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Thanks! I'm a Poser user, so don't know the first thing about either Iray or 3DL. I use SuperFly.
Thanks, you're right - in retrospect, I need to reduce the eye size a bit.... next version.... ;)
Here's my latest attempt. Some folks at the Smith Micro forum thought I went to far to the other extreme in the last image before this one, with skin that actually looked too sharp and rough, so this is me trying to strike a balance.
The skin texture itself certainly looks more realistic here than previous, with the specular helping.
Yes, much better although still not enough detail. I am doing a render now and you on't want too much detail on pores and such as one of the current popular styles is to exaggerate their depth and such as if that makes them more realistic but it doesn't.
Feedback is especially important on this one. It's an experiment with an extra layer of specularity and slightly increased bump strength. I strove to be subtle, 'cause I'm afraid of overdoing it. So what do you think? Supple or metallic? More realistic or not?
Much better, maybe 10% - 25% more on the bump strength but no more specularity, I think.
Now that the lips and around them don't look relaxed or they seem to be somewhat protruding and tense, but that is sculpted. It's a bit unusual but maybe her jaw is shaped that way.
Thanks for the comments! Here's a redo of an earlier attempt at photo-realism with tweaked textures and shader settings. I welcome feedback as always! Personally, I think the specularity may be just a bit too strong. What do you think (of the specularity and/or the realism in general)?
please remember to resize your images for forum display. If you do it using the included rich text tools than a click on the image will bring it up to full size for those wishing to view full size
I'm finding it harder to push the limits of realness.. and wonder if I now just don't see things how I saw them before...
My work in progress using Riza skin.
Incredibly real. The hair is the only thing that looks CG to me, especially where it gets blurry in upper right whisp. The peach fuzz is realistic, but a bit too bright in some areas, as if coated with some reflective powder. The nose is quite realistic. Looks like she might've had a nose job but still looks very real. The lips and hands also realistic. The texture of the skin shows pores at right level and the discolorations vary in intensity making it more realistic.
Oh, and these are some of the better eyes I've seen.
I'd say she looks very real, just heavily edited, specifically she looks like someone took a photo of a model and then sharpened it in photoshop during touch-ups. At least to me. I would absolutely assume that was just a post worked photo.
Really nice work. Fingers bump a bit high maybe, facial hair also a tad heavy around the jaw/mouth... but the eyes... fantastic.
Incredible, especially the eyes. The tip of the nose looks a bit odd to me, but I'm not in the habit of staring critically at the ends of people's noses so there could well be a lot out there that look like that. I think the peach fuzz is a bit overdone and is bordering on the point of being beard stubble. Very real-looking beard stubble, though :) She does look amazing.
Only thing I would really say is the vellus hair is a bit strong. (The hair looks about as good as polygon hair is going to get) lacrimals look a bit off, but only if you zoom in to look at them and I highly doubt a casual viewer is going to be focusing on them.
Lips and eyelids are both pretty perfect. Eyelids in particular read enough as real that anything that might be off with the eye reads more like Photoshop than cg
Yes, that can often be noticable; I usually notice black (or at least dark skinned characters) not having hands and feet lighter coloured. For me that is usually an indication that 3D.
I'm thinking too much spec, unless her skin is meant to be oily; her lips look to have a slight, or subtle) coating of makeup. The skin looks to have none, yet both are equally shiny - too shiny. Looking at people in real-life, whilst some skin is this shiny, it seems to me that most is not. Photographs are a poor substitute imo, because we only see the Spec without knowing what caused it.
It is also possible that if the skin texture could be changed so there would be subtle de-specularing as pores would bread up the uniformity of the shiny surface; yes i can see the pores, but they are not having the effect, as you state.
I think we become hyper-critical and hyper-sensitive, not always with good reason.
It's a case of: is there a reason that this might be 3D?
Hell, I could find reasons in genuinely real photos that could make me think 3D. :)
That looks real to me; with two exceptions; the hairs don't look quite right (possibly not subtle enough), and the lip makeup; it is impossible to get such perfectly smooth and uniform edges.
Usually one of the tells for me when considering if the image looks real.
Here's a not-so-neutral test of the latest improvements (or what I hope are improvements). I'm including both the raw and tone-mapped version for comparison. What do you think?
RAW
TONE-MAPPED
Super believable eyes. The giveaway for me is the lipstick. Usually lipstick is drawn so at the corners of the mouth the edges of both lips come together in a point. In 3D the edges tend to be rounded off like you see here.
At the 800 px width in the forums this looks very realistic although natural blonde females typically have much thinner and lighter vellus hair.
However, clicking on the picture at full resolution gives me the impression that the bump, normal & what not used are too strong. Of course they might not be as I've never seen a real photo at that resolution that was made to expose all the pores and such on people. I have seen professional portaits that were something like 16" by 20" or more but they understandably made to be more flattering to the people in the portraits.
Both are markedly improved. Not to the level of making me think they are real professional portraits but getting closer. Looking at real professional portraits, eg, the senior photos in my high school year book says the shininess on yours still looks too oily rather than being more diffuse light scattered by the skin.
Great work! I agree with some of the other comments about the facial hair. Lighter and thinner would give more realism, imo. The hair on the temples looks particularly thick and unrealistic (I would suggest getting rid of that all together, as I rarely see people with noticable "peach fuzz" on their temples/forehead. The top lip's lumpyness and the nose tip's creases look s abit "off" to me, but I'm sure I'm just "nit-picking". lol Very lovely image! Well done! :)
This one's more just for fun, but critique is still welcome if you want to offer it.
He doesn't look real, but he falls into the believable gap. No jarring moments. :)
https://www.daz3d.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/s/w/swam_carella_01.jpg
Love this promo; the eyes are slightly too large to sell, but otherwise a very convincing image.
This is the result of some further tweaks to my eye and mouth textures/shaders.
I think the glossiness, skin reflectivity is the best of your efforts in this thread. Also the 'bumpiness'.
The eyes are very good, I agree. The pattern of shadows and reflection at the edge of eyeball and eyelid is far closer to what one would expect from reality than the other examples on this page in comparison.
But I have to disagree with your "incredibly real" assessment. The fingers are a very obvious and prominent giveaway. Look at the knuckles and you can't help but notice that the skin folds there are purely in colour and not in actual shape, have no depth to them and carry the exact same bump map pattern as the rest of the fingers.
I took a break from tone mapping to focus on improving the raw image, and I thought it was time to try it again to see how the latest improvements look when tone mapped. I also enabled caustics for the first time in a while to hopefully add an extra touch of realism, especially to the eyes.
RAW
FILMICIZED (TONE MAPPED)
