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
You'd be surprised at how much detail kids actually have to their skin. No, it's not as 'deep' and there aren't the wrinkles, but the 'micro' details are there. And for tight close are very much needed.
And if you go the custom route for eyebrows, probably wouldn't be a bad idea to remove them from the base texture and rely solely on something like zbrush' fiber mesh or something.
@Kaboom yes - in my example above i did only change the base color, still have the original tanned texture in translucency and used the pale sample color as transmitted color...
if i like now to finetune the skin color i can do so right in the shader... a little bit darker .. pick a darker transmitted color and/or change the pure white in base color to a grey shade...
your character looks great -> what i would add is a glossiness map and a mask for the eyebrows ...
And as Mjc just posted above... if you aim for perfect simulation then microdetails will improve also a very young skin -> they make the glossines shine looking real!
@RAMWolff
remove the map from glossines weight and set the value to 1
next set the glossines color to a mid grey... and the light WILL play on the hairs without beeing to glossy.... you have full control over the visual amount using a darker or brighter glossycolor.... but for that you must LET the light on the hairs (the map should go
)
Thanks but I think I found my solution... never thought in a million years to make use of the Metallicity with an added map, set to .67 and the results below happened. Quite happy with it. I get individual hairs popping out and deep shadows without flooding the entire hair with too much else. Quite pleased with this finding...
both improved :-).... did you render her in a HDRi? just askin myself how metalicity will look in sunshine.. in your diffuse light it looks good.
Thanks.
Yes microdetails are next.
and about the eyebrows mask...where do I put that?
Yes, the HDR has some blues and greens in it thus your seeing a bit of reflection from that. I'm trying this trick with my lips right now to see if I can improve those too! Thanks for the comp and the help! :-)
@Kaboom
you isolate the eyebrows in pothoshop and then use a layer on your translucency map and make them really dark...
i also add a eyebrow map in mid grey to glossines weight (that brings down glossines AND specular and makes them look more separated from the skin.
The same would apply for skin - freckels. I mask those in glossines weight too.. ( specular scans show a difference)
So I wanted to do some testing on older skins that didn't have all the maps designed for Iray (Lke the grey sss maps) and, particularly with makeup, can go all sorts of bad colors.
And I have found some useful tricks!
So I have mentioned before in here but I set my translucency to scatter and transmit and translucency color to a very light pink (+ the grey sss maps) for the genesis 3 figures. Of course, older figures don't have those grey sss maps, but I figured "well since I normally add pink to light bluish grey maps, and all I have to work with are pink maps, I guess I'll set the translucency color to light bluish grey". Is it physically correct, no. Is it dead,easy, requiring no physical editing of maps, and works pretty well? yes, yes it is.
On makeup. (and I'm quite proud of this,) Using the plain texture black areas like the eyeliner turned red.
Using the makeup texture lighter areas like the lips and blush get too dark. (the blush in this one has turned particularly hideous)
But I figured out a simple way around this, I start with the makeup texture, I then go into the layered image editor and add the makeupless map on top, I then add a mask and add the makeup texture that. This way, the dark areas (like eyeliner) are masked off from the default texture and the makeup shows through.
The rest of my settings are the same as what I posted here before, but since that was a while ago I'll repost the relevant sss ones
All values are aproximate because I fiddle around depending on the texture I'm using
Translucency weight: .45
translucency color: very light grey blue (as mentioned), HSV 211/17/249 (but as mentioned with grey translucency textures a very light pink instead)
sss reflectance tint: another very light blue of the cyanish veriety, HSV 180/15/255
Transmitted measurement distance: 1.8
Transmitted color: slightly dark orangey red, HSV 10/250/171
scattering measurement distance: .07
sss ammount: .75
sss direction: .5
As far as looks per effort go, I'm pretty set. I've saves a shader preset with my default sss settings, I can now set up any* skin in 15 seconds and be reasonaly certain it will look good
*within reason
and for you andy... some renders with one small point light
@j cade
Yes - the skincolor looks natural and she stands the camera flashlightt test - looking great, The idea with layering diffuse textures to control sss/translucency brings me also to some ideas how i could use that.
.. oh and congratulation - i saw your eye portrait is now on the DAZ3D frontpage slideshow.
i spent the last days with trying to figure out how to rigg a high resolution mesh without a hidden gen3 ..but not with much success yet :-).. think i need soon a seperate thread for all the open questions which i have
One small question...do I plug glossiness map in "glossy color", "glossy specular", "glossiness" or "glossy layered weight" ?
Do you mean specular map? most characters come with specular maps, depending on how good the bump maps are and what look you are going for sometimes you can forgo them alltogether, but generally stick them in "glossy layered weight"
i am using the glossines map in "glossiness"... -> Maps only the strenght of higlights
and use a second map where i map eyebrows and freckles in glossines weight... -> maps specular color AND glossines
But note: the glossinesmap which i am talking about is NOT a specular map... specular maps are dark (if they are correct)... the glossinesmap contains 0.5 - 0.8 grey shades (in linear color space) which is a brigther grey.
I will try to show some examples and screenshoots of "how to's" in some days when i have more time (weekend).
I draw a glossinessmap using the bump map as start - > bump in glossiness helps to come closer to the natural break pattern of shine... while at the same time i draw the classic T-Shape on it... this sounds more difficult then it is. Is done in 10 minutes.
Thanks Andy.
Something weird is up with my computer or Daz studio...the figure breaks up, esp- at the hands and sometimes the face when I a pply a pose. (see image)
The whole system is superslow too...so I suspect it´s time to reformat it and get a fresh start :)
Another question regarding skins and shaders.
When I load a shader I can hold ctrl to choose to not exchange maps, but how can I apply a new set of maps from content library without changing shadersettings? Just load new maps...do I have to manually do it in the surface tab?
That looks like a morph that has reshaped the boyd proportions and hasn't had the rigging adjusted to compensate. Is it using a morph of your own?
Yes, without a preset, you need to manually load them in the Surfaces tab. And then you can save that as a Materials preset.
i copy and rename the originals to a backupname.... then work on the texture files using the original filenames... that solves some tasks when i work on a set of textures in mudbox or photoshop...
In Daz one must then just reload the "scene" or "actor" and all changes in the textures are ready to render.
Thanks everyone.
@Richard Haseltine
No custom morph. Just dialled in..and the same figure worked fine up til a few days ago. Daz also started to give a prompt about an error when loading G3f (double files in index or something like that). My entire systems up for a tune up anyway, so I had plans to reinstall DAZ. It´ll prob work after that.
i am trying to understand Gen3 eyes. Because i really find it way more difficult to get correct reflections now...
Problems are:
1. there is no material zone for the "cornea layer", except for the cornea part over the iris (should be the sclera but that's one material level lower).. there seems to be a "standard material" which creates always reflections...?
2. the reflections on the sclera are usally blurry... but bump on the sclera is one layer lower then the reflections of this "standard eye material" are....
3. I find the Iris morph really strange, what is the intent for this? i see seldom good looking rendered Gen2 eyes except frontal renders with custom morphs... a ring opacity gradient does look way better and natural.
image one: ZERO reflections on all eye materials
hmm..... that's not a critic.. more questions.. do i see this correct ? or did i overlook something? i cant see a material surface for the outer "ball".. and i dont understand why there are reflections on the cormea bulb when i set it to zero.
Eye surfaces moving from the outside in are:
EyeMoisture which is like the tears and eye lubricant surface.
Cornea which is in reality a solid but having a back on it would just be hidden and extra poly's since we can use a shader that will give it the same effects as a solid liquid.
Iris which blends into the sclera and the same surface level
Lastly is pupil and it is not really a surface at all in a real eye but a hole that is open into the inside of the eye. It shouldn't have anything other than black on it unless your doing a defective eye. If we did my eye one would have a small white "check" shape in it for example. But that is very uncommon.
I think the eyemoisture layer is what is really messing with the program. Its giving a smooth solid reflection when as you say the sclera should have bump. I'd consider hiding it totally unless your dead set on the "tears" along the bottom curve of the eye.
That iris morph I think is intended to move the iris back and forth though I think it should be making it more concave or convex rather than just pushing it back or forth. I believe the intent is to help mimic the curve on the back of the cornea. I know if you do -100 it pops right out of her eye. May be one of those morphs that less than 100 (and never negative) is a good idea. If your going to do an eye texture however, I would have a look at it at -100 because that clearly shows that the iris texture needs to go out past the edges that are on the template. Even when it is not adjusted you can get a ring around the iris if the texture isn't quite right.
Right, thank you - i am trying to group the UV's for a extern workover.... EyeMoisture confused me on the cornea UV map ...i did not expect that they are on the same level..playing in the geometry editor right now - i should have started there... thanks for clarifying.
With strange iris morph i meant exactly what you are saying - ... this moving out and inside does not give the smooth transparent effect which is in nature to see on the transition to the sclera..the morph does more harm then improve.... i will do another one.
I think that is prudent.
ok... i see it now that way...
i only own gen3 base so i dont know other gen3 characters... The eye has a great construction and the iris morph and all UV's including the black center on the sclera make sense that way:
eye moisture is the sclera!
the center is opacity = the black part center on the sclera...
the morph has now the soft transition and makes sense for fine adjusting...
And that's how it looks: (standard gen3 eye - no additional work.. just a setup which matches the eye construction and UV maps.... just some iterations (slow card!)
the only thing what can now be improved is a concave iris morph for more light/shadow play. ( i am using a not optimal displacement map here).
Excuse me - I know it is some letters more to write, but could you use Genesis3 instead of Gen3? For oldtimers like me who think of Generation3 first when Gen3 is mentioned (Gen4 was Victoria4, Michael4 and so on).
What do you think of this eye? https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/bbeye
ok Kerya... if i dont forget i will say Genesis3 from now on
...
this eye (link) has a great iris texture)... i just try to make something similar for GENESIS 3... but it needs about subdiv 6 for displacement .. and there is the end for my weak pc system right now...
here the eye from the side: changing sclera to the outer level and the use of opacity improves the transition to the iris a lot!.... and the iris can now move out a little bit - which gives the impression of refraction (lense effect)...
I'm sure I'm not even the 100th person to complain about the use of 'Genesis' as a figure name after 4 Generations.
I think your really headed the right way Andy.
@kaboom ...and others which asked about Maps/Glossines/Microdetails
...
While i'm doing testrenders for my eyes settings and waiting till the renders clean up.. i can use the same testrenders and my waiting time also for posting my glossinesmap process..... (so just overlook if there is something strange happening with the eyes in my renders
Image one: Genesis 3 Base females using my shader settings - no texture adjustment on skin.. all maps original...glossines weight 1 - glossines 0.8 - bump 2 -> While nosetip and other areas look exactly how i want it.. she is to glossy on other facepart areas....
Glossines/Reflection-map:
We know a slider value (linear color grey) and need the sRGB grey color
sRGB = (slider value ^ 0.4545) * 256
example: 0.5 slider (linear grey color)
(0.5 ^ 0.4545) * 256 = 187 sRGB (50% slider)
(0.8 ^ 0.4545) * 256 = 231 sRGB (80% slider)
that means 0.5 (my standard LOWEST glosiness amout for skin on the slider) is 187 Grey in sRGB...
Step 1....
1. i take the original bump and measure the grey values and adjust so that by average the greys are closest to 0.5 (187 rgb) -> image 2
2. I use a large softbrush with RGB 231 and use a new layer and overpaint all areas where i want a high glossiness (image3)
3. i set opacity for the 80% glossines layer to 50-60 and adjust only THIS layer so that by average i get my wanted 231 grey values but still see a litle bit from the bump through....
more on the way.....