Jeffrey Dean Morgan - A 3D Portrait

I started this likeliness project as i wanted to improve the one skill that i personally find to be the most important one as an artist - studying and using references. I have been struggeling with my secondary forms and my fundemental understanding of human facial anatomy. Trying to recreate someones face digitally really forces one to study the references closely. I made every aspect of this piece.

I chose to use the actor, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, as my reference. This was due to the fact that not only am i a huge fan of his work, but also due to his interesting face and the amount of wrinkles. Making anything but a smooth female face was something that was really difficult for me 4 months ago when i started this project.

This was supposed to be a real-time video game character, but i did not have time to convert the XGen into Unreal Engines strand based hair rendering and simulation system, therefore the images of the render are from Arnold in Maya. It should be noted that the final render is made using the same texture maps as i would in a real-time engine, just simply rendered in Arnold. 

I started this Project 4 months ago and have been working on it almost every day since then. Back then my skill-level was a lot different. My understanding of wrinkles and facial muscles was very poor and it was a lot of trial and error. The images below show my attempt at the exact same likeliness 4 months ago. 

I am a fast and dedicated learner and i always strive to improve my sculpting and shading in every aspect. My current attempt may not be a 1:1 likeness of Jeffrey, but i achieved what i set myself up to 4 months ago, when i decided to simply improve my way of understanding references and human anatomy. I definietly believe that i achieved this and i cant wait to utilize my new knowledge and understand in future projects.

If i were to improve more on this current project, i would definietly improve my presentation of the model, which i find to be very difficult. I would also improve other aspects as the texture and amount of specularity of the eye-lens. 

I worked really hard to push myself out of my comfort-zone for this digital portrait. I am definietly a rookie with one big R, but with hard work and dedication for your passion you can come incredibly far in a short amount of time. I will always strive for improvement and making my best even better. 

Cheers!