Afrodite-Ohki posted at 6:30AM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410434

The entire point here is that the textures make or break the realism...

At least for close-ups. Figures with a certain distance to the camera do not need mutch detailed texturemaps. Look at some photographs. Even if a face ist just a fraction of the whole image, it is clearly identified as "real face". So, there must be something more than just textures to mimic reality. And no, a complicated "shader" alone doesn't help here...

adp001 posted at 7:43AM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410437

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 6:30AM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410434

The entire point here is that the textures make or break the realism...

At least for close-ups. Figures with a certain distance to the camera do not need mutch detailed texturemaps. Look at some photographs. Even if a face ist just a fraction of the whole image, it is clearly identified as "real face". So, there must be something more than just textures to mimic reality. And no, a complicated "shader" alone doesn't help here...

I don't think there is any one thing that can be changed. You need good textures, that includes the diffuse map, bump map, etc. You need a good shader to put them on. It doesn't need to be complicated, just enough to do what you need. You need good lighting. Textures and shaders don't matter if you can't see them. You need a good pose. Very few people are truly expressionless. If nothing else, there are micro-expressions that we may not recognize but our subconscious sees them.

There's also hair and surroundings, but that's a different discussion.

So. I just found out that Substance Painter 2021 is for preorder at Steam at a discount, and if you get it you get substance 2020 to wait until 2021 is released.

I caved. I bought it. Gotta learn it. Wish me luck.

RedPhantom posted at 8:38AM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410446

adp001 posted at 7:43AM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410437

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 6:30AM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410434

The entire point here is that the textures make or break the realism...

At least for close-ups. Figures with a certain distance to the camera do not need mutch detailed texturemaps. Look at some photographs. Even if a face ist just a fraction of the whole image, it is clearly identified as "real face". So, there must be something more than just textures to mimic reality. And no, a complicated "shader" alone doesn't help here...

I don't think there is any one thing that can be changed. You need good textures, that includes the diffuse map, bump map, etc. You need a good shader to put them on. It doesn't need to be complicated, just enough to do what you need. You need good lighting. Textures and shaders don't matter if you can't see them. You need a good pose. Very few people are truly expressionless. If nothing else, there are micro-expressions that we may not recognize but our subconscious sees them.

There's also hair and surroundings, but that's a different discussion.

There are tons of Poser characters. There must be a at least a few with good texture maps, that will do the job.

Nevertrumper posted at 8:57AM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410452

There are tons of Poser characters. There must be a at least a few with good texture maps, that will do the job.

Read what I said previously about how skin textures are created currently and why Poser hasn't been keeping up.

Poser figure? OK, here is La Femme with a character called Shana by Deecey (not available yet but will be in her store here when finished). She has hand painted the skin in Substance Painter, starting with the bump first. This is rendered from the last work in progress files I had, using the same setup as the scan heads posted earlier - black background, two area lights - then run through Photoshop (Curves, colour balance, high-pass sharpen). I'll post the skin shader that I used for this render in the next post.

Skin shader - the Superfly bit anyway, I haven't used Firefly now in years ;)

As a general observation, and purely my opinion, the problem with photorealism as a goal is that the closer you get to it the harder it becomes. Like RedPhantom says, if one thing is not quite right it will destroy the entire illusion. One reason that the scanned heads look so realistic is that they are quite dense topologically with a lot of detail in the geometry; they would be difficult and in some ways impossible to rig and animate. Every detail is particular to the way they are, like a statue.

A Poser figure is a very different case as it is designed to be generic and non-specialised - to be posed realistically or not, to be morphed and scaled, to be rendered as animation or still image, in high resolution or not, in close up or not. It is intended to be all things to all users, to be as un-particular as possible. It is impossible for creators to anticipate every particular, so to go from a versatile and generic figure to a particular photoreal render will inevitably take some work to achieve.

That's not to say that vendors can't improve, or figure creators, or Poser itself though.

@Okhi - good luck with Painter, it does have a learning curve and the online docs aren't great, but there are loads of video tutorials for it. I like the work you've been showing so I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with it!

caisson posted at 3:59PM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410480

@Okhi - good luck with Painter, it does have a learning curve and the online docs aren't great, but there are loads of video tutorials for it. I like the work you've been showing so I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with it!

Thank you! I'm already struggling LMAO - it doesn't seem to like different sized texel UV areas :P

This La Femme is "to clean". And her facesides are simply mirrored. Human faces aren't made by cad systems.

@adp001 - yes, but that is kind of the point I was trying to get to - to approach photorealism you have to go from the general to the particular. It is much harder to go from the particular to the general.

@Okhi - no-one likes different size texels ;) Maybe tri-planar projection or something along those lines??

I agree about too clean, and the shininess seems a little too uniform, but on inspection I can see the texture itself is not mirrored, it's just that the features are subtle and the underlying geometry is symmetrical.

Pull back the camera a bit, add some hair and clothes, light a scene instead of a close-up portrait, and I'm not sure how obvious those things would be.

ChromeStar posted at 7:50PM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410491

I agree about too clean, and the shininess seems a little too uniform, but on inspection I can see the texture itself is not mirrored, it's just that the features are subtle and the underlying geometry is symmetrical.

Pull back the camera a bit, add some hair and clothes, light a scene instead of a close-up portrait, and I'm not sure how obvious those things would be.

Figure and clothing geometries are typically symmetrical so that rigging can be done on one half of the model and then copied to the other. Assymetry for characters is usually added with the face chips or with asymmetrical morphs.

Also the above render is still in the WIP phase. I fixed those collarbones since LOL

Another early WIP before collarbone fix - but the textures and shaders are the same

caisson posted at 10:20PM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410480

As a general observation, and purely my opinion, the problem with photorealism as a goal is that the closer you get to it the harder it becomes. Like RedPhantom says, if one thing is not quite right it will destroy the entire illusion. One reason that the scanned heads look so realistic is that they are quite dense topologically with a lot of detail in the geometry; they would be difficult and in some ways impossible to rig and animate. Every detail is particular to the way they are, like a statue.

A Poser figure is a very different case as it is designed to be generic and non-specialised - to be posed realistically or not, to be morphed and scaled, to be rendered as animation or still image, in high resolution or not, in close up or not. It is intended to be all things to all users, to be as un-particular as possible. It is impossible for creators to anticipate every particular, so to go from a versatile and generic figure to a particular photoreal render will inevitably take some work to achieve.

That's not to say that vendors can't improve, or figure creators, or Poser itself though.

---

@Okhi - good luck with Painter, it does have a learning curve and the online docs aren't great, but there are loads of video tutorials for it. I like the work you've been showing so I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with it!

I think you can archive more Photorealism when you "sculpt" facial features, like a few extra pores, wrinkles in the characters face and take this sculpt as High resolution OBJ and bake it out in substance or any other app you prefer and use this as Normal, bump etc.. Poser character skins are way to clean .To perfect . Smooth. This breaks the whole impression of realism.

Deecey posted at 10:26PM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410497

@Deecey, this is a very beautiful morph/sculpt and I wish I could sculpt /morph like this, but her skin is to smooth. To perfect. in my opinion. She need a bit fine wrinkles around her eyes, a bit more pores , blemishes. No skin is without any visible Pores, wrinkles, blemishes .Mimic wrinkles, here and there some fine beauty dots.Would make a big change.

Here one example. Extremely beautiful artwork.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/J9B6aa

She has a fine skin from a young woman, but still visible mimic features and pores.

Most of the issues you are raising are more an issue with textures rather than with the shader setup. I thought this was a thread about how to set up the shaders in SuperFly. My shader has changed since the example that caisson posted, so I will update the example when it's done.

The "evenness" of the skin tones and sheen of the maps are more attributed to the maps, but as these are meant to be merchant resources for people to start with, I kept them as neutral as possible. The more individuality you "bake" into the base, the harder it is for people to "unbake" it out. It's far easier for people to ADD to a merchant resource than to take away from it. Hopefully that explains the reason behind the "smoothness" of it all. Pores and imperfections are unique to the individual, but if you have a neutral base to start with it's so much easier. 8-)

Deecey posted at 11:30PM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410515

Most of the issues you are raising are more an issue with textures rather than with the shader setup. I thought this was a thread about how to set up the shaders in SuperFly. My shader has changed since the example that caisson posted, so I will update the example when it's done.

The "evenness" of the skin tones and sheen of the maps are more attributed to the maps, but as these are meant to be merchant resources for people to start with, I kept them as neutral as possible. The more individuality you "bake" into the base, the harder it is for people to "unbake" it out. 8-)

Okay, my wrong :) I did not know this is a merchant ressource. Mea Culpa. :) Yes, maybe this is a shader node set up thread, but when it comes to character, Textures are essential here too. But how I said, no offence, your sculpt is beautiful. Really like it.

TheAnimaGemini posted at 11:36PM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410516

Deecey posted at 11:30PM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410515

Most of the issues you are raising are more an issue with textures rather than with the shader setup. I thought this was a thread about how to set up the shaders in SuperFly. My shader has changed since the example that caisson posted, so I will update the example when it's done.

The "evenness" of the skin tones and sheen of the maps are more attributed to the maps, but as these are meant to be merchant resources for people to start with, I kept them as neutral as possible. The more individuality you "bake" into the base, the harder it is for people to "unbake" it out. 8-)

Okay, my wrong :) I did not know this is a merchant ressource. Mea Culpa. :) Yes, maybe this is a shader node set up thread, but when it comes to character, Textures are essential here too. But how I said, no offence, your sculpt is beautiful. Really like it.

Yeah there are two versions. One for heads that work with the LF default body, and another version that is a complete head to toe sculpt to make her proportions less "supermodel" and more "average jill proportions." The girl sitting on the rock shows the new proportions.

No offense taken ... I DO listen to people, I really do. I take all comments and criticisms as feedback as long as they are given with that intent and not as bashing LOL. My goal with this is to give people a good place to start for creating P12 characters and textures, I hope it helps. There will be four ethnicities: Caucasian, African, Asian, and East Indian.

Deecey posted at 11:57PM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410517

TheAnimaGemini posted at 11:36PM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410516

Deecey posted at 11:30PM Sat, 16 January 2021 - #4410515

Most of the issues you are raising are more an issue with textures rather than with the shader setup. I thought this was a thread about how to set up the shaders in SuperFly. My shader has changed since the example that caisson posted, so I will update the example when it's done.

The "evenness" of the skin tones and sheen of the maps are more attributed to the maps, but as these are meant to be merchant resources for people to start with, I kept them as neutral as possible. The more individuality you "bake" into the base, the harder it is for people to "unbake" it out. 8-)

Okay, my wrong :) I did not know this is a merchant ressource. Mea Culpa. :) Yes, maybe this is a shader node set up thread, but when it comes to character, Textures are essential here too. But how I said, no offence, your sculpt is beautiful. Really like it.

Yeah there are two versions. One for heads that work with the LF default body, and another version that is a complete head to toe sculpt to make her proportions less "supermodel" and more "average jill proportions." The girl sitting on the rock shows the new proportions.

No offense taken ... I DO listen to people, I really do. I take all comments and criticisms as feedback as long as they are given with that intent and not as bashing LOL. My goal with this is to give people a good place to start for creating P12 characters and textures, I hope it helps. There will be four ethnicities: Caucasian, African, Asian, and East Indian.

Sounds great. More diversity is needed. And while I am by my own a caucasian, I think there are to much characters out with them and they get boring and uninspiring. I usually don't bash other peoples hard work. It is not my style. :) But I think constructive critic is most of the time appreciated when it is done in honest and nice way. I look forward for your skin pack. Currently I am learning sculpting characters for my own usage and any help from outside with textures are more than welcome :)

I usually don't bash other peoples hard work. It is not my style. :) But I think constructive critic is most of the time appreciated when it is done in honest and nice way.

I know I appreciate it when it's given in that way. So yes, thank you 8-)

Currently I am learning sculpting characters for my own usage and any help from outside with textures are more than welcome :)

I LOVE doing morphs. More than I like doing textures. So we are probably coming at this from opposite directions and meeting in the middle LOL

**I LOVE doing morphs. More than I like doing textures. So we are probably coming at this from opposite directions and meeting in the middle LOL

@Deecey The last time I tried any morphs sculpting, my husband asked my if I work on a Alien Character. LOL. This was the point where I decide to take professional help and enroll a few courses .:)

caisson posted at 3:57AM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410475

Skin shader - the Superfly bit anyway, I haven't used Firefly now in years ;)

Thank you so much Caisson, for that reference. When I read your post, I wondered if I had at least one character with a normal map, and i found one and only one, for my vic4's collection: a package called "Sarah", sold by "AB", a vendor the name of which i haven't found here nor at daz. So if anyone knows it, I would be pleased.

When it comes to Vic4, i often see a glitch, between the upper limit of the upper lip, and the rest of the skin, as if the character, all of a sudden, inherited a slight mustache...

So I used Caisson's node settings, with Sarah's normal map and morphology, and Danea's excellent textures for the skin/bump. The only difference is the use of a second layer with a GlossyBSDF instead of the PrincipledBSDF's specular.

And here is the result. With my thanks to all of you giving valuable advices :-)

caisson posted at 5:41AM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410490

@Okhi - no-one likes different size texels ;) Maybe tri-planar projection or something along those lines??

I did try that and had the same issue! But then I figured out you can set layers to only work on specific UDIM tiles, so I just set up differently scaled skin shaders on each to match the seams. :) I can still see the seam but luckily this seems to be non-destructive - I'll tinker with the settings until I'm satisfied.

This is gonna take a WHIIIIILE. I'm still in the head, I'm still working only on the bump, and I'm still not halfway through the head bump lmao. Will be a side project while I work on my hairstyles and stuff.

Y-Phil posted at 2:40PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410527

caisson posted at 3:57AM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410475

Skin shader - the Superfly bit anyway, I haven't used Firefly now in years ;)

Thank you so much Caisson, for that reference. When I read your post, I wondered if I had at least one character with a normal map, and i found one and only one, for my vic4's collection: a package called "Sarah", sold by "AB", a vendor the name of which i haven't found here nor at daz. So if anyone knows it, I would be pleased.

When it comes to Vic4, i often see a glitch, between the upper limit of the upper lip, and the rest of the skin, as if the character, all of a sudden, inherited a slight mustache...

So I used Caisson's node settings, with Sarah's normal map and morphology, and Danea's excellent textures for the skin/bump. The only difference is the use of a second layer with a GlossyBSDF instead of the PrincipledBSDF's specular.

And here is the result. With my thanks to all of you giving valuable advices :-)

If you have a bump map INSTEAD of a normal map, plug your bump map into a Cycles Bump Map node (instead of the normal map one shown above). Like so:

Just to show that I do take constructive criticism to heart, I've added a bit more detailing to my original bump map in ZBrush, while still trying to keep it somewhat generic.

Getting better now?

It looks more like roughcast than skin.

https://texturing.xyz/pages/discover-microskin

Unfortunately those are beyond my budget to get the commercial versions 8-( I'm on a fixed income.

I just totalled up how much it would cost to get the complete head to toe displacement maps from TXYZ (something that I have actually been drooling over for years). It would cost 1862 dollars to get all of them (commercial license). You can't create products with the personal version, so the commercial license is the only way.

Aside from the fact that it well beyond what I can afford, the chances of recovering that cost to use them in a product are slim to none in my case. It's not that I wouldn't WANT to get them, it's just that .... I can't. 8-(

Deecey posted at 11:03PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410591

I just totalled up how much it would cost to get the complete head to toe displacement maps from TXYZ (something that I have actually been drooling over for years). It would cost 1862 dollars to get all of them (commercial license). You can't create products with the personal version, so the commercial license is the only way.

Aside from the fact that it well beyond what I can afford, the chances of recovering that cost to use them in a product are slim to none in my case. It's not that I wouldn't WANT to get them, it's just that .... I can't. 8-(

@Deecey Yes, they are very expensive but also very high quality. How I write before, I fill up a cart too over there and even with the personal licence is was spicy enough to freak me out. The Commercial Licence is even more scary. You will need to sell your Textures with a high price when you want your money back and I am not sure if Poser folks would buy your ressource pack for $100-150 ;)

TheAnimaGemini posted at 11:09PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410607

Deecey posted at 11:03PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410591

I just totalled up how much it would cost to get the complete head to toe displacement maps from TXYZ (something that I have actually been drooling over for years). It would cost 1862 dollars to get all of them (commercial license). You can't create products with the personal version, so the commercial license is the only way.

Aside from the fact that it well beyond what I can afford, the chances of recovering that cost to use them in a product are slim to none in my case. It's not that I wouldn't WANT to get them, it's just that .... I can't. 8-(

@Deecey Yes, they are very expensive but also very high quality. How I write before, I fill up a cart too over there and even with the personal licence is was spicy enough to freak me out. The Commercial Licence is even more scary. You will need to sell your Textures with a high price when you want your money back and I am not sure if Poser folks would buy your ressource pack for $100-150 ;)

Exactly LOL. Have to make do with what I can afford.

Deecey posted at 11:08PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410581

Just to show that I do take constructive criticism to heart, I've added a bit more detailing to my original bump map in ZBrush, while still trying to keep it somewhat generic.

Getting better now?

Like the lips, looks good. For the skin I would reduce a bit the brush size and the strength.But you are almost there. :)

Yes I reduced the strength and it blended in much better. It took a couple hours to bake the new bump and normal maps I'm just starting to test them now.

Deecey posted at 11:13PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410609

TheAnimaGemini posted at 11:09PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410607

Deecey posted at 11:03PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410591

I just totalled up how much it would cost to get the complete head to toe displacement maps from TXYZ (something that I have actually been drooling over for years). It would cost 1862 dollars to get all of them (commercial license). You can't create products with the personal version, so the commercial license is the only way.

Aside from the fact that it well beyond what I can afford, the chances of recovering that cost to use them in a product are slim to none in my case. It's not that I wouldn't WANT to get them, it's just that .... I can't. 8-(

@Deecey Yes, they are very expensive but also very high quality. How I write before, I fill up a cart too over there and even with the personal licence is was spicy enough to freak me out. The Commercial Licence is even more scary. You will need to sell your Textures with a high price when you want your money back and I am not sure if Poser folks would buy your ressource pack for $100-150 ;)

Exactly LOL. Have to make do with what I can afford.

You can make awesome textures with alphas too. I bought me a pack of skin and lip alphas over ArtStation, they are awesome and more important, affordable. Even the commercial licence. And as soon you figure out the brush settings, you can create high quality maps with it too. No need to go extravagante ;)

Deecey posted at 11:16PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410611

Yes I reduced the strength and it blended in much better. It took a couple hours to bake the new bump and normal maps I'm just starting to test them now.

Awesome :) Cross fingers :)

TheAnimaGemini posted at 11:28PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410612

Deecey posted at 11:13PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410609

TheAnimaGemini posted at 11:09PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410607

Deecey posted at 11:03PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410591

I just totalled up how much it would cost to get the complete head to toe displacement maps from TXYZ (something that I have actually been drooling over for years). It would cost 1862 dollars to get all of them (commercial license). You can't create products with the personal version, so the commercial license is the only way.

Aside from the fact that it well beyond what I can afford, the chances of recovering that cost to use them in a product are slim to none in my case. It's not that I wouldn't WANT to get them, it's just that .... I can't. 8-(

@Deecey Yes, they are very expensive but also very high quality. How I write before, I fill up a cart too over there and even with the personal licence is was spicy enough to freak me out. The Commercial Licence is even more scary. You will need to sell your Textures with a high price when you want your money back and I am not sure if Poser folks would buy your ressource pack for $100-150 ;)

Exactly LOL. Have to make do with what I can afford.

You can make awesome textures with alphas too. I bought me a pack of skin and lip alphas over ArtStation, they are awesome and more important, affordable. Even the commercial licence. And as soon you figure out the brush settings, you can create high quality maps with it too. No need to go extravagante ;)

https://www.zbrushguides.com/zbrush-skin-brushes-pack/

Deecey posted at 12:07AM Mon, 18 January 2021 - #4410614

TheAnimaGemini posted at 11:28PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410612

Deecey posted at 11:13PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410609

TheAnimaGemini posted at 11:09PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410607

Deecey posted at 11:03PM Sun, 17 January 2021 - #4410591

I just totalled up how much it would cost to get the complete head to toe displacement maps from TXYZ (something that I have actually been drooling over for years). It would cost 1862 dollars to get all of them (commercial license). You can't create products with the personal version, so the commercial license is the only way.

Aside from the fact that it well beyond what I can afford, the chances of recovering that cost to use them in a product are slim to none in my case. It's not that I wouldn't WANT to get them, it's just that .... I can't. 8-(

@Deecey Yes, they are very expensive but also very high quality. How I write before, I fill up a cart too over there and even with the personal licence is was spicy enough to freak me out. The Commercial Licence is even more scary. You will need to sell your Textures with a high price when you want your money back and I am not sure if Poser folks would buy your ressource pack for $100-150 ;)

Exactly LOL. Have to make do with what I can afford.

You can make awesome textures with alphas too. I bought me a pack of skin and lip alphas over ArtStation, they are awesome and more important, affordable. Even the commercial licence. And as soon you figure out the brush settings, you can create high quality maps with it too. No need to go extravagante ;)

https://www.zbrushguides.com/zbrush-skin-brushes-pack/

Yep, they look very good too. And how I said, they are affordable. Sure a bit more work, but the result is almost the same :)

Deecey posted at 3:27AM Mon, 18 January 2021 - #4410586

Unfortunately those are beyond my budget to get the commercial versions 8-( I'm on a fixed income.

I posted the link just for reference.

As I understand the license, it is not allowed to sell "texture packs" anyway:

It is NOT in any cases permitted to:
`- Sell or distribute any of these textures/surface scans/photos in an unmodified form, 
or where the derived product you are selling or distributing is a textures or a collection of textures. 

IN OTHER WORDS: Do not sell or distribute any of these textures (modified or not) by itself or in a texture pack, material, clip art, website theme or scrap booking pack.`

https://texturing.xyz/pages/terms-of-service

From my point of view, the owner of Poser respectively "LaFemme" would be responsible for providing proper base textures. So also bumpmaps, which can be extended via "overlay" for different characters.

If you look around on the web, you will quickly find out what amazingly good figures you can (not quite legally, presumably) download for free and use in Blender. The main reason: If you want to have good, realistic figures, you can't buy them at a price affordable for hobbyists. This opens a huge gray market, which also hurts products like Poser considerably (people prefer to learn Blender and use free figures, than to settle for inferior dolls at a steep price).

Thought I'd also share my Adventures In Bump (TM xD) in Substance Painter.

Unlike Deecey's, mine can be more specific as this will be one character, not a merchant resource. Lips and eye wrinkles were handpainted. I'm still gonna add a lot of surface imperfections.

This project is likely to take me months. xD But due to Substance's layered nature, I imagine that I can use this first one later to create many other characters just by editing pattern options and creating different details/imperfections. (and of course, repainting the entire diffuse map, but that's the fun part.)

I want to add that I handpainted these hand wrinkles and I hope to god this will be worth it because oooooh boy did it take me a while. LMAO

(Don't mind the weird claw pose - I exported a posed LF to be able to access every nook and cranny while texturing.)

Ok, first test with my Substance Painter learning.

It's... something. I'm going to change a lot. But it does serve to show that it's all about the maps.

Shader is pretty much the same as I had for Anuli. (again, don't mind the extra connections, they're going to the Firefly nodes)

I'm going to tamper with the actual colors of the skin to add more variation, change the bump in the lips area to be less just-painted, and mask out the edges of the eyelids from the subsurface so they don't glow red anymore. But tomorrow. Bed time for me.

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 12:51AM Tue, 26 January 2021 - #4411078

Ok, first test with my Substance Painter learning.

It's... something. I'm going to change a lot. But it does serve to show that it's all about the maps.

Shader is pretty much the same as I had for Anuli. (again, don't mind the extra connections, they're going to the Firefly nodes)

I'm going to tamper with the actual colors of the skin to add more variation, change the bump in the lips area to be less just-painted, and mask out the edges of the eyelids from the subsurface so they don't glow red anymore. But tomorrow. Bed time for me.

Looks really good. Indeed , maps, good maps are essential for Photo realism.

I appreciate the vigor with which you're going about this.

Great! But obviously you still have a long way to go.

Maybe you should take a look at the new Genesis 8.1 on the DAZ website - so you know what you're competing with. DAZ is using Texturing.xyz textures for the new standard model.

I'm switching to DAZ because of Genesis 8.1 now after almost 20 years of Poser (and with me some small companies I still do work for; Blender was a bit too heavy for them).

It hurts my heart to have to say this: The Poser universe is at least 10 years behind everyone else.

adp001 posted at 9:59AM Tue, 26 January 2021 - #4411108

I appreciate the vigor with which you're going about this.

Great! But obviously you still have a long way to go.

Maybe you should take a look at the new Genesis 8.1 on the DAZ website - so you know what you're competing with. DAZ is using Texturing.xyz textures for the new standard model.

I'm switching to DAZ because of Genesis 8.1 now after almost 20 years of Poser (and with me some small companies I still do work for; Blender was a bit too heavy for them).

It hurts my heart to have to say this: The Poser universe is at least 10 years behind everyone else.

I saw that - and about Texturing.xyz... well, DAZ can afford it, I can't (and neither can any single Poser creator LMAO)

Poser is behind, yes, we've talked about this in this discussion already. It stayed in the limbo for years with Smith Micro. And with the constant changing of hands while still holding on to ancient tech (hello, dynamics from back in Poser 5 whose creator company doesn't exist anymore!).

I still don't like the way DS works, and how unfriendly it is to tired eyes (even though that doesn't apply to me). I still absolutely dislike DAZ3d as a company. I am making some things for DS as long as they keep things easy to convert from Poser. But I'll keep doing what I can to help Poser get back on track - sadly, not much, as I'm not a programmer/software maker. But hey, I can create pretty stuff :P

I wish you luck with DS though. It is a good program. Just not my favorite.

I have to disagree with some of the opinions here. texture and bump maps need to be made from photographs of real skin. If not, then your figure will look painterly or like a doll instead of a person. I can tell right away when I see hand painted skin. If your goal is a painterly look then that is fine, just don't expect photorealism out of it. Those disembodied heads all have textures derived from photos of the person that was digitally scanned for the mesh if I'm not mistaken. I use this texture from Maelwenn all the time with different eyebrows. This is a good example of a texture map from photos. Also, if you over-work a photo based texture in Photoshop it will start to look like plastic and ruin the effect.

@ghostship2: Looks like the bumpmap does not match the albedo (difuse) map.

And the lips look handpainted (but with a correct matching bumpmap) :)

x