Ultimate PBRSkin Manager (Commercial) ** 2 additional utility scripts available here **
https://www.daz3d.com/ultimate-pbrskin-manager
Ultimate PBRSkin Skin Manager is the best and most efficient tool ever made to adjust, customize, or even completely set up any existing Iray skin based on the new PRBSkin shader (and will work with Generation 4, Genesis, Genesis 2, 3, 8 and 8.1).
Thanks to a clear and synthetic overview and control of all the surface key properties determining the final look of the skin, sorted by categories of effects and organized in four tabs (Tone, Gamma, Gloss/Bump (Details), Additional Effects), you will be able to reach the skin characteristics you have in your mind fast, easily and efficiently. The organization of these key properties has been carefully thought so that everybody, beginners and advanced users, gain a huge amount of time, and get a clear overview of the whole skin shader while they customize the skin of a figure.
For the ones who already know "Ultimate Iray Skin Manager", this is the same principle, but everything was adapted for the new PBRSkin shader.
The rest of the interface has been developed in order to add a maximum of useful additional options and a great comfort of use, this is why you can directly from within the interface decide on which surfaces you work (skin including or excluding Lips and/or Nails, Lips only or Nails only), but you can also change the Viewport Style, the Environment Mode, the camera you use, the orbit node, the zoom, and the angle of the Perspective View, open the pdf documentation, etc, etc.
Don't be afraid to test new sets of parameters because save and load tools are also included directly in the interface. At any time during your skin shader adjustment, you can save in text files full or partial presets of the properties used by Ultimate PBRSkin Manager for your skin shader without leaving the interface. This way, you can load them later on, during the same or another session, on the same or on another figure, of the same or another generation (save/load skin properties without image maps). A specific script is also included in order to transfer the new properties of the figure to the surfaces of its anatomical elements.
Thanks to Ultimate PBRSkin Manager, not only you will find a synthetic and logical organization of the parameters you can change to reach the skin look you want, but also it will help you to make the skin adjustment process more methodical, faster, easier and more comfortable.
This is not a new shader, these are not shader presets. This is just a super efficient tool to adjust and customize PBRSkin based figure of any generation in a clear and efficient way. Considering the fact that there are not tons of PBRSkin figures right now, some of the promos were made using old figures that I converted to PBRSkin, before using Ultimate PBRSkin manager to adjust them. Furthermore, Ultimate PBRSkin manager can easily evolve to adapt to the eventual "new habits" PA will use to create their Genesis 8.1 figures. Ultimate PBRSkin manager will work on any figure of any generation from Victoria 4 to Genesis 8.1 as long as their Skin+Nails+Lips and eyesockets when they exist shader use PBRSkin. I am developping an eyesocket patch which will be an additional file allowing the eyesocket conversion to PBRSkin, because it seems that some PA will forget to convert their eyesocket surfaces to PBRSkin.
Joined to this post as well as later on in this thread you will find two utility scripts allowing you to see what Skin/lips/nails surfaces are not PBRSkin in a figure, and to apply PBRSkin shader to Eyesocket (skin surface) and Fingernails and Toenails (nails surfaces). They are useful only if the author of the figure forgot to set up these surfaces as PBRSkin surfaces too. You can use them from your content library, or drag and drop them from anywhere on your computer on your selected figure. They will be finally included in PBRSkin Manager, either stand alone as it is the case here, or embedded in the main script.
This thread is here to answer any technical questions you could have. Please use this thread for this project, and not "Ultimate Iray Skin Manager" thread, so that things remain clear for everybody. Now a few images.
Comments
Hm, the store needs pages for product announcements with an auto-buy button . I will reserve some space in my shopping cart...
Thanks a lot for this very nice feedback!
Got a youtube/vimeo "How to" yet?
If so, please link!
No I did not do any video. It is super intuitive to use, I thought there was no need for a video. There is a pdf documentation in the product, accessible in the readme or via the interface, but honestly I think people don't need it.
I have the ultimate skin product, will this be an upgrade? If so, what's the cost? Is there going to be a discount for those who own ultimate skin?
Hi, no this is not an upgrade, the two initial shaders being too different by their structures to make a "simple upgrade". This is a brand new product. There is no special discount for owners of ultimate skin for Iray Uber (things went faster than I thought after submission, I did not really had the time to think about / ask for something like that knowing that I was focused on a new product and on an update). Yet, the thing I did is that, for everybody, the product is less expensive that the initial "ultimate Iray Uber" one, because indeed I could re-use a part of the initial script structure - but only a part.
Thank you.
You're welcome :)
Can't wait to buy this product!
sometimes i wish i could just get a subscription to your products.
this looks promising. and this new PBR skin model needs all the help it can get. it takes me days of tweaking maps and settings to get a skin that looks half as good and natural as even a mediocre uber dual lobe g3/g8 skin does.
:)
j
@Leonides02 : I know, you were one of the first to ask for it :) You should not wait to long....
@johnjohn808 : it really looks like Ultimate Iray Skin Manager, I tried to keep it as close as possible, while removing what did not exist any longer, and adding the new features and specificities of the new shader.
@jardine: thanks a lot, and totally agree with you, this new shader is much less flexible and asks much more efforts to get something good than Iray Uber did. After working with it, my workflow is the following one : my first changes now go on the gamma of Base Color and translucency color maps, even before I touch to skin tone settings. Then minor (or major, it depends) skin tone adjustments, and finally the gloss/additional effects tweaking...
Looks very interesting.
SOLD!
This looks amazing, I can't wait to try it out!
@Artini : thanks!
@Thyranq : Thanks too! I hope you'll like it!
Thank you! I love the new PBR Skin shader, I'll be ready for this.
Thanks !!!
it is released today : https://www.daz3d.com/ultimate-pbrskin-manager
I'm a little confused... does this need UV maps or is it applied like an IRay shader? Probably a stupid question and eveyone is shouting "of course you need maps" but, well, just in case.
This is not a shader, it ignores UVs, it ignores maps, this is your "control room" for the PBRSkin Shader.
It ignores the maps, (except for makeup or metallicity where you can optionally "check" the presence of weight maps, but in this case it simply checks if there is a map, nothing more). The only thing it will check is :
- that your figure is a figure comprised between victoria 4 and Genesis 8.1 (included)
- that this figure uses PBRSkin shader on skin/lips/nails (eyesocket when it exists is included in skin, people tend to forget that) surfaces.
Once this is checked, you are allowed to use the "control room" so that you can customize your exisiting PBRSkin shader much more efficiently and much more clearly (so much faster) than you woud do if you were running through your surfaces and properties via the Surfaces Editor. Here everything is gathered by theme, you have access to the (now super important) gamma manager allowing to giving you better skin looks or customisation, to the fact that now properties are gathered in thematic tabs, to the save/load presets function saving and loading only the property values, but not the maps, so that it is "cross generational - cross UV - cross figure (and all figures keep their maps when you reload)".
I was looking for someplace to change maps, as well.
For maps operations, you have Map Manager which has also been updated for 8.1 (I hope the update is released) and which allow to move map from one property to another (or from one figure to another figure "using the same UV/of the same generation"). What do you want to do as maps operations?
The main operation you can do on maps with Ultimate PBRSkin Manager is to change the gamma of any mapped property, which will drastically change the tone/look of the skin when you set it up properly.
Wow - didn't have to wait long for that one!
Downloading now to have a play
Yes, things went faster than I thought on this one, I don't know why, so I did not post earlier. I hope this project will come up with your needs!
I am developping two additional files which I should shortly post here, then which will be included in the product itself, allowing people to identify the eventual "non PBRSkin" surfaces in their selection, and to apply PBRSkin to Eyesocket and Nails if necessary so that the manager works even on figures where the PA forgot to convert eyesockets or nails to PBRSkin (and there will be, I just saw a figure where the PA forgot to use PBRSkin on eyesocket - and forgot to map it too).
Ok, so first impressions.
Really nice interface - everything is right at your fingertips, so you're not scrolling up and down the surfaces tab looking for options, it's all right there, and that's awesome.
Honestly my favourite thing is that I don't have to select surfaces, particularly if I wanted to adjust the bump map settings for the entire skin, or SSS, or translucency, or whatever. No more ctrl+clicking head, face, lips, arms, legs, body (or whatever the surfaces are called depending on the figure).
Load the script, BAM it's all there, ready to rock.
I was kind of hoping to have a couple of presets that we could load up, such as the awesome wet effect you have in the promos, but honestly it took me about 4 seconds to get a close replication, so I wasn't disappointed for long lol
Overall, a very handy script, and it's definitely going to save a lot of time when setting up character surfaces! Thanks again!
Thanks for this nice feedback!!! Yes the main purpose in a gain in time, efficiency and ease of use, so reading your comment, I'm super happy to see that I reached my goal with you :)
No presets are included and here is the reason why: so far, there are not enough figures in my opinion to make a "robust" product of presets preserving the original texture set. Imagine a PA using a super dark dual lobe map associated with high weight, and a PA using a super clear one associated a low weight. In this case, no value I could provide for dual lobes would match a wet effect for both cases, because maps are initially too different in term of final visual aspect for a same property value.
This is why I think that the best thing that can happen to the users at this stage, IMHO, is to be able to customize their wet (or global skin) look themselves, and this dedicated interface should make this work really easier and faster. As you said it took you a couple of seconds to reach something close to the wet result you wanted :). Not sure the result would have been as good with a preset (well except if you have a special dedicated presets with dedicated maps for a given generation and a given UV set, which should be the case in the next "Wet and Tanned Skins (for PBRSkins)").
THANKS for the feedback !!
As soon as I have seen this, I just had to grab it! Thanks for being the first (To my knowledge) to support the PBR skin shader and for not charging an arm and a leg for it!
Thanks a lot! Well I hope this will help you too :) I made this tool upon users' request, who were annoyed not to be able to use the Iray (Uber) Skin Manager version on the new figures, this is one of the reasons why it is released so early :)
I'm soon going to add in this thread two addon downloadable "utility scripts" (with thumbs and tips), one allowing you to check if all your skin/lips/nails surfaces are all PBRSkin (and if not, to display which ones are not in a message box), and one to apply PBRSkin to Eyesocket, Fingernails and Toenails, since they are (especially the eyesocket surface) the surfaces for which there is a risk that the author of the figure forgets the conversion to PBRSkin (which will result in the manager telling you that some of your skin/lips/nails surfaces are not PBRSkin). These addon scripts will finally be included in this manager product.
This main "Ultimate PBRSkin Manager" script comes with the early ages of PBRSkin shader, this is why it will be regurarly updated when necessary to take into account the way this shader is used by figures' authors. (For instance if part of them decide to use Iray Uber on the eyesocket, then the eyesocket will be removed of the list of surfaces to be taken into account to validate that all surfaces use the right shader).
I hope you'll have fun with it, I'm always available on the forum to answer to the different questions or technical issues you could have :)
Wow, thanks for making it for us and so quick, I'm looking forward to the plugins as well, I'm so glad that you're so helpful with your products, and yes, I'll have plenty of fun with this; thanks again!
You're welcome :) The counterpart of being so quick is that the products needs adjustments to take into account what the PA habits will be. First adjustment is coming now in the form of two additional sripts and are useful only in the case you see the message : “it seems that, for the figure you selected, some of the surfaces, or all of them are NOT PBRSkin Based surfaces…” and that yet, you "think" it was the case (and it was not, the guilty surface being probably Eyesocket).
It seems that for some of 8.1 figures, or some materials for those figures sold recently (not Daz ones which are OK, but PA ones), some “Eyesocket” surfaces were not properly converted to PBRSkins by their authors, resulting in the script telling you that not all the skin surfaces are PBRSkins (which is basically true), and preventing it to launch. I provide here two utility scripts to solve this, which will also be included in the next update of the product either directly or embedded in the main script. The first will tell you what surface is not PBRSkin (this way you will know if it comes from the eyesocket, which is the most probable option). The second one will apply PBRSkin to the Eyesocket and nails so that now, all skin/lips/nails surfaces are finally PBRSkin. Don’t worry if the nails were already PBRSkin, it will simply change nothing in this case.
Here are the patches for figures which were not 100% set up PBRSkin because of nails or eyesocket. You can either place them in a content library with their thumbs and tips and launch them from here (or even create custom actions), or place them anywhere you want on your computer and drag and drop them (the .dse file) from the folder they are in folder to your figure if you want to…. I also add this to the first post and change the title so that people are aware.
will these be updated into the main product at some time?