Heterochromia - having two different coloured eyes
moon_baby
Posts: 41
I want a character to have two different coloured eyes. Thus far, I have not figured out how to do it. It would seem easy enough. Just select one eye and apply the eye colour. Nope, won't work. There is no left or right eye select option. Change the eye colour in the surface tab. Nope, same problem, both right and left eyes are united under one header. Change one, change them both. So, how do I do it? There has to be a way to make one eye colour different from the other. I'm just too dense and inexperienced to figure it out. Thinking caps,ladies and gentlemen. How do I do it?
Much thanks to all who reply. And, oh, yeah, hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!
Moon_baby
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Comments
Your character should have a texture map for the iris, make a copy of the file, adjust the color in an image editor and use that as the texture.
I can think of one brute force way to do it. I just tried it and it works. Perhaps if you get completely stuck you can use it as a last ditch effort.
To do this I :
1. loaded the character
2. duplicated the character in place
3. Hid the first character
4. Selected the left eye of the second character and just hid the one eye
5. Un-hid the first character and changed the eye color of the character.
I guess I should have hidden the right eye of the first one somewhere along the way, but I ended up with two different color eyes so ... mission accomplished :D
Hope that helps.
Assuming you have an image editor like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro or some such, an easier way to handle it would be to combine the image maps for the eye colors you want in Photoshop or whatever you have, erase the eye that you don't want, save the image map, then apply that in the diffuse/base color slot. (Or, a different way of saying exactly what nemesis10 just said, which I only just realized.)
The absolute easiest, assuming you have the funds, would be to buy something like this: https://www.daz3d.com/unique-eyes-for-genesis-8
There's also a product at Renderosity called MYKT Bicolored Eyes for G8F; since eyes is eyes (and the UV is the same), it'll also work on G8M as well.
Those will both give you presets for heterochromic eyes; whether or not they'll be presets for the eye colors you want, you'll have to see.
Other than getting one of those products or editing the maps directly, there really isn't an easy way to get Studio to handle it on its own. The issue is that the eyes don't have separate maps or UVs, so they need to be textured together at the same time by the same map.
Or you could just select one eye with your geometry editor inside of Daz, right click and choose Geometry Assignment, then Create Surface. The new surface will now appear in your Surface options, and you can retexture it any way you like.
^You'd need to only select the iris to create a new surface for it (or you'd end up with the same settings on the eye-moisture, etc surfaces. But this is indeed how I'd do it.
Wow, you guys are awesome! All of these answers are viable and informative. I always knew I could change the colour in Photoshop, which I have, but that's a lot of work and consistency can be a bane. I would much rather do it from the outset so that the colours are consistent. That's what CGI is about, right? I will have to honour all your suggstions with an attempt and see which one feels the most comfortable for the long term.
Thank you @Silent Winter, @Misselthwaite, @vwrangler, @Vanguard, @nemesis10!! for taking the time to help me out, on a holiday, no less...if you're living in US, that is. I have to always remember that this is an international forum and that one girl's holiday is another man's plain ol' Wednesday. Thank you for helping out a neophyte. I work with Daz off and on in a pinch, but I've never really mastered it when it comes to knowing the true nuts and bolts. I'm good at faking it, allowing Photoshop or Painter to do the heavy-hitting, but I wanted to try something different (easier!) and all of you just made that reality.
Again, thank you all, And good night!
Moon_baby
There are also a lot of characters in the store that have heterochromia-- both complete and central. Darwins Mishap(s) and I (ChangelingChick) both have several characters with different colored eyes (Kaiya and Jae are both on super sale today).
I've got this one too. https://www.daz3d.com/dg-iray-200-iris-colors-for-genesis-8-and-merchant-resource
It allows you to mask either the left or right eye and change it to one of the included presets.
If you're trying for broad, consistant color changes in photoshop, try cntrl-U or Enhance>Adjus Color > Adjust Hue/Saturation. Hard to dial in something exact, but worth a shot.
Note: My copy is 10 years old so the command line might have changed.
Wanting consistency, having DS do the work and looking for the simplest route
I would probably say the way to go would be to copy the eye texture image file (the actual png/jpg file) the use photoshop to change the color of one of the eyes. The replace the texture in DS with the one you edited.
With a paint program create 512 x 512 image make half (vertically) black and the other half white. In Studio select the eyes texture in the Surface pane and edit with LIE. In LIE add the other color texture for a layer select the new layer and add mask and use the black and white image you created. Scale mask to the same size as the eyes texture and if the mask is covering the wrong eye you should be able to invert in LIE.
Just get this. Lots of options in the product.
It's times like these that I miss Victoria 3.
I've used Zev0's Skin Builder to handle the eyes when I needed a character with heterochromia
Oh, my, people are still contributing!! Thank you so much. Yes, I have looked at that Iris Colors for G8, but I'm not too impressed with their eye colours. They are very artistic in the variations and wonderful if that is what you are looking for, but I want realism and those irises are not real looking. Now if I can substitute another artist's eyes using the masking aparatus then bravo, we have a winner, but it says in the advert that you have to use the irises in the package. I have not thought of Zevo's Skin Builder, which I have, but that doesn't allow you to use the original vendors eye colors, correct? It only changes the color with a color wheel, which again does not look very real. Irises truly are the windows to the soul and if the eyes don't look real then it does not matter how good the skin is, the final render betrays itself. But I will give it a try and maybe I will buy the Iris Colors for G8. It's on sale now so it could be a bargain. And thank you for the photoshop tip. I will try that. I have been using it to change the colors, but like I said consistency is the trick.
Thank you all for your suggestions. You've been wonderful. Maybe if enough vendors read this, they will start making that option available with their dolls and we can start a new thing. :)
Thank you @Leana, @rrward, @fastbike1, @jestmart, @kaotkbliss, @thistledownsname, @DestinysGarden, and @ChangelingChick! You've all been very helpful.
Moon_baby
Another way to go is to use the Overlay Channel with a mask. You'll only be able to see the results once you render, but it's a very fast process. I'm attaching a mask for your convenience.
You could also use that mask via the Layered Image Editor.
This second process might be better since you could also add the newly created LIE texture to the rest of the appropriate channels (like translucency).
Ok, this mask will work better for the diffuse overlay weight channel (it will get rid of the white edge). Also, adding a light grey color to the Diffuse Overlay Color alongside the map will help lower the "brightness" of the second map. Example render below:
TMHL Visions Extreme MR at Renderosity. I really like their eyes and they include eyes where the right and left are different colors.
@FenixPhoenix, @NylonGirl Hi, wow, this is so wonderful, there are still comments coming in! Thank you so much for your suggestions. I will definitely give your mask a go, Fenix, and I will look at the Renderosity Market, Nylon. Who knew there were some eye material assets out there for mismatched irises. I need to use this forum more often! Thank you both again.
Moon_baby
Are there any instructions for how to use this? No matter what I 'apply' the Iris either turns all white (overlay) or all black (base).
Chameleon Rose, a free character over at Renderosity, has two or three heterochromatic eye materials.
That would be Chameleon Rose2 which is free. 1 is not free.
Wow, using the geometry editor to create a new surface... have to hope I can remember that.
I started using photoshop in 87 so I'm using to just going to the surface I want to change and clicking browse
which takes you to the texture folder.. then I select the texture right click and open in photoshop ..
edit it, then do a save as with an new name ... then close the PS window and select the new
texture in the daz browse window.
---
Also a quick way to make new t-shirt textures.
You put the new image right on the shirt the characters are wearing.
That's right, I forgot
Are you using genesis 8.1? They changed the iris position on the UV map so the iris colors no longer line up. If you have the iris material selected in the surface tab, you can scroll down to where it says UV Set and select Base Female in the dropdown and the colors should show up then. I just tried and it is working on my end.