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Great advice but how does one go about measuring the gray value to the degree that the final value is 157 rgb? Is there tool in PS that will show me what I have currenly and then after I use the Levels to get closer to where I need to be?
all adjustment tools have a second tab rider -> info... there you can see the values under the mouse pointer (somehwere in the image) ...without adjustment and with (before/after)
I posted linear values and exact measurement above... but this can be done also approximative by eye.... just adjust the levels with brigthness to your glossiness liking..
A good glossiness map has about 5 or more glossines amount zones.. between the lowest level and highest level...
so we just do the same for levels between 0.5 and o.8...each zone comes on a different layer ... so we can always go back and adjust to our liking... (will post some screenshoots before/after later tonight...
OK. Thanks Andy!
ok....
..
I worked a little bit on the glossiness map using 0.5,/ 0.6,/ 0.7 / 0.8 glossiness levels (and everything between because of soft brush gradients and overlaying layers )...
glossiness weight is always set to 1! glossiness is 1... the map and values are "calibrated" for this setup..
and that's how she looks with the map... before and after:
Image 1 without map
Image 2 mapped
Improved a lot - but still she is not photoreal....
To improve from here:
1. Geometry -> this is genesis3 base... which has many small things which just feel wrong... (ears are to low, eye shape and position are not right and so on.. those details add up...
2. Microdetails are missing.... adding a microdetail map over the bump will improve the glossines shine and general look of skin
3. Skintone is the original genesis 3 map using my shader setup... looks to much like a display dummy
Image 3 shows a render where i improved some of this missing things:
using the - to the pale photo reference - adjusted Genesis 3 base skin from above...
dialed in some morphs and custom morphs to get a more real face shape
added a 6k microdetails map
weak -> i still work on better eyes... i did not fineadjust the maps yet... glossiness is a tad to much..i forgotten to map the eyebrows in glossines weight and specular . but because of long render time on my system i uploaded this "work in progress" as a example render
Nostrils look very black there, is there some nostril shadow painted in?
Also the facial proportions seem a bit off to me; the mouth looks tiny. I have a fairly average sized nose and a small mouth and I phisically cannot get my mouth narrower than my nose even at full pucker. your character looks like she could get her lips as narrow as the tip of the nose
@j cade.... i know you have a good eye ...
that^s why i said .. i just turned in some morphs to get a more real face shape..... and it is a work in progress... because i actually work on a new set of eyes for Genesis 3 and not on a character...
Proportions.. well the nose is to big not the mouth to small.... i just dialed in morphs which come closer to the photo reference.. she has a small mouth.. but a complete other nose type then i used here....( will create better nose and eye shapes after i have a working set of eyes).
And yes - it is simple Genesis3 base map - still! with all the errors and inbaked lights and shadows....
"I have a fairly average sized nose and a small mouth and I phisically cannot get my mouth narrower than my nose even at full pucker. "
lol - i just tested it -> .i can do it but i have a big nose
well... just some iterations to show the shape from another point of view.... she looks just different from the usally Genesis3 model type with a way to big mouth
....
Speaking of eyes, I may have gone full crazy and decided to model my own. The problem with the genesis eyes/iray is sort of that the sss is too accurate. The sss is actually volume based rather than using an approximation a la what cycles does, which makes it hard to define the sss via texture.
Given how the Genesis' eyes are set up, that means if the scelera has propper sss the cornea must either: also have the same sss, or give different volume settings my material zones, which makes it difficult to not get hard lines in the eye
So I made my own eyes that have the cornea and scelera as 2 seperate enclosed shapes. on the one hand it is complete overkill and really slow to render, on the other it is glorious looking.
I'm still obsessively tweaking it a bit, mostly adjusting the uvs to make sure the edge of the scelera lines up with most eye trans maps to fully refreact and not reflect at the edge
i still try to use the normal surfaces and UV's to keep it compatible with Genesis3...
and searching for a compromise which renders FAST ... while still looking great... i dont see a lot of gain using SSS on the cornea... it does never bundle the light to the oposite part of the iris like it should - i tried about every refraction between 1.2 and 1.6 and different cornea shapes... i think the only way is a concave iris (morph) such as you used one on the orginal eyes.
Which values are you using on the cornea above?
"
not reflect at the edge" -> i am facing the same problem.. trans map must be perfect fitted by pixels... or i can see reflection and "thickness" in sideviews.... which makes it not possible to use iris size morphs anymore... maybe 3 different sizes? hmm
Best part is I mapped it to take gen3 textures, provided I set all the materials up right, it should be click and load.
The reason I've made a new Eye is because I don't want sss on the cornea, but I do want it on the scelera, and I hate having different settings on the scelera and cornea of the daz eye, because that always leads to a harsh line.
I try to stick to 1.38 for the cornea as that is the correct value.
What exactly is the use of the iris correction morph in g3f? It just seem to push the entire iris in like a flat disc. why would they do that instead of sink it gradually from the edge, wich I assume would make a more realistic eye :S
@Kaboom the original use is to match the iris surface with the sclera surface after adjusting the size of the iris. But somehow they mixed two "classic" eye CGI constructions which just dont make sense to me....it does even not show the whole iris texture under the cornea (strange light artefacts and shadows)... plus reflections are wrong using two reflective surfaces).
I am having success with using moisture as sclera, mapping the center translucent... bring the iris to the moisture /now sclera) level (here the morph is great ..... and use cornea as "cornea"...(no sss ).
I had to make the cornea bigger (scale and position morph)....
Now i want to make correct irises and textures - using displacement and albedo textures (most Genesis3 eye textures have inbaked light effects!)...
ah I see...
Looking at anatomy illustrations I see that the iris is not concave at all, so I assume the shadow and refraction effects that I see in real eyes are caused by something else?!
Actually looking closely at reference pics I see that everything I thought I knew about eyes are not true :P
the iris (or some irises) are slightly concave.. some have a outer border..... actually they are very different
... the light play (which is NOT always there, just saying)... comes from refraction (bending the light) PLUS geometry of the iris ( - some have rings which glow partial as a example)...
very fascinating
I just read the history of glas eyes .. because i try to find a material setting for the iris which reacts better to light... but glas did not bring me further yet...
I also read many tutorials and cheating is usally the norm..... emissive iris materials - concave irises and so on...
Testing...
Okay so I have a comparison
The default Eye with my completely overworked settings (I actually found that giving the cornea different volume settings doesn't create too terrible a line Yay!)
VS Ridiculously overly complex eye Similar settings but whole new object that is much closer to physically correct
They both are using the same textures and pretty similar shader settings but the uvs are a bit different the difference in iris colors is mostly because I need to readjust my iris uvs a bit.
Personally the default eye is 95% good enough for renders that aren't close ups of the face. And there are a few things I want to bring over, (I think it probably has a better cornea bulge shape)
On the other hand, my ridiculous eye is 75% to perfect. It'll probably take an boatload of work to get there, and I'm probably streaming past the point of diminishing returns.
Also somehow neither eye is quite liquidy enough for me. meh.
both looking good..... how concave is your iris to get the glow effect oposite to the light entry ? is that just a hdri or do you "create" help using a spot from the side?
Your improved eye is amazing. I see that the light bounced completely differently over the pupil. ...
Anyone try geografting a 'back' onto the existing eye to make it totally enclosed?
@mjc 1016 i am testing with high res iris - but no improved results yet...
i try to create the effect which is exactly between jcades render above... clarity on the pupil while still having the glow effect .. the problem with corectly modeled eyes is that they look to flat in normal light..
any ideas? other materials? colored glas and corona with real volume (caustic) is maybe worth a try...
Cornea with glass (actually it's closer to water than glass) and caustics...yes, it's worth a try.
yeah - i studied glas eyes prosthesis (today plastic) a little bit and how they imitate and match perfectly a iris and the light effects....to match the refraction they use full thick glas over the iris (which is transparent too) ..
i remember that mec4d showed a phantasic eye (modeled in high res) somewhere... she had the glowing effect correct.. does somebody know where i can find it? (bookmark?)
.
Maybe somewhere in her birthday thread?
I remember it, but not where it was....
I thought it was in one of these Show us your Iray renders threada
Is this what you are looking for?
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/817144/#Comment_817144
ETA: When I clicked on this link to test it, it took me to the wrong post - Cath's is two posts above (great Forum software!)
thx MelanieL
The cornea settings are clear while looking like "full volume"
iris is very sharp (ok 8k displacment but mainly because of the material settings of the cornea i think...
The iris is concave (to much for a close up in side view) but there is a great light play...
she said she uses "refraction reflection"
I really hope she makes an eye product, that looks fantastic.
I did try that, but it was my first attempt at geografting and it didnt actually graft. That is one of the main things my alternate eye object has
Actually the coreas look pretty "thin walled" here to me, which is why its so clear (the refraction isnt modifying how the shape of the iris appears). (The scelera and how it blends with the cornea does look fantastic though)
Sidenote but I miss cycles ability to control black and white maps by ramps so much right now. I'm modifying Eye transparencies to control stuff like the refraction and glossy strength ((so there aren't any reflections on the comparitively sharp edges of the scelera and cornea of my eye object) and its really slow guess and check work.
Wishlist for the next version of studio: Make the shader mixer as easy as the node editor for cycles I miss it so much ;((
@Andy my render was hdri + spotlights Depending on the hdri the reflections actually look better without spotlights, but then it takes even longer to render
Then some of us may actually use it more often...(especially if OSL support is added...then well, Cycles nodes could be copied to make <shock> 3DL OSL shaders...Iray doesn't have OSL, though...but as easy to use MDL stuff would be very sweet, too).
Blender does have some OSL support. But I don't know how much; I know it can read the language at least. That all way outside my comfort zone though