Are there any cons to darkening the base color to achieve darker skin? -IRAY

Flortale

I'm using Iray.  I lowered the base color from RGB 255,255,255 to 65,65,65.  I have translucency set to .9.  Thin walled is off and I'm using Chromatic SSS.

So far everything looks fine, but I'm wondering if there are unforseen problems when lowering base color to achieve darker skin, when using IRAY?

kenshaw011267

If it looks good in the render then it should be fine as a one off. If you want to use that character repeatedly you might find that the skin color looks dramatically different under different lighting (but that can be true of "normal" skin textures as well).

TheMysteryIsThePoint

Yes, what kenshaw011267 said. I was trying to texture a Drow Elf, and what looked perfect under one lighting scenario looks dramatically different under another. Even in different locations of the same scene. I believe the problem is when th SSS no longer works well with the diffuse map.

I've found that it isn't even just about color; It can really change the nuance of a character. I have a character that was designed in low light to look around 30, that looks like a teenager in bright light. Shadows play an enormous role.

I've had better luck with distinct skin products which presumably have been "debugged" by the artist to some degree, than with procedural ones like Skinbuilder. But of course, nothing will ever be exactly what you want.

I just resigned myself to having to make different skin textures for the same character under different lighting. Skinbuilder has templates that will at least get you in the ballpark if you don't stray too far from it.

magog_a4eb71ab

Depends on what your idea of a Dark Elf is. I've seen them portrayed with skin ranging from light brown, light-dark bluish, to gray. I went with a "coal black" color using Karly skin & base color of 113 67 42. The translucency weight I set at 0.75 and used the translucency color 72 18 18(example, for the Torso I made sure to use Karly_TorsoSSS_1002 image in the translucency color since it is only black & white). For the lips, base color 142 66 53, Translucency Wt. 0.5, Translucency Color 91 22 22. The SSS Reflectance Tint for all the visible skin surfaces I'm pretty sure I left at 1.00 0.96 0.77, and Thin Walled OFF, transmitted color 0.75 0.59 0.42, SSS Mode MONO, which I'm pretty sure are the default settings for Karly's skin.

I'm not sure what all I changed for the skin texture inside the mouth(excluding the teeth, of course), but checking the settings, I see I have the base color 107 57 57, translucency Wt. 0.55, translucency color 104 104 138. However the transmitted color under Thin Walled is set at 1.00 0.94 0.88 which is different from the other surface settings, which may be the default for that particular surface. It also does not use the top coat layer.

First image shows the full-body with the base skin settings. Second image shows the results I got for inside the mouth/tongue prior to adjusting the lips. The third image shows the lips with the above settings, and the fourth image is a completed render of the character.

TheMysteryIsThePoint

That's nice, but would she turn grayish in higher lighting? My Drow was very dark blue, but when he walked by, say, a torch, he turned a Lavender color because the SSS was adding too much red. That's the problem I think the OP is going to encounter, tweaking these skin assets himself. One takes on a more difficult problem than one might think.

magog_a4eb71ab

How much "higher" lighting are we talking about? For example, a torch shouldn't be throwing off 100k lumens. If you throw enough light at such dark skin, it won't appear to be the expected "blackness" due to the natural roughness of the skin. If there was going to be that much light, I would probably start fiddling around with the glossy layer settings.