How Do I Add Colors and Patterns to Skin?

creativewriters

Is ther a way to change skin color to something otherworldly, like blue? I'm trying to figure out how to create my own aliens. Also, is there a way to add patterns to skin (spots, stripes, tattoos, etc)? 

Hylas

To change the skintone of a G8M figure, method 1:

1) Switch your viewport to NVIDIA Iray. The usual Texture Shaded will not do in this case.
2) Load your G8M figure; select it; go to the Surfaces tab (lower right corner.)
3) In Surfaces, make sure Editor is selected on top (not Presets or Shader Baker.)
4) Click on the little triangle next to Genesis 8 Male. Several options become available.
5a) The quickest way is to select Skin or Skin-Lips-Nails. This will change the skintone of your entire figure.
5b) If you want to be more specific, you can click on the little triangle next to Surfaces. Then you can select only the torso or only the arms, for example.
5c) By the way, this is also a quick way to change a figure's eye colour. Just select Irises.
6) Having made your selection, play around with Base Color, Translucency Color, and Transmitted Color. This will take some trial and error to figure out. Have fun!

Hylas

To change the skintone (and texture) of a G8M figure, method 2:

1) Steps 1-4 like above.
5) Click on the little triangle next to Default Templates.
6) The importent ones here are Template 1 (face), Template 2 (Torso), Template 3 (Legs), and Template 4 (Arms). I'm gonna focus on the torso going forward, so select Template 2.
7) The important ones here are Base Color and Translucency Color. You can see that maps are loaded here (vaguely shaped like a butterfly). In the case of G8M, they are called G8MBaseTorsoMapD_1002.jpg and G8MBaseTorsoMapSSS_1002.jpg
8) Minimise DAZ Studio; open your Finder or Explorer; go look for those files; make a copy of those files to a folder dedicated to your custom skin maps; rename the copies (for example alien01-torso-base.jpg and alien01-torso-trans.jpg)
9) Open alien01-torso-base.jpg and alien01-torso-trans.jpg in your graphics editor (for example Photoshop) and manipulate them as you wish. You can add textures and tattoos here. Note that a texture might not appear on your figure if you only add it on the base map; you have to add it to both the base map and the translucency map.
10) Back in DAZ Studio, repeat steps 1-7 if necessary.
11) Under Base Color, click directly on the little picture of the loaded map; a menu appears; click on Browse...
12) Go find alien01-torso-base.jpg to load it onto your figure.
13) In the same way load alien01-torso-trans.jpg under Translucency Color.
14) Your adjusted skin map should be loaded onto the torso of your G8M figure now. Repeat all steps to change arms, legs, and face as well.

Hylas

... or you can just buy products that will load alien skintones, textures, and tattoos onto your figure with one click. Look into Zelara 8 and Nix 8. Have fun!

Chezjuan

If you have some cash to spend, you could use Skin Builder: https://www.daz3d.com/skin-builder-8-for-genesis-8-females

In addition to allowing you to change the skin tone, you can do eyes, makeup, lipstick, nail polish, etc. It is one of my goto products when I am creating characters.

At full price it costs about $50, but it goes on sale regularly.

 

creativewriters

Thanks very much! Very helpful. 

Chezjuan

Hylas said:

8) Minimise DAZ Studio; open your Finder or Explorer; go look for those files; make a copy of those files to a folder dedicated to your custom skin maps; rename the copies (for example alien01-torso-base.jpg and alien01-torso-trans.jpg)
 

At least in Windows, you can click on the template image and select "Browse." The system will launch an open dialog showing the folder in which the files you want are housed. You can then either right-click the texture you want to edit and select "open with" or click in the address bar at the top of the open dialog, which turnes it into a selected file path that you can copy and paste into your explorer address bar rather than searching for a file name.

Hylas

Saw this by coincidence: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/azura-for-genesis-8-female---free-skintones/80784
(Haven't tried it out myself.)

creativewriters

OK, thanks! 

jake_f

Hylas said:

To change the skintone of a G8M figure, method 1:

1) Switch your viewport to NVIDIA Iray. The usual Texture Shaded will not do in this case.
2) Load your G8M figure; select it; go to the Surfaces tab (lower right corner.)
3) In Surfaces, make sure Editor is selected on top (not Presets or Shader Baker.)
4) Click on the little triangle next to Genesis 8 Male. Several options become available.
5a) The quickest way is to select Skin or Skin-Lips-Nails. This will change the skintone of your entire figure.
5b) If you want to be more specific, you can click on the little triangle next to Surfaces. Then you can select only the torso or only the arms, for example.
5c) By the way, this is also a quick way to change a figure's eye colour. Just select Irises.
6) Having made your selection, play around with Base Color, Translucency Color, and Transmitted Color. This will take some trial and error to figure out. Have fun!

These seem like clear concise directions, thanks.  

It all makes sense to me until I get to item 6.   I can't find Base Color, Translucency Color, or Transmitted Color in the Surfaces/Editor panel.  I've tried scrolling the list of properties AND entering each of the above in the search box at top of property listings.  Nothing.

I'm having this problem with everyone's suggestions, so I'm clearly doing something wrong, but have no idea what that might be. 

To double check and confirm:

1) My render engine is set to iRay.  Check.

2)  I've loaded G8M, and selected him in Scene tab. Check.

3) I'm looking at the editor section of the Surfaces tab. Check.

4) I've clicked on Skin or Skin-Lips-Nails. Check.

5) None of suggested properties seen in list of properties.  No check.

 

 

 

Hylas

That's strange... what properties do you have?

jake_f

Here's a sample, starting from the top of property list.

Ambient Color

Ambient SSS Contribution

Ambient Strength

Bump Noise Strength

Bump Strength

Negative Bump

Positive Bump

Diffuse Color

 

 

Hylas

You have 3Delight materials loaded. Not sure why, since I'm pretty sure G8M comes with IRAY materials by default.

Anyway, you can find the IRAY materials in your content library under My DAZ 3D Library -> People -> Genesis 8 Male -> Materials -> Base Materials -> IRAY

Select the G8M in the scene tab. Double click Base MAT All Maps

(All this assumes you're going to render in IRAY.)

jake_f

Hylas said:

You have 3Delight materials loaded. Not sure why, since I'm pretty sure G8M comes with IRAY materials by default.

Probably because when I choose Materials/iRay/Maculine/G8M/skin for G8M nothing happens.  When I choose Materials/Maculine/G8M/skin for G8M I get good looking skin.

Hylas said:

(All this assumes you're going to render in IRAY.)

My sole focus is animation, so iRay is completely worthless to me. 

Anyway, thanks for your help, appreciated.  I'm bailing on this whole Daz skin color business, a complete waste of time, and will revisit the subject once I get iClone up and running.