Problem with Layered image textures and masks.
mmoch25
Posts: 131
I've been messing around with masks in order to to give the lipstick a softer edge, whether it's the colour or a gloss layer. I apply a pure white texture with the mask to the top coat weight, I don't know of this is right, but it works. However the mask doesn't save along with the character or with the material and LIE presets.
I've saved LIE's in the past like tattoos etc. and they work fine, so I don't know what is about masks.
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I'm not following - first you seem to be talking about diffrent properties in the Surfaces pane, then you switch to LIEs.
If you want to save it as a LIE preset, then you need to build the mask within the LIE editor. If, however, the mask is an already created mask plugged into a channel, then you want to save it as a material preset instead.
1 I select the lips in surfaces.
2 I select Top coat under lips.
3 I select the drop down image selector for Top Coat Weight.
4 I select Layered Image Editor.
5 I apply a basic white background image.
6 I add a mask, essentially a black on white transparency image, with a soft edge
7 I click accept.
This then removes the hard edge of the lip gloss.
I do the same for the lipstick, under Lips/Base, and that saves fine along with the character. The Top coat settings though, only saves and applys the white image, not the mask.
I've tried saving it 3 ways, as a material preset, a LIE preset, and as a scene subset, neither of them saves the top coat mask, only the white background image.
That's weird but I've never actually gone that route for something like that, prefering to edit the maps directly or do a geo shell.
1 I select the lips in surfaces.
2 I select Top coat under lips.
3 I select the drop down image selector for Top Coat Weight.
4 I select Layered Image Editor.
5 I apply a basic white background image.
6 I add a mask, essentially a black on white transparency image, with a soft edge
7 I click accept.
This then removes the hard edge of the lip gloss.
I do the same for the lipstick, under Lips/Base, and that saves fine along with the character. The Top coat settings though, only saves and applys the white image, not the mask.
I've tried saving it 3 ways, as a material preset, a LIE preset, and as a scene subset, neither of them saves the top coat mask, only the white background image.
Why can't you just apply the mask image directly to Top Coat Weight? It would have the same net effect.
Why? I have no idea, maybe because most of Daz Studio seems to be trial and error. Anyway, you're correct the result is the same, and it saves along with the character.
Cheers.
Heh, as someone with a history of chasing myself up the wrong tree I can sympathise.
Slow learner that I am, I have been using the same trial and error method of saving characters with what I think are unpredictable outcomes. In the most recent case, I have a G8F character based on VYK Delilah to which I have added SimonWM based veins as well as ShanasSoulMate tattoos and tan lines. I would admit that it is not a trivial exercise; but to make it more exciting I have used masks to prevent the (non) tan covering the veins and tattoos and I have used the Top Coat layer to add highlighting to the veins and tattoos.
When saved as a Scene Subset or a Hierarchical Mat I get a different result..
Base Colour - saves tattoo and vein LIE images in both cases
Diffuse Overlay Weight - saves tanline, tattoo mask and vein mask images in both cases
Translucency Colour - saves tattoo image in both cases (surprised there are no vein images but I have customized the SimonWm product at different percentages and might have missed it)
Top Coat Colour - saves the tattoo and vein images as a scene subset but only the tattoo image as a hierarchical material preset
I would like to say that this is repeatable but I am afraid it is not. I can also definitely recall cases of characters saved as scene subsets with less than perfect results. And I want to say that sometimes grafts will rememeber their lineage and sometimes they don't. Finally, although I have not collected the data to support my claim, I contend that I experience similarly unpredictable results when saving scenes. I had thought it was because I was not properly saving my customizations but I am not convinced of that now having made an effort to save the characters and their MATs.