Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 10
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Okay, found what I was thinking of. It's Winter Kingdom: Castle Ruins. It's all one large blob though on the ground, I checked in Surfaces.
Thanks I didn't know that. Now I will just have to actually REMEMBER it lolol!
CC Lily (Gen8F) Felicity Outfit (Gen8F) Liv Hair (Gen3F / Gen8F) Tempest Hair (Gen3F / Gen8F) Super Messy Updo (Gen3 M/F, Gen8 M/F)
I told you I was testing the Metallicity/ Metallic Flakes and that I'd added a few more things for you to try if you're interested. I am going to show you some of those things, with a couple changes, so you can see what they do. Here's the post with the old and new information. Now you get to see it in action.
First, here's just a few things which will give you results that vary greatly:
Your render settings.
a.) In Tone Mapping, your Exposure Value, Film ISO, Crush Blacks, and Burn Highlights play a big role in how the sheen will shine. And, I'll show you how Saturation changes things up. I don't see that mentioned very often.
b.) In Environment, your dome rotation (the angle the light hits the skin) plays a big part. And of course, the Environment Intensity and the types of lights used.
For consistency, since I normally use the Pro-Studio lights and FWSA LightsFX for the quickie portraits in the thread, I used those.
Tone Mapping was my usual 135, with the Exposure Value ranging from 13.25 to 13.81 on average. (Going into the 14's darkens it. Remember the higher the number, the darker.)
Burn highlights was LOWERED so the "glare" that was consolidated was a bit gentler. The higher the number, the more defined. Burn was .15
Crush Blacks was .36 which is stronger than the default of .20
Observations: Don't be surprised when you add Metallicity or Metallic Flakes and your character goes darker or bluer. For the added sheen, it's worth it and the tweak to fix it? Super easy. It's in the other post. But watch the skin tones in the following examples, in addition to the sheen. You will need to load these in order (click the image, they will open in a new window) and then click back and forth and see the differences.
I don't want you to get the other images confused, so won't number this as the first image. FIRST will refer to the original that we are going to tweak, so when you have windows open, you'll correlate with the first, second, and third gals that LOOK THE SAME. The full length walking render is Lilly without any skin setting tweaking. I wanted to show you the dress, then off I went on this tangent because someone sent me down this rabbit hole by mentioning my Metallicity post. You know, it happens. (ahem, L'adair.) So you can thank or curse that person after you've tried all this, because I played with it even more. She caught a typo in the numbers, and I appreciate that very much.
First, and keep referring back to this one- this is the original materials. She'll be lighter than when I add the changes that were originally posted. (We're going to go back and lighten her back up later.)
CLICK and open in a new window. You'll need all these to click back and forth, to REALLY see the difference.
Second, the first batch of changes in the original post.
Metallicity at .098
Glossy Reflectivity .80
Glossy Roughness .50
Base Bump 1.34
Metallic Flakes Weight .0010 PUT THIS IN FIRST, then the rest of the menu will open up.
Metallic Flakes Size .00070
Metallic Flakes Strength .35
Metallic Flakes Density .23
Okay, she's darker and her skin tone changed, so here's where those edits come in.
1. Lower your Translucency. If your character is around .45, test it at .40, etc. Baby steps. So the next one, you'll see a difference in how "light" the skin goes when I drop it further.
2. Take care of the blue/gray easily with your SSS Reflectance Tint. BARELY put in a whitish-pink. 255 / 248 / 247 is great on this character. Click back and forth from the previous one and note the color correction. When we lower the Translucency on the next one, that color will be more obvious. DON'T over do with pinks- it should be a barelly-there whitish pink for many characters.
3. Testing the Dual Lobe Specular Weight as it was 0 on this gal. Tried several settings, liked .010
4. The Dual Lobe Specular Reflectivity on this one is .53 (which goes higher on the next one)
5. Glossy Reflectivity was no change, it was at 1.00, but I lowered the Glossy Roughness down to .48 So see what your character is on and lower it a tad.
Third and final: the changes above except for:
Translucency was lowered further, from .40 to .34 (and lightens the character more.)
Dual Lobe Specular Reflectivity was increased from .53 to .77 and that's the final setting.
Now click your first (original skin mats) and this one, the final tweaks with Metallicity, Metallic Flakes, Dual Lobe Specular, Glossy Roughness, and Translucency changes added to the mix. You'll see you were able to add sheen and retain a similar skin tone color and lighten it back up.
Fourth But we're not done! We have to test her in different lights if it's a character we want to use on a regular basis. The previous lights were the FWSA Lights FX, so now we're going Pro-Studio and light 14. Here's our gal. I'm guessing the loweredTranslucency, in combination of other factors, and this lighting may be taking some of her color out. So let's test Saturation (in the studio, no need for postwork.) Here she is with just the settings from above.
Fifth Now I'll show you two different Saturations. You decide which you like better. Let's look at Saturation 1.15. BTW, Saturation is in the Render pane, in Tone Mapping, down below the Burn Highlights and Crush Blacks. Get used to it, and use it! :) Click back and forth between this one, and the previous one, which has all the settings we used, but seems a bit washed out IMO. See how that very, very pale whitish pink comes to life? That's why you don't want to overdo that.
Sixth Okay, let's up it to 1.28 IMO going higher than 1.28 didn't look good for this gal, but if you have a very pale person, you might want to try it. (And again, depending on your lights/environment.) And that's what I chose to use. So this is my final gal, in this lighting.
Hope this helps, you can play from here and make changes based on your lights and characters. Remember there is a link to this post in the first page of the thread, in the Tips section. Would love to see some of your results and any changes you make / suggestions you have.
@Novica... You're welcome.
(Okay, I am sorry about the rabbit hole... really.)
No you're not. :)
DId anyone else notice the weird neck on the Vinnuth Kriegor Battle Mega Armor dude? It's not the lighting IMO, it actually has square notches. Look at:
third thumbnail, top row
last thumbnail, second row
It looks like the shadow from the neck guard to me. The notches are being cased by the wire bindings along the top.
Ah, you're right. It's distracting to me as it is a significant skin color difference that pulls the eye away from the outfit. (Which is what I'm supposed to be looking at, not the guy's neck!) Do really like the details of the outfit, a lot of effort definitely went in to it.
That's what I think, too. It's just strong lighting, producing hard shadows with a lot of contrast. (IMO)
Okay, maybe everybody except me already knew this, but I learned today that you can apply partial poses by selecting the relevant bodypart(s) and doing CTRL-click on the pose you want to apply. Then select 'selected' for both Nodes and Propagation.
Mind.Blown.
(as demonstrated by Owen 8 wearing three partial poses)
Thanks! helps to get tips and suggestions
I've yet to explore skin settings. Some day I want to try a close-up portrait of a self-made character. I have a vision in mind but too many other irons in the fire right now.
I didn't know that, thanks for the tip
You're welcome.
Additional: you need to select all the parts the pose applies to, like this:
Yeah this is the best trick. Completely eliminates any need for partial poses. I have mine set with default options as Nodes: Selected and Propagation: Recursive so it only takes a fraction of a second longer than loading a pose normally.
Hey, @barbult took first place in Esha's 10th store anniversary contest. Lovely render, packed in ten different products! Did you ever list them?
I used 14 esha products in that render! I think I'll add the image to my gallery and link the products there.
Edit: Gallery image link
Congratulations barbult! that was a lovely image you created
Anyone use Skin Doctor products? In this case, I'm using Dirt and Grime for G3F... and it is doing that thing where the eyelashes become "frosted" clamshells. You know what I'm talking about? The eyelashes become two white arcs.
Hoping someone has encountered this, knows what I mean, and knows how to fix it...
maybe it lost the opacity map for the eyelashes? check the eyelashes and see if the opacity map for them is still there.
Congratulations, Barbult! Excellent image.
I admit to having a big love of laundry renders for some reason. I like that so much, and its very creative. May have to try using that laundry prop someday.
In Fast Grab, take a look at the Rebellious Teen Outfit for $5.39 I won't ever use the skirt, waaaay too short, but look a the boots and the hoodie. Tank top is okay, doesn't look like anything unique, but you could use it under other shirts that are too low cut. Worth the price IMO.
A note for Mac users... it's the command key.
I didn't know this, awesome tip. This just went in my tips and tricks file. Thanks, Nath!
@Nath, I didn't know that either. Thank you for sharing it. (I even used it last night!) What a time-saver.
As you're the one to share it here, I think you should also share it in this thread, too. A lot of people keep an eye on that thread just to learn gems like this one.
And done!
And that's a very useful thread... thanks and bookmarked.
It's too quiet in here...
I have several images in various stages of WIP, and I've been playing with a lot of new toys, as well as doing some rudimentary modeling. Hexagon frustrates the [insert favorite word(s) here] out of me. But I managed to make a couple new morphs yesterday. I tweaked G3M a bit, used the bridge to go to Hexagon, clicked on the model and sent it back. That gave me a single morph combining the those tweaks. That gave me an idea, so after dForcing a jacket, I tried the same thing. Short version, it didn't work.
On the other hand, I must say I really, really like the Trumpet Dress, which I bought earlier this month. It took me a bit to figure out how to do what I was attempting to do, as there isn't a readme file. However, it's really simple once you know how everything works, and a readme would unnecessary. I recommend opening each of the two included scenes and watch how they work. Better than any ol' readme, IMO.
I'm working on a showcase and playing around with a few things. :) It's taking awhile.
I'm making a kite using primtiives and dForce. Got one version to work but then decided I could do better, so....
Playing with Blender... at least I'll no longer need to buy ear morphs