anAtomic: Head Anatomy 3D Cheat Sheet free

License is Royalty Free

A 3D facial anatomy resource for Artists

*approved by a Plastic Surgeon at Brown University

Every character artist needs to know: "What's under the skin?"

Turns out...there's a lot going on. 

Fat, muscles, bones, and skin all create the shape of the human face.

And without knowing what's below the surface, your 3d characters will never look quite right.

To become a character artist, you must first master human anatomy

Good news: you don't need to spend years at a medical school. 

This Blender model, anAtomic Lex, is as close as you'll get to understanding head anatomy (without using a scalpel).

"I've reviewed this model, (it) represents an excellent depiction of the facial skeleton incorporating its layers, key anatomic landmarks, and facial contour. Intriguing opportunity for anatomy training for medical students and residents." - Vinay Rao, MD Plastic Surgery Resident at Brown University

anAtomic Lex is your go-to anatomy reference

The construction and labeling of this ecorche bust covers the human head and the neck, including the collarbones. 

The downloadable model includes:

• Extremely detailed anatomical model (approved by a plastic surgeon)
• 4 layers of facial anatomy: bone, muscles, fat, and skin
• Everything labeled with correct technical terminology

Explore the human head to create professional 3d characters

anAtomic Lex will help you get to know human anatomy like never before.

Here's what makes anAtomic Lex so easy to use:

• the model runs in realtime
• custom UI is highly intuitive for easy navigation
• great for beginners and experienced character artists

And there's more...

The skull bones are color-coded for easy identification

X-ray vision: the muscles, fat, and skin can be halved

Meet the Creator of anAtomic Lex

Kent Trammell, CG Cookie

"Hey, guys! I'm an instructor at CG Cookie, the longest-running Blender training website. In my 8+ years of teaching Blender, I've created 3d character models like "Simon" below. Characters are my specialty and anAtomic Lex is a reference I use every single time. It's a game-changer for every character artist!

Kent Trammell created his "Simon" Model to show the level of realism Blender can achieve...with the right knowledge of human anatomy

What other 3d Artists are Saying about anAtomic Lex:

"One of the most beautifully crafted anatomy studies I've ever seen. Beyond its quality level and the fact it runs realtime, it is packed with such an handy custom UI and amazing level of detail that for me, this is a must have if you want to learn anatomy and the best reference I've the chance to put my hands on".  - Pierrick Picaut, Freelance Blender artist and trainer

"It's a go to reference for character artists. I am definitely recommending this as one the main reference to understand the human head." - Yuditya Afandi, Character Artist

"This ecorche tool is just brilliantly well done. It's made very easy to study and understand the relationship between bones, muscle, fats and skin. I can clearly see both beginners and experienced artist benefiting from this tool, and anatomy teachers will of course love it." - Lucas Falcao, Freelance 3D Artist

Bonus: Kent Trammell's 5 Tips about Human Facial Anatomy

Who is this tool intended for?

As an artist myself, I built this tool primarily to aid other artists who want to learn and reference comprehensive facial anatomy in a 3-dimensional format.

Why is some anatomy missing? (spine, mouth cavity, etc)

I omitted the deeper internal anatomy because I focused on structures that most directly affect the external shape of the head. Since the spine, mouth cavity, brain and some muscles (like the platysma) don't notably affect the external shape of the head, they're not included.

Does this work with Blender 2.80?

Lex's shaders require certain 2.81 nodes to render properly. If you're experiencing black in the eyes or anything that's visually different from the images/video on the product page, make sure you're opening the file with 2.81 and not 2.80.

Do I have to be a Blender user?

No you don't need to be proficient with Blender to use anAtomic fully. Just think of Blender as the platform for interacting with the model. Blender's free to download and easy to install on any OS (just unzip directory to any folder and launch the app within). Open the anAtomic .blend file, navigate with MMB (orbit), SHIFT + MMB (pan), and CTRL + MMB (zoom/dolly) and click the buttons on the right to navigate anatomical layers.

anAtomic Lex Changelog

Version 1.0.3

• Corrected script run failure in Blender 3.4.1 due to legacy shader node input "Fac" being changed to "Factor". 

Version 1.0.2

• Corrected Visual Mode property not displaying in Blender 2.93

Version 1.0.1

• Added nasal cartilage to the Skeletal Layer
• Fixed a boolean error within the Skin Half operator that was causing issues for Windows users.
• Fixed inconsistent visibility for right-side hair objects when halving the Skin layer.
• Unified hair particle child counts between viewport and render
• Corrected a few misnamed objects

Version 1.0.0 - initial release