A new way to design a tulpa

[Zer0.iNSaNiTY]

You could always try Paint.NET, it's pretty cool ^^

[Shui]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I might have to set up a new computer for it though. I usually run Linux. Sometimes I can get Windows software working on my regular computer, but it isn't a guarantee.

[fennecfoxx]

This is actually a really great idea!

 

Can you help me out a bit with Vizago, though? I ended up with a model with no hair. I tried increasing the contrast on the photo so the hair was a bit darker, but the model had no hair for that photo, either. How do I, you know, get Vizago to include the hair on the model?

[Shui]

(Since I took this out of the original post, I'm putting it here: Once you have a face for your tulpa, you can turn that face into a 3D model with Vizago. Read the rest of this post first though. Maybe you'll find a better option.)

 

That's where things get tricky. The model you download (if you're downloading) will not have hair (or at least will have nothing more than hair-colored patches.) They will show you a few sample hairstyles on your model on the Fitting Results page, which is where my example pictures came from. If you want more though, you have a few options. The first three of these will give you images. The fourth and fifth will give you a physical model you can have shipped to you. The last two give you 3D models.

 

1. The Vizago technology was used to make an app called New Do for iPhone, iPod, and iPad, which allows you to apply different hairstyles to a photo. You can try 73 hairstyles in four colors.

 

It looks like there are some similar apps for Android, including one specifically for men. (I'm not sure if New Do works for men.)

 

There's also a browser-based app you can access from a computer called Modiface, which allows you to apply makeup and hairstyles to a photo. Again, this looks like it's for women only. But there's a similar app called Morphases which works for men and women. The downside is that the photo is made public.

 

2. Vizago advertizes Face Exchange, which allows you to insert the face you've made into a photograph in the place of whatever face is there already. Apparently you have to contact Vizago to get a price for this, as there doesn't appear to be a link anywhere on the site.

 

3. If you want to go really old school, print out the face and insert it into pictures of people turned at the same angle with scissors and glue.

 

4. Apparently on ThatsMyFace.com you can get models of your face made and sent to you. You can make your own dolls or action figures, and do the hair styling by hand, the old-fashioned way. This web site doesn't work for me though.

 

5. Using 3DMe you can design a figure which will be 3D-printed and sent to you. Costs about $65 though, and they might not be able to do what you want.

 

6. There's another program called FaceGen which might be a better alternative to Vizago, depending on your needs. You have to be running Windows though (I'm not, so I can't test it) and you won't be able to export 3D models unless you pay.

 

7. I just discovered Looxis Faceworx, which looks like another way to make and export 3d models from photos.

 

8. You can work with 3D modeling. There are a number of free 3D modelling applications and even free models you can modify. There's also an iOS app called 123D, which will allow you to make 3D models of real objects, so you can copy a real person's hair (with their cooperation).

 

This is definitely going to be the most time-consuming way to do this. But there is an upside. Since you seem to have an interest in Zelda, it's possible to import your own 3D models into the N64 Zeldas. I was considering designing a wonderland and importing it into Majora's Mask or something so that people could explore it. The video says it's for maps from other N64 games, but it should work with your own original characters too -- just they won't be able to move because the game doesn't understand where their bodies are supposed to bend.

 

Edit: Incidentally, your story of Link's creation is fascinating. You might be interested in Kid Radd, an animated comic about a video game character who escapes from his game. There are many similarities to your story, particularly in the beginning.

[Zer0.iNSaNiTY]

lol 3-D modeling loses me XD I can never become a 3D graphic artist, ever (kinda sucks, but ah well). I think I'm just gonna draw in Forseen's hair :P

[historical]

At first I'm like holy shet thats a creepy ass picture.

Then I realized its not real, and it got awesome. This is very interesting, indeed. This really helps with visualization because it gives the host something to start with.

[Shui]

At first I'm like holy shet thats a creepy ass picture.

 

That's the face, not the ass! :)

 

Then I realized its not real, and it got awesome. This is very interesting, indeed. This really helps with visualization because it gives the host something to start with.

 

Whoops. I just realized that I never actually said in the post what these instructions are for. I'm just like "Here's a picture. Now here's some instructions." Better go back and fix that.

 

But thanks! I'm glad people think this is useful, and that it's actually getting some use. I was worried it was too complicated for anyone to bother with.

 

Edit: Redid the whole first post. Much more simple, concise, and it actually says what it's about. Hope this works better, but I saved the original, just in case I made it worse.

[Zer0.iNSaNiTY]

You can totally tell I gave up half-way through this, but that's my attempt at trying to draw realistic hair lol. It looks so messy. His hair's not even that messy, more like it's in layers or something. Whatever, it sucks, but I thought I should still show y'all.

[Shui]

Wow! I think it looks really good.

 

Far better than anything I've done with hair.

[Shui]

Well, this is a new trick I've been working with lately. When you want part of once face and part of another face, you can load the first face in Pixlr Express, then go Adjustment ... Add Image. Put in the other face, adjust opacity to around 50%, and align the features on the two faces, adjust opacity up to 100% and click Apply. Then go to Adjustment ... History Brush, and brush over the parts of the face that you want from the first image.

 

Remember that when you're adding the second image, you can rotate it and change the size to better align it with the first image. This is easier if you've morphed both images a few times first, because MorphThing will do most of the work making them the same size and aligning them up-down for you. I usually try to align the inner corners of the eyes first, and then look at the chin. It helps to slide the opacity slider back and forth to see where the features of both faces are more clearly.

 

The two main uses for this trick are applying a feature of one face onto another face, and combining two pictures where the face is partially obscured (but in different places) into one picture where the face isn't obscured at all.

 

Actually, if you do this well, it can also be used to apply a face to a body.

 

This will almost certainly leave an ugly line across you face where one photo, which is slightly darker, clashes with another photo, which is slightly lighter. I think you can fix this with the photoshop "Match Color" tool, but so far I haven't found a way to fix it without spending hundreds of bucks. You can blur the line a little with Adjustment ... Touch Up, but it's not perfect.

 

On the other hand, with the right lighting, this should work great for copying a feature from one side of the face to the other.