cedarwolf opened this issue on Jun 01, 2013 · 48 posts
kobaltkween posted Mon, 03 June 2013 at 7:35 AM
What can do is separate out your dermal and subdermal scattering. Dermal should change with your skin type and melanin. It should basically be a light, desaturated base with different amounts of yellow/tan (depending on melanin), and be wide but not deep. Subdermal should be red and less wide (flesh being denser than skin) but deep.
Personally, I use two Custom_Scatter, some edge blend, and some other tricks to make skin. I mix based on the skin type and tone.
Here's an example of the Elite Marie texture with my skin shader (sorry, it's only on deviantARTT right now):
http://kobaltkween.deviantart.com/art/The-Look-II-348227822
And I've attached an image with a more tan texture than that one. I sort of hacked it together by mixing maelwenn's Vanessa and J.King's Alayeh together. It's still probably darker and flatter than you're thinking of, but I thought I'd include it as an example of what I've done with this method.
Neither are Native American skin tones, I realize, but what I'd consider a fairly realistic darker skin tones. I also realize that only addresses the material. I've only bought one NA texture set, and I can't quite say the skin tone is realistic. Most I see just don't seem quite right in hue or saturation, so I can understand your concern (not quite right to me is probably glaring to you).
That said, I also find it hard to find very pale textures, but I often make do with what I have and Photoshop. As long as I have a decent detailed base, some decent skin brushes (there are tons on the Web) and some idea of the tone I want to achieve, I can do pretty much anything I want.