Almost there.....

I've now got to a point where the model & materials/textures is almost completed. I have applied the specular map to bring out the highlights in the skin and the bump map to create the skin texture. I have also added a hair and fur modifier to the model. I used this tutorial to learn the basics of the modifier. This caused 3DS Max to crash on my machine quite regularly so I was ensuring that I was saving after every step. Any more hair and I don't think my computer would have handled it, luckily I have a ridiculous haircut which meant I had only a strip to style and render.

I have a few things to modify and tweak before I consider the model finished. I have to adjust where the hair is starting at the top of the forehead which I will do by deselecting a few polygons from the top of the head. I have to make the blending of the ear to the head much less apparent. From afar this is not noticed a huge amount however up close it is much more noticeable.

I also need to create a material for the glasses and in particular create a glass material for the yet to be created lens. There are a few other areas I am not happy with such as some slight blurring over the right eye and the way the skin on the neck appears.

I will also experiment with a few different lights in order to create a final series of images. I was considering making a short video of a camera panning around the head however the hair and fur modifier dramatically increases render time so I am not yet sure I have enough time to complete it.