Quote - I will re-do the maps for the VSS materials and pick out the specular map - but leave them in the classic settings as these tend to look kind of "soapy" if you don't control the blinn with a specular map.

Sounds planish to me.

I think specular maps made from bump maps might work well if those bump maps were hand-painted. You'd have the dark parts corresponding to fine lines and pores, which should mostly block specular reflection because of self-shadowing. But in photo-generated bump maps you also have the elevated bits resulting from highlights. Although these create bumps that are not quite realistic, that's hardly ever a problem because the scale is so small. But once you turn the bump map into a specular map, they will create extra-strong highlights and hence the glitter effect. Or at least that's my working hypothesis. :laugh:

One of these days I was going to try my hand on some detailed, completely hand-drawn skin materials for Antonia, just using the photo references as guidelines. But that will have to wait until a number of other things are sorted out.

-- I'm not mad at you, just Westphalian.