I recently posted an image "Sarah" in 3 galleries. Here, Renderotica and the Commune. Approximately 400 people, total, viewed the image. Two people commented. One of them, at 'otica, gave me a four (though it may have been higher the number system there is screwy) and said that Sarah did not look like Sarah. So, once again, I did some test Renders of my Sarah figure for Vicky as you can see.

Except for the hair (and I know there's not much to be done about that other than modeling something of your own) I'd say it's an excellent resemblance. The only place where I see any major difference in the likeness is in the profile shot (#4) where the chin and the facial planes don't quite match up with the photograph. It's tough as heck to get an exact likeness of any live person in Poser. I wouldn't let that guy at 'rotica get to you, Darth. Kate

#1: Other then a small cleft in the chin that shouldn't be there, and that I forgot to seal her lips for this expression, this seems to me to be perfect. In this image, I adjusted nothing on my Sarah Figure...it's out of the box. #2: Again with the lips, and at this angle I can see the bottom of the chin should be wider. I adjusted the head's scale a bit to accomadate for a younger, shorter Sarah. #3: Should've lowered y scale and raised x scale by about five percent each. The jawline is slightly off. Some changes made in post to make-up. #4: In this image, I made several small adjustments to the nose using standard Vicky morphs, as I believe everyone should do anyway when changing angles on a celebrity character. What looks right from front doesn't always look right from the profile, but if you change the profile too much you loose the front. I could've gone a touch further with the nose, and bring out the chin more, but I wanted to demonstrate as close to "outta da box" as possible without her looking just wrong. Fake photoshop quickie hair, rendered this one bald. All images were adjusted for contrast, brightness, hue, saturation for better matching of the source pic. In each pic, I MUST believe that what I am seeing is at the very least a 95% likeness, with 1 and 3 being higher than that. Am I not seeing things properly? Am I wrong? I really don't get the criticism, and I find it troubling as I've spent so much time on this character! Almost unanimously, everyone has said that my "Cordellia" is perfect. I spent about 10 minutes on her. Sarah has gone on for at least 48 non-consecutive hours. Thanks for your input here. -Darth_Logice

No, you're seeing it right, Darth. You know precisely where the "flaws" are and like I said earlier, I didn't see anything MAJOR, just little minor tweaky stuff. I agree that #1 seems to be right on the money (except for the cleft chin). The problem with the profile in #4 and the philtrum in #3 are problems with the original mesh itself. I haven't yet found a morph target for Victoria that will change the width or depth of the philtrum (the little divot between the nose and upper lip) nor have I see one that will extend the upper or lower lip out away from the face without also making the lips "fatter" in the process. Taking that into account, I think this is about the best you could have done with the tools at hand.

I think doing likenesses of real people is the hardest thing there is. That's why so few people are doing it. I think there are loads of lurkers would like to try something like this, hence the viewing figures, but don't know where to start. Once there is a tute which gives sure-fire results, everyone will be doing their favorite characters. Don't be discouraged Darth. I would make the eyes a bit bigger. Other than that it's there.

Great work Darth, you are way out ahead of everybody, and like all Pioneers, you either don't hear from anyone for days or weeks, and then suddenly get a flight of arrows in your back. But good criticisms can be helpful and KateTheShrew sounds like she has some knowledgable observations. To my knowledge, no Poser model morph or Vicky takes into account the subtle indentation that happens on the cheeks that Sarah has. There is a very slight inward curvature that gives her a slightly "waifish" face, while yours has slightly puffy cheeks. I don't know if this is correctable or not in Vicky's face. You've picked a really good face to work on, so if it is really tough, you'll also be learning a lot more from trying to perfect it.

Well images 1, 2 & 3 look like the original, but I think you're missing a little something on the profile, the cheek is in the wrong place, and she's got no chin. Having said that, it's also far, far, better than anything I could pull off... :) later jb

I see something that nobody has mentioned yet I think; Sarah's eyes appear larger than those of the model. It's especially apparent in the profile shot. This may be a matter of head size/scale, eyes are basically the same in most people.

hmmm, Well having read all of the replies above, I'd have to agree with you Darth, it is hard to change the chin and cheeks and still maintain the right, "look" (at least without a major rebuild.) I used to sculpt, and if you didn't pad out the forhead when building the blank face, you always ended up with an "ape man" due to the way a face is contructed. Poke holes for eyes, add a nose, then build out the muzzle and chin. having looked at the eyes, I think they're a little to close to the "edge" of the face, and need to be rotated about 15 to 30 degrees on the Y axis. They just don't protrude enough if compared to the profile image. later jb

The eyes are sunken as a result of extensive magneting. I must've forgotten to adjust the z axis in the profile so the eyes would protrude a bit from the socket. Roshigoth at Commune has just posted that it looks nothing like her. I would really really like to respond with fury but so far the feedback has been positive, which is more then proof that his opinion is wacky. Keep 'em comin :) -DL

BTW- this exercise in face sculpting brings up the need in Poser 5 for the ability to bring in a Photo Layer, like photoshop has, and allow you to make it 50% transparent of whatever... But wait? Can't this be done now? Create a flat plane and then map the photo onto it, bring it into Poser and position it in front of the face and make it 50% transparent (or whatever)... would this help to make real-time tweaks???

1. This looks like a cartoon/characiture (sp?) version; recognizably her, but not an exact match. 2) Is near perfect, IMO. 3) & 4) suffer from oversaturated textures; there's just too much red. The shape of the features, however, is stunningly close, except that the shape of the nose in 4 is a LITTLE off from the picture. {In each pic, I MUST believe that what I am seeing is at the very least a 95% likeness, with 1 and 3 being higher than that. } Well... you have a 100% recognizable likeness, but only about an 80% match, IMO... {Almost unanimously, everyone has said that my "Cordellia" is perfect. I spent about 10 minutes on her. Sarah has gone on for at least 48 non-consecutive hours.} COrdelia is not as well-known a character, and doesn't have the fanatical (and often uncontrollably drooling) following SMG has, so her fans are probably not as critical. IMO, you've done a great job on her, and are PROBABLY as close to a perfect match as is (currently?) possible without post work or creating your own model in an outside app!

Well I have to admit that I don't understand the fanatical devotion of SMG fans, IMO she's not that pretty. I have a mate who's nuts over the woman, but she does nothing for me. I have however seen pictures of Charisma Carpenter, (especially a bikini shot in a phone booth) that made me sit up and take notice, (if you know what I mean :) so I guess it's the old, "eye of the beholder" deal again, to each his own I guess :) later jb

I think for the most part I have to agree with what Charlie Brown said. I am not a watcher of the show (It is on a day I work late) and haven't really seen too much other than the commercials but I have always thought the figure looked a little characatureish from my previous glances at it. The problem with working on something too close for too long you is that you become rather blind to certain things. What you might want to do is take a break from the character for at least a week or two and then come back to it. I see that you know what most of the mistakes in matching are and you are defiantely on the right path. I think that Charlie has it right again about the critical nature of the fans as well. Good luck and it is lookign good. Just not perfect.

Everything looks like her to me except in the eyes. I think it comes from the bottom eyelid. In the pics it has more substance whereas in the renders it doesnt seem to show up. Dave

come to think of it, if you look real close at the photos you'll see the bottom lid is visible but the top lid is all but invisble, the opposite to Darth's girl, it's still fairly cool though :) later jb