Head Proportion Advice

diogenes1071

Hello All,

I just had a question for the anatomy nerds here. I'm sure we've all heard of the whole 8-head-rule (which in my experience is more like the 7-head-rule) which dictates that the average person is about eight times the height of his/her own head. Most of the time, (unless you're really tall) most people fall somewhere beneath this ratio. However, I'm far to lazy to have actually tested this empirically, so would you mind giving me some tips about making realistic proportions? I've messed around with the propogating sliders for years, but I've never been able to get realistic results. I'm just going to throw out the base Genesis 2 Female figure, for example. I've reasoned that if the scale of the figure is dialed down to 89%, she stands about 5'2 or so. Realistically, what percentage would I have to fit the head propogating scale to in order to balance things out? I've noticed that the head on the base figure is a little small as it is. 

If you have any other advice, I'd be glad to hear it. 

ebergerly

IMO, if you want to model the real world, then model the real world.

Use a photograph. 

MelissaGT

I change the head scale depending on the pose and field of view of the camera. The wider the angle, the bigger the head appears optically. In those cases, I'll often shrink the head down a bit so it doesn't appear so gargantuan to the rest of the body (again, depending on the pose). 

background

So far as I know the 'eight heads rule' comes from it's application on classical sculptures. If you look at classical sculptures the heads are often quite small, but it gives the figure as a whole a heroic appearance. Very few real people match those proportions, in the same way that very few women match the proportions of fashion models. Since DAZ  and the PA's don't know if you want to use figures as typical real people, or as heroic characters they have to make a choice about the proportions of the figures. 

davidtriune

going by 8 head rule, that would mean taller people have bigger heads than shorter people....  Is this true though?

Zilvergrafix

diogenes1071 said:

Hello All,

I just had a question for the anatomy nerds here. I'm sure we've all heard of the whole 8-head-rule (which in my experience is more like the 7-head-rule) which dictates that the average person is about eight times the height of his/her own head. Most of the time, (unless you're really tall) most people fall somewhere beneath this ratio. However, I'm far to lazy to have actually tested this empirically

Never got realized of that, but my favorite Kpop Group, IZ*ONE got me some ratios about 6 and 7 heads tall.

interesting.

 

 

Anim

There is a nice online tool regarding this:

http://humanproportions.com/

BandoriFan

I usually do head propagating scale between 2 and 4 since heads always seem too small 

I feel like measure metrics needs to keep track of head height and calculate how many head tall to see if we morphed a head too big or small. In both cases they seem 8 heads tall with nothing else changed 

I played with lots of morphs and the character is short but seems to have a tiny head. First pic is 6% head propagating scale while the second is 11%

 

Havos

davidtriune said:

going by 8 head rule, that would mean taller people have bigger heads than shorter people....  Is this true though?

I don't think that is true at all. Most adult's have heads of a similar size, and so the proportions will be different for tall people compared to shorter ones.

Drip

Also note that a humans' head barely grows during a lifetime. A babyhead is already at 50% of the size it will reach at a mature age, while the rest of the body is somewhere between 20 and 25 percent of its maturated length. And some people simply do have relatively big heads or big bodies. Or small heads or small bodies, whichever way you prefer to call it. Best way to deal with it, is to simply go with whatever feels aesthetically right to you, which can differ from one scene to another.