Question about Valve character faces...

[Supernova Nexus]

This is something that's been on my mind for a while. In the book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar (in the Digital Drama chapter), the book tells that Valve needed people to have their face in the game for reference, and that they also showed who was modeled after who. But they didn't tell exactly in the book how the scanning process was done. Was there a specific program that Valve used to scan their faces onto FacePoser? If anybody can answer my question or would happen to have any knowledge of it, that would be great!

 

[TechnoHippyChic]

I'm not sure what they used, but I would guess they had to grab the model with some proprietary thing and then export it to something they could work with. I know the latest version of AutoCAD is supposed to have improved support for 3d scanners and printers. It's not something I'm all that knowledgable in, but it's interesting to me. I would love to play with one. Check this out:


How to make a 3D scanner

 

[ríomhaire]

I figured they just modelled them from scratch using the photos as references, actually scanning them would make more sense I guess.

 

[morgs]

They may have used Adobe Face Reader.

 

[Danny_ZQ]

Is it true that Eli's face is modled after a homeless man?

 

[Omnomnick]

Is it true that Eli's face is modled after a homeless man?

100% true. They found him looking for work near Valve's old offices. Larry Heard is his name.

 

[ríomhaire]

I hope they paid him a decent amount.

 

[Omnomnick]

I hope they paid him a decent amount.

Probably did. Infact it probably helped him out quite a lot. Think he knows his face is as famous as it is?

 

[Barnz]

He does. Someone at hl2central found him and asked him about Half-Life.

 

[sixteenth]

hl2central

First time I've heard that in years.

Raising the Bar explains a little more about whoever each person the characters were modeled after. For ex, I believe Freeman is a combination of a bunch of male Valve employees.

 

[0ut_Stander]

If you finish HL2 and watch its credits, then you'll see whos faces have they used.