Could anyone offer some suggestions for modeling from a reference photo?

I am blown away by the head morphs by idler168, Thorne, sarsa, Blackhearted, etc...!  And, I assume they are all modeled using photographs.

From what I can understand, I could:

• import V3 head into my modeler (I'm using Hexagon and Anim8tor)

• place a front and side image of the head I want to model along the back and side of the V3 head

• push and pull points, edges, and faces until I get the wireframe to look like the photo

• use "elfen magic" to transfer the same head morph from V3 to A3

At least, that's how it all works in my mind.  Inside the modeler, I don't seem to have the same level of control over the wireframe as I do in my imagination.

Any suggestions?

Google Blacksmith and get the free demo there. Try this. I personally do not use photos brought into the 3D space, they are just lying: on the desk, on the floor, are sticked to the monitor, are hidden by the cat and so on.
Seriously - you cannot take the personality of somebody from just a profile and a frontal photo.
And: be prepared - you will need practice, practice, practice....
Have fun!

So, it's more about eyeballing the essence than plotting the details.  Ironically, I have to admit I don't have the strongest visual sense, but I'll give it a few tries.

By "Blacksmith", do you mean Blacksmith3D from blacksmith3d.com, or 3D Mesh Blacksmith from TLK Games?  I hadn't heard of it before.

And, yes, you do look as dangerous as possible...

That's exactly what faceshop pro does.. makes a head morph and texture from photos

blacksmith3d.com is what I meant.  You can make your life easier if you try to get at least the basic shapes, like nose, mouth, headshape/profile, headshape/frontal and so so inside poser. Then export  the head (and, just in case you might need it later) the neck. Work on this "rough".
Take care not to change the seams - looks kinda nasty when re-imported to poser....
And the best  idea is to take V4.1, she's the most versatile lady in 3d - you might have seen what can be done with her.
While working on the geometry I try to have a many photos as possible. My minimum is profile, frontal, 3/4 frontal (preferably both sides of the face).
Whenever you did something you like, SAVE either the modelers file or export the OBJ.
The rest (as mentioned aboy) is practice.

*And, yes, you do look as dangerous as possible...
*That makes this old man happy....

*That's exactly what faceshop pro does.. makes a head morph and texture from photos

*At least it tries.

Yeah,

There's a very good tutorial on faceshop somewhere around here.  It seemed like a good place to start, although the final result (using V4) needed quite a bit of dial tweaking.  I could try the demo.

I actually tried the FaceGen demo, which did a very good job.  But, $300 was a little more than I wanted to spend.

Some artists do start their modeling inside of poser.  Capsces apparently does almost everything using only the magnets.  I wanted to create something more realistic than that, but I can see the possibilities.

And, apparently, V4 is the most versatile figure because fo the number of facial parameters you can tweak.

I haven't really warmed up to her yet, but her features seem much more neutral than V3's.  So, your morphs wouldn't all look like V3's sisters.

mwright

Didn't try FaceGen, but tried Faceshop Pro. Didn't find the result really satisfying.
V4 has a really wide range in which you can already make her look "kind of similar" to a living person, the rest (very much like in classical sculpture, where I come from) is very small details, it's something between caricature and 1:1 modelling, to pick out the details which make us recognize a face. As far as I know, this can't be automated beyond the sheer geometry. And maybe never will, because there is no scientific base about this yet (as far as I know). So it's left to artists. Fortunately.

I saw some amazing faces done in faceshop over at Daz by its users.. just like any other tool, it looks like you need to invest time and energy in it to get the killer results.

There are certainly great technological advances that promise to create ever more "perfect" humans right inside your computer. 

Faceshop seems to be a useful tool.  And, FaceGen is very good at creating an accurate enough mesh that when overlaid with a photo, looks very real.

The hobbyist in me loves the idea of using tools that do incredible things.  But, the artist in me also enjoys the satisfaction of accomplishing something that at first seemed difficult.

My goal is always to balance science and technology with with some degree of creativity and artistic vision.

Just as an FYI: The new FaceShop 3.5 is now out. You can buy it here at Rendo or download a 15-day trial at www.abalonellc.com.
See how you like it.
Laslo