Darius Skin Texture Mystery
Fauvist
Posts: 2,152
This is suppose to be the same skin texture - Darius. How come it looks so different in these images - especially the lips? I'd like to buy the skin texture I see in the promo image for Vidal Braids - but I don't want to buy Darius and then find out it doesn't look like that.
darius.png
1430 x 862 - 1M
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I think it's the lighting that makes it look so different.
It is indeed lighting, and possibly a different render engine
Lighting and surface settings can certainly change the look of textures.
If you look at the two wavy lines on the forehead, and the shape of the marks under the eyes, it is possible to determine that it is the same skin.
Okay, thanks. If that's the case then I won't buy it. If there's no indication of how to get the result for that skin which appears in all those images for other products, then I'm not going to take the chance of buying it and having it look flat and uninteresting.
Maybe try asking the PA what lights & settings were used? Must be plenty of folks around who could give you advice on getting that particular look -- I hope so anyway, 'cuz Darius is in my cart too. He's hot! ;-)
The texture pack comes with a few SSS presets to mix things up a bit, too.
I'm very pleased with it. Haven't had time to compose a decent render yet, just a few tests.
That only helps if the PA is the one who did the final promos for the products. With DAZ O products the promos are often done by their artist.
his default skin is his own uv_set.
:) i posted a nude of him on my da. he has a gens mat.
ise really happy with him.
this him out of the box. default loading texture, 'cept changed his eyes to the green.
dimension1 light set. http://www.daz3d.com/daz-dimension-lights-1
unfortunate choice of hair >.<</p>
I like it Misty Whisky! =-) Very fun.
I posted a render of him and Monique in the gallery here that places some emphasis on his skin texture.
http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/58762/
Darius's texture is very realistic and detailed and I think one of the best DAZ has produced. It does depend how the lights are, as is the case with anything. In my case I used UberEnvironment2, a Distant Light, and an UberArea light.
I highly recommend some lighting bundles and tutorials, particularly anything using UberEnvironment if you want those results -and you can have them.
thanks :cheese: - tee hee
Darius steampunk pirate.
took all day, finally remembered what Vidal was reminding me of,
Tony Todd playing Cecrops in a Xena episode
For some reason this thread puts me in mind of what color that dress really is :)
That's it then. We'll put both the dress and Darius in the ZDG Test Chamber. White lights, Photo-neutral environment, etc. lol.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/47738/
Lights and all settings are there, and the textures are FREE.
I just won't have the funds available to do that till Tuesday. "O" and I'm only joking about that photo-flash over-exposed dress. lol
Look at the highlights - the hair promo has strong light coming from the figure's front-left (the right of the image) and slightly raised, producing highlights on the left cheek, left of the nose, across the lips, and to a lesser extent on the right cheek. By contrast although there is some fairly diffuse light from the front in the main Darius image the strongest light is from behind and to the right of the figure, catching the edges of the forehead and cheek and the tip of the nose. So, to get similar effects you probably want some kind of rim-light rig for the Darius image and a more front-loaded portrait light rig for the hair image. There seems to be more blue in the hair image than in the Darius image,, or less blue in the Darius image, though I don't trust my colour vision as much as my tonal vision.
Thanks for the hints. I guess it all depends on how an artist works. I spend a *huge* amount of time composing images. I don't want to spend any time fiddling with skin textures. I expect the skin texture to render the way it does in the promo images for it. If I don't see what I want in the promo images, I don't buy it. Backlighting the dark skin tone of the Darius skin texture in all eleven of it's promo images is, in my opinion, the wrong way to show what the skin looks like. If you have eleven promo images, probably a better idea is to show at least 5 different lighting setups, and the results from 3 or 4 different render engines. If the promo images for Darius showed the skin the way it looks in these promo images, I would have bought it in a second. I'm not going to try to guess how all those promo artists obtained those results.
I should mention, Fauvist, there is one element that is out of the promo artist's control which is most of the tools available are not really optimized for dark skin, and there aren't a lot of good references for what they should look like. There have been complaints in the past that many of the black skins in 3d exchanges have looked "ashy" (I will have you google "ashy" to understand what it means for ethnic black skin) either due to to the original photos of the model used for the base textures or due to the off calibration of digital tools for dark skin. My guess that the artists were trying to create a more even and warm tone. There is a fascinating discussion of how these tools got their calibration wrong here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/syreetamcfadden/teaching-the-camera-to-see-my-skin . In any case, you will probably have to experiment in lighting because it is one of those areas that people haven't perfect yet.
I would tend to trust that render in the locker room, more so then the others. All the figures are under the same lights, so it is more difficult to get just one figure in a crowd to look a tad redder with colored lights, then it is with solo figures.
Also, the idea of the promo, is to show how good the figure can look, not necessarily to provide something like a paint-code, that you can go to any store and get a gallon of paint with (graphite darkness codes are probably a better example).
I do understand your question about the skin tone quite well, considering how many figures I've purchased because they looked like that in a promo, and then they turn out quite different under calibrated white lights. Again, not an issue for solo renders, however with some one else in the scene, it becomes quite important.
Case and point, WIP. "O" and look at that, leopard skin, lol.
(L-to-R, FW Eve, LY Lennox, EJ Bibi, FWSA Pebble, and Zayla For Giselle 6)
Can I ask you where you got the colour chart cube?
Can I ask you where you got the color chart cube?
The original chart was from 1995 for calibrating CRT monitors. ALL instructions, and the mat is here.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/697733/
All I did, was make it 4x larger in MS Paint, keeping the 24bit BMP format color values. the PNG compression is NOT a lossy compression. ALL the details are kept from the original BMP.
I moved the cube forward, out of the shadow of that skirt, and am working on a fix for Zayla's leopard skin as I type this. The lights in that render are exactly the same as the last "Adjustment" in that thread for the ZDG Test chamber.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/47738/
(EDIT)
"O" and I made that map in 1995 using a pocket calculator to divide 255 by sixteen steps for the colors, and plugged them into MS Paint. The other stuff around the scales was for convergence and stuff Flat panels don't have to deal with.
(EDIT2)
Here's the minor update, I still need to tweak the mat backing color on Zayla a tad (more green, lass blue). Enjoy.
What? FREE textures? WHERE? :) I must get there immediately! Your render chamber looks terrific, but my poor brain's too tired to comprehend how it works now.
What? FREE textures? WHERE? :) I must get there immediately! Your render chamber looks terrific, but my poor brain's too tired to comprehend how it works now. Well, maps. There not complete "Shader Presets", yet. Mostly a curiosity of "What would this patron look like as a bump", or other surface stetting. I have yet to pack them all up into organized presets, and even then, the possible combinations far exceeds what I could make presets for. Like putting bump maps in the spec or diffuse setting.
FWSA Pebble is wearing the latest thing I was trying out.
ZDG, the making of ‘paint and brushes’. simple displacement and texture maps.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/40627/P120
The same thread that Color cube map is in.
I can well understand the burnt out brain feeling, especial after going threw many tutorials a day myself. I try to keep it at less then eight hours, so there is time to do other things, like clean the dishes, rake the yard (or shovel snow), or play with wild scene render ideas.
It doesn't always happen that way tho. :red: