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Big Head
Big Head – Tutorial
Here‘s the story: Eric Testroete, 3D artist, had the
idea of a very unique Halloween costume last year.
He presented it in the web and a few people, inclu-
ding a music video producer, copied the idea. Ne-
vertheless, no one had the ambition to write inst-
ructions, especially for the folks that have ordinary
computing and crafting skills.

So let me introduce the big papercraft head, which I

modified only a bit, because the basic idea is unde-
niably genius.
I can additionally advertise 2 little additional mo-
difications to make it look more realistic or more
creepy; glossy eyes or dynamic eyes.

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Step One – This is what you need
The 3 phases of the project require the following
stuff:

I) Photographing
Camera: The better, the better. DSLRs are perfect,
compact cameras also work, and a
Tripod can never be wrong.

II) Modeling
A modeling program: I use Anim8or, which I will
introduce later.
An image editing program: I use Paint Shop Pro
X, but any other one will work, too.
An unfolding program: You have no choice.
There‘s nothing but Pepakura.

III) Crafting
Paper: The best paper for crafting weighs between
160g/m² (40 pound) and 250g/m² (66 pound) and
is matte. Glossy paper is conducive to physical ag-
gressions.
Glue: Please don‘t use a glue stick or double-sided
tape. On the long run, your head will bow itself off.
I use UHU (liquid, because you need to fill gaps).
A printer
A zip lock or Velcro (optional)
Regular crafting stuff: Scissors - Cutter - Twee-
zers - Those little clothes-pins - Ruler

As you may have noticed, the costs are really as-

sessable. It won‘t probably be more expensive than
15$.

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Step Two – Photo Session
You will need at least 3 photos.

I) Face, front (The whole head should be on the

photo) - texture
II) Head, side (If you have a remarkable characte-
ristic only on one side, you need pictures of both
sides) - texture
III) Whole body, front (This is important for the
right size later) - reference

How to take the pictures:

Put your camera on a tripod and make sure that
your face is fully and evenly lighted. Avoid dark are-
as, the best way to get the right result is to put the
camera in front of a window, camera facing you, you
facing the window.
Consider that the camera will probably set a wrong
focus when you trigger the self-timer.

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 Step Three – Modeling The Head
If you don‘t have any experience with modeling, I recommend you to use Anim8or, which you can down-
load for free. There are a few functions which make you able to model your head.
When you are absolutely not familiar with the program, please make at least the modeling a hand-tutorial
on http://anim8or.com/main/index.html first, so that you get into the program.

At first load 2 head-pictures (front and side) into the scene. Go to front view and load the first one with
Build - Reference Image. Go to a side view and load the other one. Put the images a bit away from the
middle, but first make sure that your head has the same size on both of the images. Scale the images with
the scale-tool if necessary. It should look like on the image now.
In my eyes, Eric‘s head is a little too angular, which is caused by the low poly-count. So I made the UV-faces
a bit smaller (see below), the size of coins in the face and the size of credit cards on the rest of the head.

I recommend to do the head with line-modeling instead of box-modeling. That means that you draw a grid
of lines along the „edges“ of your face, fill them and move the points to the right place. The picture below
shows the process, a whole head-model-tutorial can be found here: http://members.multimania.nl/jonim8or/
head_tut.html
This head-model is a bit too undetailed. These are the tools you need for modeling a detailed head:

The Arc-Rotate-tool (Ctrl R): Move the camera around the model.
Hide (h): if an object is in the way, click on it and hide it. Shift H lets it reappear.
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Step Three – Modeling The Head
The Add-Edge-tool (left side, middle): Draw the
contours of your face first with this tool
The Drag-Select-tool (d): Select a few points in
the front view mode, switch to the side view and
move (Move-Tool; m) the points where they belong.
Using more than one perspective at a time (view -
All) is very helpful.
The Cut-Faces-tool (Shift C): This is for adding de-
tails. When you cut a face, points are added. When
you cut a line, The line is devided into 2 lines. You
often have to turn the camera in order to prevent
wrong cuts, f.e. on the backside of the object.
- The Fill-Holes-tool (Shift J): Select your wire-
frame in edge-select-mode (e) and fill the holes to
add faces between the lines.
The Extrude-Faces-tool (Shift Y): Select a face
in face-select-mode (g) and extrude it, so that you
can add an ear for example. You could also do that
with adding edges, but this is much faster and more
accurate.
The Merge-Points-tool (Shift J): Merge 2 points
that are close together.

Summing up, the process is: Draw a few lines, move

the points where they belong, fill the holes. Add
lines, move points, fill holes, etc.
Try to use a structure with many triangles, because
then nothing can go wrong with bad folds in rec-
tangles (Because you can fold a rectangle along 2
different diagonals).

[Variety 1]
For the variety of eyes that will follow the observer
(see step 8), draw the edges of the eyes clearly and
make the eyes a bit more popping out.

Tip: Do only one half of the face. Then mirror it, select
both sides and „join solids“, select the points in the
middle and merge them.

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Step Four – Texturing The Head
Now you need both of your head-pics as textures.

Color the head with the following material:

Ambient: 1
Diffuse: 0.5
The rest: 0
and a color of your choice.

This creates a material without shades, what makes

it easier for you to compare the textures and pre-
vent clipping mistakes.

Now you can prove your Photo Shop skills. Go into

the Flat-Shaded-view (Ctrl F) and make a screens-
hot. Crop the image, so that you only see the head.
Then make the image 300 - 400% bigger, copy your
head-photo over it and make the 3D-image a bit
more transparent, so that you have it as a reference.
Use the warp-brush to adjust your photo to the
model (without making it look ridiculous).
Very important: The head must everywhere be
bigger than the original model, or you see
the background on the model. You can
see that I made the ears smaller; I will
refer to that later.
Save the photo, which is now a texture,
but don‘t forget to make the reference
image transparent. You can‘t use a png or
tiff, so just save as the best jpeg possible.

Go back to Anim8or and open the mate-

rial you colored the head with. Click on
texture, load the texture and save the
material. It should look weird now, so
choose Texture UV (v) in side view and
adjust the texture to the head.

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 Step Four – Texturing The Head
Quick UV-guide:
- Right click within the circle moves the image
- Left click outside the circle turns the image
- Middle mouse button zooms the image (inside circle:
x/y not constant)

Select only the ear in Face-Select-mode (g) and image in the green area to the model, using the
press UV again. Then zoom in a bit and make it look warp brush. When the form is right, use brushes
real. This prevents that that the texture of the ear is like darken/lighten, tone or saturation to make the
also behind the ear, which would be wrong. edge of the texture fit to the other and create a non-
visible transition. Save the cropped image and put it
If you want a face like a pixel-zombie, you can go to on the face instead of the green material like before.
the next step. If not, make a screenshot of the front After you have checked your head for mistakes (you
and paste it into your image program. In Anim8or, can still change the textures), you are done with it.
select your face‘s faces and color them with a new
(here: green) material that has the same values as
above. Make the same screenshot as before and
paste the images on one image. It should look like
below now. Make them again 300 - 400% bigger
and copy your face-front-photo in. Now adjust the
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Step Five – The Right Size
Insert the full-body-image with Build - Reference
Image and change the size until the model-head and
the head on the picture have the same size. Copy
and paste the head with Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, select one
and make it as big as you want. I suggest about dou-
ble size, this has the disadvantage that you possibly
can‘t pull it over your head when you have a slim
neck, so you will have to attach a zip lock later.
Note: I used the size you see on the picture, and I can
pull it over my head without using a zip lock.

When you are satisfied with the size, draw a rect-

angle that has the height of your body, delete the
original-sized head and put the head beside the
rectangle, like in the picture.

Save the head as a 3ds-model (Object - Export).

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 Step Six – Unfolding The Head

For the next step you need Pepakura. Download the trial for free, but include enough time for the unfolding, be-
cause you unfortunately can‘t save it. Open the 3ds-file with Pepakura and denie every question except that
of joining the edges. If you don‘t see any textures, click on 3DModelWindow - Texture Configuration and
load them again. Navigate around your model with the mouse (zoom is on the middle button) and specify
the open edges: Click on the cutter on the toolbar (it should be selected already) and click on all the edges
of the head that you want to cut along later. You don‘t have to specify all open edges, only the ones that
need to be open. Choose a more vertical structure, that makes you thinner ;) Edges where the textures
change should always be open.
Unhook Auto and click on Unfold. Choose Specify Value. The size should be your actual size, therefore you
have the rectangle beside the head. Now you see a bit of chaos in the right area that you have to get under
control, using the right-click-options, especially Join/ Disjoin Face. Finding out by yourself what they all
mean is the easiest way to learn to make comfortable Unfoldings. Put the big size-rectangle anywhere on
the left of the screen, so it won‘t be printed.
What is also really important for comforting crafting is that the flaps are alternating on one and the next one on
the other side of the open edges. Do this as the last step. This keeps the parts in their forms and makes everything
more stable, because the parts intertwine better with a zip-lock-effect.
When you are done with organizing the parts, click Configuration - Line Style and hook „Hide Lines that
are almost flat“ with a value between 0 and 180 degrees (a higher value means more folding lines, which
doesn‘t look nice - 140 degrees is a good compromise). Don‘t forget to hook „Color flaps with neighboring
face colors“ in the Flap Configuration, otherwise your papercraft will have white edges.
Then print your papercraft on the thick paper. You may want to change all quality values to maximum
in printer setting and paper configuration. Make a few screenshots of the open model, so you see
where the parts go. Printing it a second time with concept settings on normal paper can‘t be wrong. ka
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 Step Seven – Building The Head
Finally it is time to glue your stuff together! I sug- [Variety 1] - Glossy Eyes (picture)
gest to begin with the nose and glue the face around Cut out the eyes before you glue the parts together.
it piece by piece. The middle line on the back of the Cut out another pair of eyes and glue them behind
head should be left open. You can try if the head fits the eye-holes in the head after you have put a piece
you without opening that line after holding it to- of transparent sticky tape over them.
gether with a bit of tape, and if it does, you can glue
it together. If you need to open the gap, you can cut [Variety 2] - Dynamic Eyes
the flaps away and glue a zip lock or Velcro strip on The dynamic eyes always look at the observer, they
the inner side, so you can open and close the head. work like the Dragon Illusion or the Look-at-me-
Boo.
The following things may be helpful: Simply fold the eyes inverted, that they go inside
Cut the part out and fold only the vertical folds with the head. The result is that the head looks at everyo-
the aid of the tweezers. Dotted lines mean moun- ne, where ever they stand (obviously not behind it).
tain folds, dotted and lined lines mean valley folds.
Of course you can use tape on the inside. Use the
mini clothes-pins to hold something together.
How to glue: You should always have some kind of
a narrow piece of paper. Rip it and you have so-
mething like a glue-brush. Do a bit glue on it or the
flap and arrange it with that piece. You often need
less then expected. Press it together for 5 seconds
and it should hold together. Don‘t do more than one
flap simultaneously. When you have trouble with
the last parts because the flaps are inside, you can
cut a hole into a face, print it again on normal paper
and glue it over the hole again.
When you don‘t know where something belongs,
take your model as a reference.

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 Step Eight – Finishing
Your papercraft head is finished!
You may want to make the neck edges smoother with the scissors to adapt it to your shoulders.

The papercraft head fits best when you wear a jacket and pull the collar over the neck. When you use it
open-air, please consider that the head suffers from severe aquaphobia. When you wear it, you may noti-
ce that you see.. absolutely nothing. When you grant your head a pair of real nostrils, you can not only
see which daytime it is, but also huge obstacles. Another option is putting brown transparent tape on the
inside of the nostrils, to make them a bit more invisible. So when you walk with the head on, please let a
blind person‘s guide accompany you. The view is not very panorama.

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