Actually, for this close up I ended up going with a focal length of 120 :P

Aside from the focal length, this shot served as my best showcase for the newest developments, as well as some more of the face's current limitations.

The big focus of the week was the mouth, for the third week running. I ended up going with a different topology (although not as drastic as one experiment I showcased last week.) Most of the difference comes from pulling the corners of the mouth forward, and making the wires driving the deformers likewise shallower. These two changes were done last week, but it was the topology that was keeping me from being certain about it.

To tell the truth, I'm still not sure if I'm completely happy with the mouth. I am especially skeptical of the back ends of the flews. Even in this image, you can see how the adjusted topology can create a "pinching" there. I've slowly come to the conclusion that the mouth will never be perfect, and getting it exactly how I like it will require special adjustments for every shot (especially custom adjustments to the wire deformer's weight paints, which I'm starting to do a lot more) to get it just right.

Some of the limitations present include the upper lips, which no longer have a smooth curve down to nothing, but instead abruptly stop. This is because I am only using a temporary stop-gap of applying shaders directly to polygons, as the UVs aren't setup for textures yet. The new topology no longer has a 5-edge intersection on the upper lips, which significantly improves deformation for the lips there, which causes the change in how the lips end there. This won't be a problem once proper textures can be made.

The eyebrows, being raised as they are, creates a very large flat space between them and eyes. The ears could also use some changes.

The neck has also been adjusted by requires further refinement.