Following some very helpful advice last week (about AO and SSS and IBL)  this is what I've come up with. I'm quite pleased with the results of my hard labour (some 20 hours+) but there's something about the eyes, they look a little to glassy? 

Now this image is not intended to look uber-real, it's using Teagan, an elf, and nobody has eyes that big! Anyway  can anyone offer some advice on how to make the eyes look less artificial?

Thanks

Rob

Really great! Perhaps change the specular;

In most eyes the color of the sclera (the white part) is a very light version of a person's skin coloring/complexion. In your image, sclera has a bluish tint. That can make the eye look somewhat unnatural, or clashing with the face.
Also what makes things a bit odd is that the eyes and the eyelashes and face is in a very sharp focus, but eyebrows are fuzzy.  

Lot of people don't pick up on thopse details, they just get the feeling of something being odd, or not fitting in quite right.

Actually for that matter, the hair, or at least parts of it could be more in focus. When there are out of focus parts, the human eye typically expects the pieces at the same distance from the viewer (eyes, nos, lips, ckin, eyebrows, eyelashes and any hair framing them) to be in the same focus. When different parts are of different sharpness, it makes things look odd.

The eyes are perhaps a bit too on the dark side compared to the rest of the detail around the eye.
In spite of those little details that may improve things, that's one great image you made. Love the way her skin looks.

Also, what the eyes are looking at will play a role as well. Are the subject's eyes looking at the "camera" or are they focused on a spot behind the camera's position. A smile never hurt either :) Excellent work, looking forward to more. take care joe

Move the eyes away from looking straight at the camera. It'll take away that 'fake' look.

Your render is really well done though!

I can't really help on the eyes, other than what others have suggested.

But the skin looks really good. I would love to see some more renders with this setup.

Thanks to all of you for your feedback. It was interesting to read your opinions and knowlageable suggestions. I was interested to read about the sclera being a very light shade of the persons skin, and that the eyelashes are too sharp. Excellent stuff. A couple of you have mentioned that I should move the eyes away from a direct camera gaze, but what if the person is looking at me? I take your point about a smile but this will end up to be a dark image, you know, melancholic.

I've a couple of questions:

How could I create tears, the kind of tears that you get when you're just 'filling up'? You know, not in floods but just starting to get emotional. I've noticed that there are 'streaks' of highlights from the water on the lower eyelid. What would you do?

Finally, I've used an IBL to light this with a spot for the highlights, how should I proceed if I wanted a different shape highlight, i.e. a window? Is this the specular? Would I create a specular map? 

So many questions!

Thanks for all you're feedback, it's very reassuring when experts lend a hand.

another thing that helps with eyes is having somthing for them to reflect besides the light. It looks to me like the white part of the eyes is just reflecting the color of your ibl perhaps giving them that blue tint.. 

Yes, you're right! I'm looking into that now, finding a way to reflect a window or something.

The sclera are way too dark, IMO.  Are they that dark on the texture?  If not, it's probably just a lighting problem.

A couple of you have mentioned that I should move the eyes away from a direct camera gaze, but what if the person is looking at me? One possible solution it to turn the face away from the camera, but have the eyes 'Point At' the camera. In other wods, a sideways glance at the viewer occurs. Also, make the right and left sides of the face slightly different... Ie.: raise one eyebrow just a bit higher than the other, or make one side of the mouth smile a bit more, etc. These little tweaks will help reduce the frozen deer-in-the-headlights look.

Thanks for these ideas, but before I proceed with them I've been looking at the eyes again. The texture that ships with the model has a good reflection of a window or something and the lacrimal's have highlights too. Now, my question: why then does my render not show this while I can see it clearly in my preview?! I can see how the spotlight I've placed causes the highlights in her eyes that you can see but why do the reflections from the texture file not show through?!

Wow, the eyes sure are complicated but are, in my opinion, the most important part to get right.

Anyway, anyone have any ideas on these things?

It's perhaps due to your shader settings for the iris or cornea. Could you post a screenshot of your settings?

Anyway any sort of help/info would be gratefully received.

The diffuse color of your cornea trans is set to black. It may be your problem.

I can see in the preview window (for the cornea reflection) that it is entirely black.  I'm not sure which setting is off, though.  It does look like you may have overdone the AO, though.

Quote - I can see in the preview window (for the cornea reflection) that it is entirely black.  I'm not sure which setting is off, though.  It does look like you may have overdone the AO, though.

I think you're right about that as I can see some spotting on the render but where do you see how I've overdone it so I can see next time?

For me the AO seems right, but i don't understand why you have 2 different image maps for the transparent node and transparent edges node? And also i'm definitly convinced that the diffuse color for the cornea shader MUST NOT be black. Could you try by changing the color to white?

Roberto,

It's just my opinion on the AO; I could definitely be wrong.  It just seems that the sclera are way too dark.  Maybe try to point some lights at her eyes, perhaps that would help.

Also have a look around the lacrimals, there shouldn't be a black area there should there? It looks like here eyes don't fit her sockets! And there are a few AO artifact floating around too. I know I can sort these things out in post but I'd prefer to get it as good as I can without Photoshop.

Well I feel I'm getting there and learning lots but I've a way to go I think. What do you guys think?

What's your focal length?  It looks way too fisheye for a portrait.

Yup, select your camera, set it's focal length to over "100mm" or so and hit that render button again. Looking good. take care joe

For the AO artifacts, just play a little with bias, see this tut if it could help.

For the reflections you find too large, just scale down the U and V scale of the image node, or reduce it in a paint prog.

Roberto,

Her eyes look great in that last render, IMO.  Good job! :)

The 2nd render looks worse than the first, even though the first has eyes that are too dark. Why? Because the 2nd render has FAKE highlights painted on the texture map! Let the lights in your 3d scene create the highlights in your character's eye (like in your first render).

bB

Quote - The 2nd render looks worse than the first, even though the first has eyes that are too dark. Why? Because the 2nd render has FAKE highlights painted on the texture map! Let the lights in your 3d scene create the highlights in your character's eye (like in your first render).

bB

I think I have to agree with you on this! The reflections though are real in the image map for the eyes but I think there are too many, it's too busy. The only highlight I had in the first render was that from the spotlight so it was like the model was lit from one light in a darkened room. I'm using an IBL here aswell so how can I generate reflections from that?

Oh well, on I go...

I think it may be time to start again. I have to say thank you to all of you who've shown interest. I REALLY appriciate your help.

Wow! This last render is definitively a catcher!

Quote - Wow! This last render is definitively a catcher!

Thanks, I think I've got those highlights right now but they eyes are not quite right. But time to move on now I think.

Nice! This is why Poser is so cool, it can be as simple or as complicated as YOU decide it should be. You can throw stuff together and quickly create a scene that gets the job done, or you can push the software (and your brain) to make it produce something fantastic - plus everything inbetween. "Post Work" is never bad. How much or how little you have to do may impact your level of satisfaction, but it's a necessary evil - just as it is in music, film and television. A wise man once said, "You never truly finish art, you merely decide to abandon it". Take care Joe

"You never truly finish art, you merely decide to abandon it".

So true! Knowing when to stop is my problem!