How can I make some skin tones more realistic?
rogerjhardy100
Posts: 289
Here's the problem: Michael 6 comes with Nevio skin tones which seem to be photo-real, including skin blemishes, surface detail and a skin colour that looks warm and absolutely realistic. I have experimented with other G2M figures such as Gianni, Nathan, Apollo, Sheppard and Cole but these have skin tones that are 'greyer' compared to M6 Nevio. I appreciate the shiny surface of the new 'Nathan for M6' as it enables you to really see the effects of morphing (difficult with M6 Nevio) but when rendered and stood alongside Michael 6 Nevio the other characters look a bit dead and rather unrealistic but this is only because of the skin tone because they are all great models. The easy solution is to apply 'Nevio All' but then all the characters start to look like Michael 6's brothers. There must be a way to'warm-up' the skin tone maps (are these called UVs?) but the menu that opens under 'Surfaces (colours)' has hundreds of options, none of which I understand and most of which do not behave as I might expect (ie, I make changes, see the changes in the drafting mode but not when rendered). There must be a way of modifying the overall skin tones like a filter.....but does anyone know how to do this? Please be kind to me and assume I'm completely stupid and need to be given clear step-by-step instructions. Looking forward to hearing what the experts have to say.
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I'm not supposed to promote my own products. But this belongs to one of the many things that my product "Amazing Skins" is supposed to do (plus renders faster, up to four times on HD figures, and with no freeze at render start). In includes Hue, Saturation and Lightness dials working on the diffuse maps, and also a second layer of HSV dials working on final level once specular and SSSs have been added. This is here :
http://www.daz3d.com/amazing-skins-for-genesis-2-male-s
You have ready to render scenes for M6, Gianni, M6HD, Lee,....
You got skins presets but you can also tone manually :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYBD4Pm28Qg&index=3&list=PLhMqfqgUaaeygUXocKh-PSx5Q7zWRobgB
You have the female version if you prefer females, and a bundle of the two.
I edit : if you need to match the skin tones of very different figures in a same scene, here is how to do it in 5 minutes with the amazing skins : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSAc0c5c9kI&index=7&list=PLhMqfqgUaaeygUXocKh-PSx5Q7zWRobgB
Olá Kadix,
Many thanks for the quick reply. I've downloaded your product and within minutes had achieved what I wanted with the presets....it even makes Lee and Kasper look like they don't have liver disease! Fantastic!
LOL ! A liver disease :) I never realized but you are damn right!
Thank you so much for the feedback! I'm happy Amazing Skins solved this for you.
If you play a bit more with Amazing Skins, you should be able to reach a lot of realistic / fantasy skin tones in the blink of an eye for any G2 figure you own. I know some people for which it has become the skin shader by default, because of the speed, flexibility and realism.
Anyway, I just hope it will make you more happy to render :)
Yeah, it's called scirrossis...or however it's spellt! Actually, I've been playing a bit more and wonder how to retain body hair/beards etc. Nathan for M6 had a great selection to make hairy thugs but when I select one of your preset tones, they disappear. What am I doing wrong? Do I need to go deeper into the ‘Surfaces (colours)’? I'm interested in modifying existing skin maps not replacing them.
It is possible to use them on any G2 figure.
Two ways :
1. you load the main applier only (the one of the main folder) on your figure, and then you customize EITHER loading sub properties presets, OR in surface tab your self. The main applier will KEEP all your maps as they are and apply some "base" settings for the rest.
Second possibility :
2. You have a preset for M6/Gianni/Lee/Jayden/Brodie that you already like and want to apply it on your own figure :
- then you select your figure (with its initial shaders) but CRTL + double click (for PC, for MAC this is similar) on the preset you wan.
- It will open a window : you will select "ignore maps". Then the whole material and parameters EXCEPT the maps will be applied.
- If you work with the same UV set, there is nothing more to do. If your preset come from another UV set, you will have a second step aiming at coming back to your initial figure UV in the surface tab.
Please note with the second technics that the final result may differ from the initial presets in term of rendered color since every color corrections are made relatively to the initial maps of the figure they are made for.
Let me know if it answers your question.
Note : Edited to make more clear... Ooops!
Why not? As long as you are honest about your self interest (which you have been), I can think of no reason why you shouldn't.
Cheers,
Alex.
Why not? As long as you are honest about your self interest (which you have been), I can think of no reason why you shouldn't.
Cheers,
Alex.
You're right Alex! It is just that I always feel uncomfortable about that. I can speak technical stuff, physics, photons, and 3D for hours and hours with pleasure, but as soon as I have to say "hey my product can solve this issue for you", I feel uncomfortable. I don't know why, but that is why I'll never be a marketer ...
OK, thanks but you'll have to be patient with me as a newbie. Basically, I'm trying to retain hair etc and original features but apply your skin tones. I can get an equivalent to Nevio but lose the hair detai etc. I've loaded my hairy Nathan M6 character and highlighted him in the scene. Then I go to the content library and click on Amazing skins. Then I double click on one of the selections marked 'materials' and ..nothing happens. If I go Ctrl - double click, I see a box that allows me to select map settings: 'replace' or' ignore'. That's it. I select 'ignore' and nothing happens again. I am in edit view but if I select an extreme colour, like green, I see it in render, not in edit.
Regarding your first option:
You load the main applier (what is a main applier?) only (the one of the main folder) (which folder? Where do I find this?) on your figure, and then you customize EITHER loading sub properties presets (what are sub property presets? Where are these? How do I customise them when I've found them?) , OR in surface tab yourself (I tried this and nothing happens again). Sorry to be obtuse but I'd really like to get this to work.
incidentally, there's nothing wrong with self-promotion when you have a good product!
Don't worry, it worked for everybody so far, so it should work for you.
Nathan has dark hair so their should be no issue. This has been done before and works like a charm.
Clear hair are harder to handle.
How to know if you have kept your maps? If you still see the same hair in preview mode (not rendering), then you have kept your maps.
How to know if you have the right shader? If you have Hue, Saturation and Value drivers in the surface tab, you have the right shader.
Re-reading you, I realize that you wrote that you see the difference in render but not in preview (what you call edit mode). If you see the difference in render, then your shader is applied. BUT the effects cannot be seen in preview mode, they just can be seen in renders.
This is normal, and sadly this cannot be avoided, this is the way the preview handles the materials, it shows the diffuse map, (and not the modifications of colors my shader makes to the diffuse map). So if no preview mode how do you manage to set up your skin tones? This is explained in details in the pdf mentioned below and on the videos on youtube.
So how to set up a material "manually". First help with the pdf and the youtube videos. YET THE GOOD NEWS IS : now you have the IPR in DS 4.7, and I show on a video how to use it in order to set up an amazing skins faster using IPR.
The video regarding how to set up using IPR is here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9C2lEsBos&index=8&list=PLhMqfqgUaaeygUXocKh-PSx5Q7zWRobgB
I would advice you to read the documentation paper, you have a long pdf here explaining the detail of what you might need in general :
http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/19729/19729_amazingskins.pdf
Concerning the main applier :
1. Load Nathan with the hair option that you want to have.
2. go to People / Genesis 2 Male / Materials / Amazing Skins /
3. double click V3D_APPLIER_AmazingSkinG2M
This was the main applier.
The full playlist concerning amazing skins is here :
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhMqfqgUaaeygUXocKh-PSx5Q7zWRobgB
And you also have the forum thread here on which you can ask your questions too and share and have information too : http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/44294/
I'm leaving you all this documentation because I'm gonna soon go to bed. But if you still have questions I should be here tomorrow.
I edit : concerning sub-properties presets they are the ones of folders 01 up to 05, they are sub properties because they are going to affect just a part of the shader parameters, only the gloss or only the SSS but never the rest. This is described in the pdf in detail.
... Ok this time... : Good night!
Hi Kadix,
Many thanks for the advice. I tried the 'Amazing Skins for Dummies' routine (load V3D_Applier) and it worked perfectly. I'll study the pdf and watch the videos. Thanks for the advice and thanks for an amazing piece of software! Have a good day
Nous sommes tous Charlie!
Hi Roger,
You're welcome!
I'm happy my explanations were sufficient and I hope you're gonna have a lot of fun with it now.
By the way, take a look at the lights sets included in the product (full scenes/build your own scenes), you might have nice surprises in terms of results.
You can also reach really nice renders well with some of AoA's lights presets by Dimension Theory (I like to make also other people promo).
Have a nice Sunday.
Hi Kadix,
Thanks for the links, now everything's working perfectly plus, also thanks for the tip to look at Dimension Theory; their light resets are superb and don't slow render time as the default lights in DAZ3D.
One question: I can get G2M hip colours to change to match the rest of the body but not the rest of the genitals. How do I do this?
It is easy, follow exactly the steps I give you :
1. If your hips have to color you want, select them using the surface tool.
2. Save it as shader preset the way it is indicate here the link will send you at the right time code of the video) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw6zERDkd5s&list=PLhMqfqgUaaeygUXocKh-PSx5Q7zWRobgB&feature=player_detailpage#t=366
WARNING : in the video I show how to do for a material preset. That is not what you need : you need to select the SHADER preset instead of material preset (the line just bellow in the list) once you have clicked the little arrow at the bottom, and only the hip surface with the surface selection tool, not all the surfaces, must be selected. Save it as for instance "Shader1". Please also note you will have less options as the material presets, just let the default options proposed when saving as shader.
3. Select all the surfaces of the genitals
4. Now press CRTL (or command for mac I think) and keep it pressed, and double click on your file Shader1.
5. A Window will pop up. Select Images : Ignore (see image)
6. This will be done, now the genitals have the same shader (material), with the same characteristics, as the hip.
Let me know if it is ok.
Hi Kadix,
My only problem is saving the colour and I'm not sure how to do this. I highlighted the hip area and tried to save the colour settings but when I applied it to the genital area I got the UV map instead of the colour! So: how do I save a colour, not the entire colour settings?
An alternative is to reduce the skin colour to something close to Nevio, then add the genitals wirth Nevio. However, when I do this, I get a grey fringe aound the outside which looks rather obvious.
it sounds like a transparency map overlaid on an alpha channel background, in which case flattening the image or adding a background can clean it up somewhat.
can you post a screen shot, minus the gens which is a TOS violation?
I can't really post it but seem to have solved the immediate problem by changing the diffuse strength of the UV map. Thanks for the advice....I'll play some more and see what else I can discover. Crazy, isn't it but Istarted this as an artist looking to use the computer to experiment with composition, colour and light but now this has become a hobby in itself! Who needs brushes and paint?
You cannot really save "only" the color. In order to have the same color settings, in terms of hue, saturation, lightness, specular size, specular strength, specular color, Main SSS colors and repartition and Deep SSS color and repartition, the best way is proceed exactly how I mentioned to you. This way and this way only you will have a coherent render between the hips and the genitals.
Yet, indeed, I forgot to say that when you do so, the UV set of the hip will be applied to the genitals, so the last step is to make sure that you have the right UV set (I speak of UV set, not of texture maps ok?) is applied, and this is in the surface tab.
You can also have a look at the two ways Wrangler and Sickleyield explained in Deviant Art to apply the right genital material :
http://vwrangler.deviantart.com/journal/Tutorial-esque-Amazing-Skins-and-G2M-Genitals-486840342
This is easy, for now, I know nobody who has failed at this step... I'm sure you will not be the first!
Hi Kadix,
Just an afterthought....have you ever considered creating a new product that can be used with Amazing Skins but adds suntan marks; ie, the body is tanned but the bikini/trunks area is lighter. You could add upper body teeshirt arm & wife-beater tan lines. Just a thought but you'd be the one to do it, I think!
Hi Roger,
This is a nice idea! Actually, I'm planning to create a major update of Amazing Skins, so "major" that it would be a brand new product, for Q3 or Q4 2015. I'm presently implementing some additional features for Amazing Skins.
The process should be (there might be development constraints preventing me to do so) the following one : I'm gonna add some of the new features planned to be included in the major updates each time a new DAZ figure is released.
This will allow me to get the feedback and adjust them, to that the major release respond the best to people's wishes and needs.
At the end, all the improvements appearing for individual products, will be gathered in a same huge shader, ideally made compatible with any G2 figure, and this should be the final product.
The Intermediate partial products enhancements will be gathered in the "Skin Masters" Series, the first should be released "soon" and includes 2 independent layers of "tattoos" or "body paints" above the amazing skins bases, knowing that for each layer, you can control independently the color and the opacity of each tattoos layers. I have included in the product to come already some tattoo patterns, I have not thought of tanned/bikini lighter, but this might be possible already with the tattoos.
Now technically the best way should be to map the H,S,V preprocess dials, I have already this in development, with seems to work, but since it touches the heart of the shader I have to make more and more tests to be sure it always works fine.
But thanks for the idea, I retain this for the big updates / eventually next updates.
For me, the products are made for people have a lot of fun to render, so any feedback, ideas, proposal, I will hear them and write them down in my list. I may not be able to retain everything, because days only last 24 hours, but it really matters to me!
I can't wait!
Thanks!
I'm working 7/7 days on that!
Hi Roger,
I think, this is part of the "Skin Builder for Genesis and Genesis2 ... Pro" product.