC0mt4Ts

As a further response, to give you something to aspire to (and you are off to a good start) - https://www.cgtrader.com/blog/portraits-of-the-21st-century-the-most-photorealistic-3d-renderings-of-human-beings

At the moment there’s no way that’ll pass as real. Great model, but human faces are notoriously difficult to get right in CG even when using photo textures. Even most of the amazing faces Roken posted above, brilliant though they look, jump out to me as being obviously CG. We’re so attuned to recognising them that anything even slightly off falls into the ‘uncanny valley.’ This image does’t quite fall into that, though, the expression seems natural and eyes don’t have that dead quality which CG faces often have, so kudos to you on that. I would experiment with less flat lighting and more interesting skin textures, maybe make the character a little older and more aged (smooth surfaces are much easier to spot as being CG than wrinkled/detailed ones) and just generally add more of the flaws and imperfections that real people have (take a look at a boatload of high-res photos in detail).
Very good start though, I’m no face modeller so I can’t help you much beyond the aesthetic of the thing but best of luck!

The skin has a plastic feel to it, Especially around the nose.

In a natural setting with daylight sunshine, I think the shadows on her face would be more harsh. If it was back lit by another source (such as a reflector), I think that would show up as bright points in the figure’s eyes. You could also add a freckle or two on her neck; her face might have makeup but her neck is unlikely to have any. The pose is a little stiff, so perhaps tilting the head a tiny fraction would help. Some small asymmetries would also help, I think.

It’s a tough one since you intend to show it to a non-cg crowd and you ask CG peeps for opinion. CG artists can find problems with any image, when the topic is realism :slight_smile: .
I guess with some postprcossing, especially lots of bloom that hides a lot of the details people could be fooled. You have to play on the fact that people are over-stimulated and only pay attention to any one thing for seconds.
Right now the image is stylized-realistic though, not ultra realistic.

modeling is good but the texture and shader is not QUITE good enough to fool anyone, sorry. I think with a little more work you can pull it off, but right now some v. small details are missing, and in the case of a human face, people can tell more easily than with other subjects. It’s quite simply the hardest fake to pull off.

Which is exactly what I was trying to portray with my (having re-read, harsh critique). The OP has taken on what is, for even the most experienced, possibly the most monumental task. We all know instinctively what a face looks like, and e know the same way when something is wrong.
I stand by my comments, and I applaud the modelling, but the light and texture are where the attention is required.

I agree, more asymmetry would help. It’s beautifully done, but still looks a bit too perfect to me. The perfect jaw line and perfect nose shape are especially “distracting” for me. Maybe add a bit more shadow under the brow, and less perfect skin texture. It’s still marvelous, though! If you but a very shallow depth of field blur on her face it might pass for photo-realistic as is.