Normal maps in 3dl shaders

Choppski

I use 3dl a lot and I am generally good at converting iray textures to 3dl. I prefer, honestly, to use a basic daz shader rather than omnifreaker's human surface or AoA's shader because I don't like to deal with subsurface unless I really want to. My problem is that with the basic daz shader there is no way I know of to adjust the strength of a normal map. Is there any way to add a controller to that option (or to the one in HSS) AoA's shader is the only one that I can see that allows you to determine normal map strength. If anyone knows how to add a controller to the basic daz shader, I would be SOOOO grateful.

Dave63

Have you tried importing your current shader to the shader mixer and adding a numerical (I would assume vector) node to the normal channel?

 

Sven Dullah

Dave63 said:

Have you tried importing your current shader to the shader mixer and adding a numerical (I would assume vector) node to the normal channel?

 

Yeah that probably works, but IMO it's far easier to use a shader that already has this feature, and just turn off SSS if not needed;)

Sven Dullah

Choppski said:

I use 3dl a lot and I am generally good at converting iray textures to 3dl. I prefer, honestly, to use a basic daz shader rather than omnifreaker's human surface or AoA's shader because I don't like to deal with subsurface unless I really want to. My problem is that with the basic daz shader there is no way I know of to adjust the strength of a normal map. Is there any way to add a controller to that option (or to the one in HSS) AoA's shader is the only one that I can see that allows you to determine normal map strength. If anyone knows how to add a controller to the basic daz shader, I would be SOOOO grateful.

The AweSurface also has this feature;)

Choppski

I can look into awesurface, but it is not just an issue of using ss or not. THe basic shader's skin mode works really well, I find, especially with area lights and the right spec maps. In fact, normal maps often look great, but now and then I would like either to bump them up or bump them down. Dylan's NM for M8 are INCREDIBLY strong for the face, for example, but when when I try using the AOA shader, even with what appears the same settings, it changes how the skin looks. If I understood how the shaders worked it would help, I suppose. I just know what works (like putting diffuse maps in ambient and then playing with color and level in diffuse and ambient until you get the right skin look). I will try importing them to shader mixer and see.

Choppski

Actually the awesurface looks interesting, but does one have to use that light setup?

Also, I realized that I am not sure I know HOW to import a shader into shader mixer. I wonder if there is a way to take the daz skin base shader, add a normal map adjustment and then save that so I can apply it to any future texture. If so, that would be great, but I don't really know how to do that.

Dave63

To get a material shader into the shader mixer, open the shader mixer pane and: File>Import from scene>Material.

But you don't need to do that because the omnifreaker human shader that comes with daz studio has a slider under the normal channel. Just use the control key when you load it and select "ignore" to keep your character's image maps.

 

To save a shader preset: from the main file menu: File> save as> shader preset

Sven Dullah

Choppski said:

I can look into awesurface, but it is not just an issue of using ss or not. THe basic shader's skin mode works really well, I find, especially with area lights and the right spec maps. In fact, normal maps often look great, but now and then I would like either to bump them up or bump them down. Dylan's NM for M8 are INCREDIBLY strong for the face, for example, but when when I try using the AOA shader, even with what appears the same settings, it changes how the skin looks. If I understood how the shaders worked it would help, I suppose. I just know what works (like putting diffuse maps in ambient and then playing with color and level in diffuse and ambient until you get the right skin look). I will try importing them to shader mixer and see.

Yes the Ubersurface and AoA shader have another way of rendering specular/glossiness, so you need to tweak those settings a bit to get a similar look. The specular 1 lobe is closest to the DS default shader, so you could start by turning spec2 off and adjust spec1 until you get the look you want.

Choppski said:

Actually the awesurface looks interesting, but does one have to use that light setup?

 

Well, no, but the awe PT area light is very cool and highly optimized for speed when using aweSurface and scripted pathtracing. You can use the standard lights or even AoA lights if you prefer that, but that will increase rendertimes;) And you don't need any global illumination like the UE2 or AoA ambient light, you get that for free, as light bounces around ,just like with IRay. But yeah the shader is pretty complex so definitely not a one click solution:)