How Do I Make Everything Look Soaking Wet?

Fauvist

I need to make a human, with skin and hair, and clothing, a metal sword, and a large dog look like they just emerged from the sea onto a beach - so they have to look convincingly soaking wet. I don't know how to do this, or if there is a product or utility that can make things look wet. I know there are things to make skin and hair look wet - but I don't know about metal, clothing, and animal hair. Maybe there's some materials settings that can do it? I'm using Poser 2012, if that matters.

Thanks!

ghastlycomic

Dunk it in water obviously.

Fauvist

ghastlycomic said:

Dunk it in water obviously.

I tried that, but the laptop electrocuted all my tropical fish.

Mattymanx

If you change the spec settings you can make them look more glossy but that only works to a degree.

To be honest, the best thing I can think of is to take a second copy of each item in the scene, create custom transmaps, spec maps and bump maps to mimic the look of water on each and have the second copy of each in the same position as the original.

Servant

Fauvist said:

I need to make a human, with skin and hair, and clothing, a metal sword, and a large dog look like they just emerged from the sea onto a beach - so they have to look convincingly soaking wet. I don't know how to do this, or if there is a product or utility that can make things look wet. I know there are things to make skin and hair look wet - but I don't know about metal, clothing, and animal hair. Maybe there's some materials settings that can do it? I'm using Poser 2012, if that matters.

Thanks!

You could do it in postwork with condensation/water brushes for Photoshop or GIMP. Ron Deviney's stuff is top notch for doing such effects, but it still will take a good bit of editing to accomplish.

http://www.daz3d.com/rons-water

He also has sample brushes here (which include suds that you can tweak for wet looks) if you want to try them out. I promise you won't be disappointed:

http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/12896-rons-sampler-brushes

Richard Haseltine

The worst problem would be the clump and drag of hair, fur and clothes - there are a couple of "wet hair" models that might work, and I think one or two clothing sets, but unless it's a very short-haired dog I don't know how you'd get that looking right (maybe morph it thin and use dynamic hair in Poser or Carrara, or Look at My Hair or Garibaldi Express in DS - which would also, of course, handle the human hair).

Timbales

Dynamic clothing would probably give a more realistic look for shape for wet clothing that's weighted down on a figure. The color would obviously be altered because it's wet - darker and possibly less opaque if it's white or lighter colored.

Mr Gneiss Guy

Richard Haseltine said:

The worst problem would be the clump and drag of hair, fur and clothes - there are a couple of "wet hair" models that might work, and I think one or two clothing sets, but unless it's a very short-haired dog I don't know how you'd get that looking right (maybe morph it thin and use dynamic hair in Poser or Carrara, or Look at My Hair or Garibaldi Express in DS - which would also, of course, handle the human hair).

Unfortunately, not nearly enough wet hair, and very little variety in length. I had hoped that LAMH or Garibaldi could do something about it but I haven't seen much done with them that looked wet (I have neither) which may just mean I haven't looked hard enough. Anyone know? I may have to learn to model it myself, because rainy urban environments lose a bit when all the inhabitants have magical water-shedding hair. :roll:

Richard Haseltine

I haven't tried doing wet hair, they do have clumping controls which should help (I think some of RawArt's recent products with LaMH show examples of clumping used - though in those cases used for animal fur).

Sisca

I didn't see any wet hair presets over at the LAMH site but you might ask if someone could create one for you.

I do know that there is a V4 wet hair available over at most-digital-creations that might work for you.

GhengisFarb

ghastlycomic said:

Dunk it in water obviously.

I was gonna say that but I thought I'd wait for some constructive advice first. :P

I've increased the highlight factor on the material before and with certain lighting it worked, but hair and clothes are a big issue, postwork's given the better results I've seen (as in completely doing the clothing and hair in postwork as opposed to rendering it). I typically try to avoid story arcs that require my characters to be wet unless they're naked.