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The only ones I see as dark are the ones where the image is showing the transluceny effect with a single light from behind the figure, other images look fine to me. You may need to check your monitor.
Well, those are definitely the darkest. The other two are not so bad. My monitor is adjusted for my viewing angle. If I stand up and look down on the darker ones, they look okay.
Interesting thing is I pulled a couple into my kindle (I'm deleting them, no worries, this is a test) and the Kindle has adjusted their gamma to SVG standard. My images and most others I've tested look identical on my monitor and/or browser (from my viewing angle) as they do on the Kindle.
No biggies because I assume these are straight out of Studio with no gamma adjustments, not finished images, and have not been brought into PS or Gimp or whatever for any level twiddling.
Just to share my way to get the best glowing ears effect with AOA shader base and and avoid to much color multiply by SSS.
-desaturate the image down until it looks pale but not gray to use in diffuse map.
-changing image vibrance and saturation to use in SSS color. the original image is work fine too if you don't want to mess up.
-set preset skin B high and change diff strength to 40(default 20) SSS strength default 120 now not too bright anymore.
-set easy two directinal light front and back with UE2 softbox preset ambient mode to test render and the result as you see, overall color not to vivid and ears glow clearer because
diffuse color pale enough to allow SSS to show the power, the detail of map loose a little but still look OK for me.
and.. this is my first time post please pardon my poor English. However, I'll try my best.
That looks great, one of the best SSS results I've seen. :)
This looks fantastic! Thank you for sharing. :)
...is there so much SSS adjustment you can do before the shader settings break down?
In a scene I had the following:
Goop shaders on a bundle of candles to make them look like they were made from honey coloured Beeswax
SSS on the Character's skin (basic SSS)
SSS set to "Skin - Average Orange Mid" (DimensionTheory's SSS Toolbox) with Diffuse strength set to 71%.
SSS Index or refraction set to 1.44 (Human Skin)
After I added a velvet quality to the hair, when rendered, the skin shader looked all grainy. and the candles turned white. What would have caused this?
(fortunately I saved what I did beforehand so I was able to recover the original scene).
Had you given them all different GroupIDs?
...group ID? Don't know what that is.
1st picture from the SSS shader settings.
2nd picture from the SSS Toolbox.
If two surfaces share the same Group ID, even if they are not in contact with each other, can give you some odd effects if they have different SSS settings.
...ah, but I'm using Genesis 1 which doesn't show the "Skin" Grouping in the Surfaces tab.
It is not required. You can click on any surface it is applied to and the setting will be there.
..so in looking at the options under Group ID, I see 31 settings. How are these applied and what do the different numbers mean?
In TJohn's example the slider reads 61, but there are only 31 presets under Group ID i the Content Tab.
They are essentially what they are. IDs. The toolbox gives only a handful of numbers, but obvioulsy you can set it beyond 31. They just tell the shader which surfaces are groups from one another. Say all the skin surfaces on a figure are grouped at 61. And then you have all the mouth surfaces grouped as 44. This tells the shader that the surfaces are separate groups and each groups surfaces will not interfere with another.
Those numbers are for convenience. They can be any number you want from 0001 to 9999 if I recall correctly. All they mean is that they are in a different group.
Those numbers are for convenience. They can be any number you want from 0001 to 9999 if I recall correctly. All they mean is that they are in a different group.
^ A simpler way of putting it lol.
...so basically you select the surfaces - say all the skin surfaces SSS and assign them to Group 1. Then the hair SSS setting and assign them to group 2, etc.
So the slider itself should then be left alone, correct?
Well, you could set it using the slider, enter it numerically (like you can with all DS sliders), or use the SS Toolbox preset.
...think I'll stick with the toolbox presets, When I tried using the slider it messed everything up again. Don't see myself having more than ten presets anyway.
The best way to do something is the way that works best for you. :)
...yeah I think I'll just lock the slider so I don't accidentally mess things up. With SSS and the other surface effects shaders, if something goes bad, I found there is no simple fix except either except clicking "undo" (which has only an limited number of steps) or closing the scene without saving it (losing any other changes you made).
One of the best AoA SSS characters I've run into so far is AprilYSH Calais. I put her skin on Genesis Mavka and hit render with just the headlamp and loved what I saw. Once I added lights things started to go south quickly and it took a long time before I got something that was even close to acceptable.
And sometimes you just have to start over--from scratch. Even though I only worked on the lights and the eyes (I thought), removing the lights didn't get me back to the beginning. Neither did reapplying the preset. At one point I ended up with no lights and a white blob with hair. :)
Soooo, anyway. First pic is with headlamp only (and removed the eye spec map) and Second pic is much much later after re-starting from scratch--twice. No post, both are straight out of Studio.
it sounds so complicated. trepidations, but i'm going in
Well, you could set it using the slider, enter it numerically (like you can with all DS sliders), or use the SS Toolbox preset.
All the skin on one character, all the hair on one character etc. - you don't want the skin on two different characters to have the same ID. Same ID = same object as far as the shader is concerned.
Um... help?
I have an issue with the shaders that I hope someone can assist me with. So I don't give any wrong impressions, I love the SS Toon Shaders, absolutely love it. The results I get are analogous to the old graphical style of the Dead or Alive series of fighting games. And it also gives better skin lighting for my renders over Slosh's Toon Skin Pack (where sometimes the character will look like one of the infected from World War Z if the light doesn't hit properly). Glorious. :-)
But here's the problem I have: I've made a few characters for a project of mine, and most of them have tattoos of some kind (example on left; texture is Toon Girls Skin Pack by Slosh). When I try to use both the SS Toon Shaders and a tattoo mat (say, Inked or Tattoo Parlor) at the same time, I get the usual weird "body mask" appearance and the tattoo is nowhere in sight (example on right). Check the pics for a better understanding.
Does anyone have any advice?
It looks as if the preset for the tattoo may be resetting the shader. Do they work as expected on skin settings using uberSurface or the like?
Very nice!
Very nice!
Thanks, Kat. I should have mentioned that the second render is with only one light (the fewer the better IMO) and it's an AoA Ambient with reduced occlusion strength.
Um... I'm still a bit of a "n00b" (as they say on the streets), so I've no idea what uberSurface is.
Maybe that's my first mistake...
Open the Surfaces pane (Window>Panes(Tabs)>Surfaces), switch to the Surface Selection Tool (from the Tools menu) and click on the chest area of the figure. if you look above the list of surfaces in the pane you should see the name of the shader in use. Try different sets until you find one that doesn't say DAZ Default Shader, then try applying the tattoo overlay and see what happens to that - does it switch back to DAZ Default Shader?