SamTherapy mentioned in a thread today that it was too quiet around here, so I thought I'd repost a blog entry I wrote a week or so ago about figure textures.  ;)  These are just my opinions (with a few suggested by LeChatDesigns), so feel free to agree, disagree, or add your own.  I mean no offense to any of the fine texture creators in the Marketplace here or on other sites, this list is only meant to help provide ideas and help improve textures in the future.

1. Include bump maps.
Please try to give us bump maps with particularly detailed textures. Sharpening them works to some extent, but a lot of people make close-up portraits, and that's where lip and skin bump maps can really make a difference.

2. Don't give us giant eyebrows, or even better, give us a browless face map.
Is it just me, or do a lot of otherwise great textures have monstrous eyebrows and no way to replace them? Andre and Diva are two textures I own and would certainly recommend, however I often find myself wishing I could change their eyebrows. I don't begrudge a merchant the right to put big furry brows on their character, but you'd make us all a little happier if you could give us a browless face map too. DAZ actually went back and added a Brow material to V4 after her initial release - let's make use of it.

3. Look at some real eyelashes before creating your own.
This might just be me too, but the eyelashes on people I meet don't fly off the face like fans and cast shadows on the eyelids. Even celebrity eyelashes don't look like black Venus flytraps, so please go a little easier on them. V4 has various eyelash size morphs anyway for when we want them to go big.
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1. Test them in DAZ Studio.**
   As I mentioned above, Diva and Andre are two excellent and very realistic textures - until you apply them in DAZ Studio. Then they look like they've been spending their nights in a tanning bed. Andre is so orange that I have to use blue ambient color and bluish lighting to tone his skin down. Even the default "family safe" V4 comes into Studio with blue tones designed for Poser. Being "DAZ Studio compatible" doesn't mean "DAZ Studio will load the texture", it should mean "DAZ Studio MAT included". I still cannot understand why DAZ sells DAZ Original textures without DAZ Studio MATs (Genesis, among others, although that's not 3D Celebrity's fault). It's your program DAZ, please support it.

5. Less for MORs
Am I the only one who thinks that most MOR (character presets) included with textures are more like caricatures than realistic faces? I know you want your character to stand out and be original, but some of the MOR faces I've tried (even those by well respected merchants) look ridiculous when they're not used with the exact lighting, texture, and hair that the promo was made with. If you want to make a very prominent face, please consider saving it as a single morph so that we can set it at less than 100% (Andre looks quite good to me at 50%, at 100% it's too strong for me). I don't think I've ever found a body MOR useful, so I've given up on them.

6. Make the navel texture fit the default figure.
Two female textures, TWO that I've ever used, have placed the navel so that it 'fits' the mesh's indentation and looks realistic: StefyZZ's Suelma for V3 and Shahara/plus3d's Diva for V4. Most of them just put a dark spot at that location and move on. Some of us do notice.

7. Don't paint reflections on the eye texture.
This has been said so many times that it's hardly worth repeating but it apparently is because merchants are still doing it. V4 has TWO materials where reflections can go now, the Cornea and the Eyesurface.

8. Try not to paint highlights on teeth and fingernails either.
This isn't mentioned often, but I recently noticed that many textures do have highlights painted on the fingernails/toenails and teeth. Try explaining to someone why a strongly backlit yelling figure has shining teeth.  ;)

9. We don't need multiple shades of the same basic eye color.
I've seen texture sets that include eyes in three shades of brown - same exact iris texture, but in three very slightly different shades. And only brown, no other colors. We don't need this, that's what the Diffuse color is for. Give us more colors (in medium to light shades) and we can darken them if we want.

10. Name the installation texture folder after the texture - NOT YOURSELF.
This drives me freakin' nuts and even the best and most experienced merchants do it. I DO NOT CARE who made it, I just want to be able to find it in a sea of other hopelessly named folders in my textures directory. I had a very organized texture folder under Poser, as I was able to rename the folders because Poser would search if textures it couldn't find right away. DAZ Studio doesn't, which led to me completely deleting my entire Poser directory, and starting anew.

11. Don't name your readme file "Readme". (suggested by LeChatDesigns)
Many people don't read the readme files to begin with, so people aren't exactly going to be breaking down doors to read one named "readme". At least put the product's name in the title, like "readme_anotherV4texture" so it doesn't overwrite someone else's generically-named and likely unread readme.

12. Lose the exclamations and spaces in folder names (suggested by LeChatDesigns)
This doesn't particularly bother me (Snow) because I rename my pose folders and stick them right in with the clothing, hair, or whatever, but it's been a fiery complaint among customers for years. Some people have actually said they won't buy from merchants who do it, so beware.

Well, that's enough for now. As I said earlier, if you made any of the textures mentioned or are a merchant guilty of the things I mention, I mean no offense and have much respect for all who create original textures (after all, I make seam guides to help make your job easier).  :)

Thanks for reading, take care.

SnowS

Well, for the most part I agree. But number 2...

I'll go with the eyebrowless texturemap. But frankly I'm tired of thin over arched brows. I don't find them suitable for images of women in situations where it's not too likely they sit around plucking, waxing or threading.

And as for male textures, which I acknowledge, you're not talking about... It seems that many merchants use the same eyebrow brush as for women's textures. Men generally have thicker brows.

And number 10...
I like the merchant naming their folder after themselves, with the character texture as a subfolder nested within. It cuts down on the two million different subfolders you end up with in your texture folder if everyone creates a new folder for every texture.

Another one - try to get any specular highlights OUT of the skin.  It's as bad as, or worse than, reflections painted into the eye textures.

edit: Options with NO MAKEUP would be wonderful as well.  For any given texture, if there isn't a no-makeup option I generally stop looking, regardless of how nice it might be otherwise.

Quote - 3. Look at some real eyelashes before creating your own.
This might just be me too, but the eyelashes on people I meet don't fly off the face like fans and cast shadows on the eyelids. Even celebrity eyelashes don't look like black Venus flytraps, so please go a little easier on them. V4 has various eyelash size morphs anyway for when we want them to go big.

I totally agree with that.
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Quote - 5. Less for MORs
Am I the only one who thinks that most MOR (character presets) included with textures are more like caricatures than realistic faces? I know you want your character to stand out and be original, but some of the MOR faces I've tried (even those by well respected merchants) look ridiculous when they're not used with the exact lighting, texture, and hair that the promo was made with. If you want to make a very prominent face, please consider saving it as a single morph so that we can set it at less than 100% (Andre looks quite good to me at 50%, at 100% it's too strong for me). I don't think I've ever found a body MOR useful, so I've given up on them.

I agree with parts of this.  I too have problems getting some of the characters that I have to look anything remotely similar to the renders in the promo images.

So far as body morphs go, some are good, others not.  When I buy a character package I actually expect that the body shape be different than the out of the box figure. However it seems that most merchants are afraid to turn the dials other than to make larger boobs or hips. I am so dismayed when I spend my money on a character only to find that the body shape has negligable changes if any at all. When I buy a character I am buying it for more than the texture and the face. I want the whole darn package and that includes a different body shape.

Quote - 7. Don't paint reflections on the eye texture.
This has been said so many times that it's hardly worth repeating but it apparently is because merchants are still doing it. V4 has TWO materials where reflections can go now, the Cornea and the Eyesurface.

I am in the minority because I actually like painted reflections. I suck at lighting and cameras etc and if it wasn't for the highlights in the eyes I wouldn't have highlights at all.  However, at the very least perhaps a compromise could be made like I've seen in some character packages where there is an option to turn off the reflection if you don't want it.

Quote - 8. Try not to paint highlights on teeth and fingernails either.
This isn't mentioned often, but I recently noticed that many textures do have highlights painted on the fingernails/toenails and teeth. Try explaining to someone why a strongly backlit yelling figure has shining teeth.  ;)

Same answer as for the eyes.

Quote - 9. We don't need multiple shades of the same basic eye color.
I've seen texture sets that include eyes in three shades of brown - same exact iris texture, but in three very slightly different shades. And only brown, no other colors. We don't need this, that's what the Diffuse color is for. Give us more colors (in medium to light shades) and we can darken them if we want.

There are many who don't know how to use the material room, or too new to Poser to even try to attempt the material room. I know until not even 18 months ago the material room looked like the panel of a commercial airliner and I couldn't make heads or tails out of it. I still can't make heads or tails out of most of it, but i can do some basics.  Having to change the colour of eyes is not something I know how to to.  So I actually like the variety of colours that are included in most packages. And I think it's a good thing to have for newer uses to the program.

Quote - 10. Name the installation texture folder after the texture - NOT YOURSELF.
This drives me freakin' nuts and even the best and most experienced merchants do it. I DO NOT CARE who made it, I just want to be able to find it in a sea of other hopelessly named folders in my textures directory. I had a very organized texture folder under Poser, as I was able to rename the folders because Poser would search if textures it couldn't find right away. DAZ Studio doesn't, which led to me completely deleting my entire Poser directory, and starting anew.

I actually prefer if they name the folder after themselves but have sub folders inside for each package. It makes looking for things so much easier and I don't have a huge long list of folders in the top level of the textures folder.

Quote - 11. Don't name your readme file "Readme". (suggested by LeChatDesigns)
Many people don't read the readme files to begin with, so people aren't exactly going to be breaking down doors to read one named "readme". At least put the product's name in the title, like "readme_anotherV4texture" so it doesn't overwrite someone else's generically-named and likely unread readme.

Oh God yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I do read the readme file though!  But it drives me crazy when it's just called "Readme"

Another thing about the readme file, please don't place it inside the Props or Pose or Character folder!  No one looks there for it! I know I don't!   It should be directly inside the runtime, or sitting outside the runtime when the package is unzipped.

Quote - 12. Lose the exclamations and spaces in folder names (suggested by LeChatDesigns)
This doesn't particularly bother me (Snow) because I rename my pose folders and stick them right in with the clothing, hair, or whatever, but it's been a fiery complaint among customers for years. Some people have actually said they won't buy from merchants who do it, so beware.

That doesn't bother me because I rename the folders anyway.

Some of my own pet peeves:

1.  If you include files for P4, PP, P5, P6 and P7, please put them into individual folders.  It's really tedious and a PITA to have to go through the Pose or Props folder and find and delete dozens of files that do not apply to the version of program that I use.

2.  When you create packages for more than one figure, IE: SP3, V3, Aiko etc, it would help if  the files were segregated into their own folders too.

1. Please check the spelling of the library folders IE: Props, Pose, Libraries etc.  If they aren't spelled right they don't go into the runtime properly.

"Men generally have thicker brows"

Of course, and I do sometimes want to use larger brows for the women too. I was just saying that if you do want to give a texture larger brows than we're used to seeing, at least let us have the option of switching them using the brow transmap.

"For any given texture, if there isn't a no-makeup option I generally stop looking, regardless of how nice it might be otherwise."

Agree 100% with this.

LOL, I can't believe I'm the only one so far who doesn't want texture folders named after the person who made them.  ;)

SnowS

LOL, I can't believe I'm the only one so far who doesn't want texture folders named after the person who made them.  ;)

Texture folders should always be named after their creators.  

Eyebrows: It really were wonderful if there could be a choice in these. One texture without eyebrows, one natural and one 'plucked' .

No make-up: Absolute must for me. Natural is what I use mostly.

Naming the texture (or other things as well): It is good to have something on the files to distinguish them from other people's similarly named ones. My recent experience was two 'medieval blacksmith's' getting installed on top of each other, but it'd be even more disasterous with characters.

Quote - > Quote - 9. We don't need multiple shades of the same basic eye color.

I've seen texture sets that include eyes in three shades of brown - same exact iris texture, but in three very slightly different shades. And only brown, no other colors. We don't need this, that's what the Diffuse color is for. Give us more colors (in medium to light shades) and we can darken them if we want.

There are many who don't know how to use the material room, or too new to Poser to even try to attempt the material room. I know until not even 18 months ago the material room looked like the panel of a commercial airliner and I couldn't make heads or tails out of it. I still can't make heads or tails out of most of it, but i can do some basics.  Having to change the colour of eyes is not something I know how to to.  So I actually like the variety of colours that are included in most packages. And I think it's a good thing to have for newer uses to the program.

Merchants can set up material file to apply diffrent shades without having a jpg for each and every color. Eyes and hair colors could all be done off of a single texture if set up right.

Users don't have to master every tool if the merchants set the stuff up with features beyond P4.

Quote - Some of my own pet peeves:

1.  If you include files for P4, PP, P5, P6 and P7, please put them into individual folders.  It's really tedious and a PITA to have to go through the Pose or Props folder and find and delete dozens of files that do not apply to the version of program that I use.

I would love to see that. it would make life so much easier.

A subheading of number 9: not just more than shade variations on eye texture (three shades of brown) but if you use a merchant resource kit, make some changes.  

I purchased a product shortly after the release of V4 whose texture was nothing more than the Alpha merchant resource kit DAZ released reapplied with new thumbnails.

Another subheading: if you have PP, and P5/6 texture mats listed, make sure they are more than just the P4 mats resaved with newly labeled thumbnails.  I've come across several texture sets that list mats for PP and P5 but when I apply them I see no difference.  When I go into the materials room and load them, there's no difference.  

An addition to number 1: if a merchant is using P5 to make their products, correct the bump map.  In other words, remove the bump map from the gradient bump channel and plug it into the bump channel. 

Quote - 10. Name the installation texture folder after the texture - NOT YOURSELF.
This drives me freakin' nuts and even the best and most experienced merchants do it. I DO NOT CARE who made it, I just want to be able to find it in a sea of other hopelessly named folders in my textures directory. I had a very organized texture folder under Poser, as I was able to rename the folders because Poser would search if textures it couldn't find right away. DAZ Studio doesn't, which led to me completely deleting my entire Poser directory, and starting anew.

I agree with everything except this. I hate texture folders named after a character or texture set it leads to a very disorganised texture folder. I much pefer the texture folder to be named after the merchant with a sub-folder for each product - much tidier.

I agree that it's easier to keep names from overlapping that way - if you only went by object/character name, you'd end up with a very messy list of "Charlene - Charlie - Charlize - Charly" directories.

I just mentioned this is another thread.

I am pig sick of buying clothes for V4 and finding an inadequate collection of morphs built in. So sick that I bought Netherworks' V4 clothing fit magnets. It's so easy to do, and works so well, I can't understand why vendors don't make use of it. I won't name the guilty parties. 

But I'd like to mention two who always get it right, and produce great products.

Hongyu and BillyT, take a bow.

As for the rest of SnowSultan's peeves: I agree with most of them. Can I add another?

Will vendors please tag their texture files with a relevant ICC profile? sRGB, AdobeRGB or whatever, because some of the skin tones seem to be way off when I open them in Photoshop (and I'm usually only doing that because they're too red / orange / cyan in the first place).

I also like the main texture folders to be named after the creator with subfolders. It makes finding things alot easier. 

My personal pet peeve is not being able to really see what the texture looks like, because the promo renders are all done with colored lighting. I do not buy those products.Ever. 

Also, regarding navals, please make them a realistic size. I have seen characters where the naval is 1/3 of the length of the abdomen.  Not a good look for a human.

Subset of the #3 rant: PLEASE! Eyelashes don't grow from the inside of the eyelids! Please don't give us raccoon-eyes that look like the woman rubbed her mascara/eyeliner into the sensitive inner lid. I cringe whenever I see that. Show some pink between the lashes and the eyes. (Please?)

"My personal pet peeve is not being able to really see what the texture looks like, because the promo renders are all done with colored lighting. I do not buy those products.Ever. "

Completely agree with this too.

"I agree that it's easier to keep names from overlapping that way - if you only went by object/character name, you'd end up with a very messy list of "Charlene - Charlie - Charlize - Charly" directories."

*Fair enough, but what if they named their folders something like "Eri by Snowsultan" or "Snowsultan - Eri", putting both texture name and merchant in the folder's name? I'm looking in my main texture directory right now and I have no idea what's in a good 75% of them. I don't just mean this for characters, but for props and other items too.

SnowS

I agree with most of your suggestions, except for the Texture folder one.  I put my textures in a SamTherapy folder to stop the main folder filling up with lots of different folders named after the individual characters.

I don't test for D|S compatibility because I don't have it installed and - until I get a new system - I won't be installing it any time soon.  Also, I don't claim D|S compatibility. :)

I still like the merchant name and subfolders. Another benefit of the subfolder scenario is that if two or more items use common textures for instance the merchant can have a "common" subfolder under his name and you'd only have that file taking up space once on your harddrive.

One of my pet peeves about computer graphics, pretty much across the board, is the wasteful way they treat your resources. It's that "too much is never enough" syndrome. If (when) I have to go out and upgrade harddrives for more space, I want it to be because I actually have more stuff and not because my drive has been eaten up with excessive duplication, sloppy non-optimized meshes and other redundancies. 

I've seen posts where people have tried to address this and the advice has been to go out and buy a bigger drive, the prices are so reasonable now... How about we use the space we have wisely?

BATLAB and quite a few other Japanese vendors use common files, IIRC.  It's a good idea.