High-quality head scans that are free for general use are not easy to come by. Lee Perry-Smith has somewhat immortalized himself by releasing his scan to the community:
I actually think it's better to use imperfect skin for the purpose of showing off rendering engines. I really like how you can see some spots, scars, small details on the skin rather than a smooth silky pretty girl skin.
>why didn't they do a beautiful girl's face instead?
Because it's a tech demo and it's a known texture in the OpenGL community? Not everyone in CS wants to stare at "beautiful girls", fortunately the Internet has created an outlet for such desires.
I'm sorry. I completely understand karma grubbing is frowned upon and I couldn't care less, especially about this post, but I really don't understand how people are downvoting this post. Feel free to downvote this one... I'm just genuinely curious what part of my post above this one is at all controversial.
Am I supposed to like women? Am I supposed to objectify women at every turn, especially in an industry where they're already highly objectified and slighted?
No, you're supposed to read the comment you're responding to in the context in which it was written. Did you bother to read the linked article before you responding?
why didn't they do a beautiful girl's face instead?