I just realized that if I made a mask for the Metallic plug-in on the PBSDF I could make shiny, metallic eye shadow. The mask would be mostly black with some 128 grey for the lips and eye shadow regions.

Yeah, it works on M4 too:

Does someone recognizes this character (started its career in 2004) 

I've updated their skin, those deserve it as well, as I'm using them as naughty dwarfs, as they make a joyful mess in the daily life of some humans (pure fantasy on da) 

Is that "The Girl"  Those boobs are hilarious!  Like two balloons! 

Is that "The Girl"  Those boobs are hilarious!  Like two balloons!

Indeed 

Balloon boobs are perfectly normal for naughty dwarves. They have no wings, so how else you think they can fly? 😋

You mean sink.  They are built in floatation devices!  LOL 

The gvmt has them categorized as UAP's now.

"flotation devices"  "UAP's"

Y-Phil posted at 1:27 PM Mon, 24 April 2023 - #4463258

I won't blame your shader Ghostship2 - lol - I would rather blame the user (me): the blonde hair looks better than the dark one.
But I  just found now that the dark one didn't had enough differences, I've used one with more subtilties in it as well as increased the effect of the sheen (slightly brighter)

On newer hair I haven't seen that. It probably has to do with the way the hair is UV mapped. Since the older models typically had lower resolution maps they may doing things differently to make them work.

Y-Phil posted at 1:27 PM Mon, 24 April 2023 - #4463258

I won't blame your shader Ghostship2 - lol - I would rather blame the user (me): the blonde hair looks better than the dark one.
But I  just found now that the dark one didn't had enough differences, I've used one with more subtilties in it as well as increased the effect of the sheen (slightly brighter)

Sometimes especially on older hair, I find the maps included in Ghostship's hair are too fine. If you replace the maps with something that has more contrast and thicker lines it may work better. Use the rest of the existing node arrangement as Ghostship has it. Just make sure you use a map that does not have highlights baked in.

On newer hair I haven't seen that. It probably has to do with the way the hair is UV mapped. Since the older models typically had lower resolution maps they may doing things differently to make them work.

Take into account, older hair was subjected to many Poser 'hackery' to make them look decent.  Baked-in specular/highlights, generating bump/displacement maps with math nodes from the original Diffuse texture, and active ambient channels were some of the techniques employed in the material room.  Shortcuts to simplify the production process and get it to market quickly.  

I do agree, there are significant differences between lighter-color and darker-color hair.  Darker hair requires more detail, and the contrast should be exaggerated so that you see a difference between the strands.  You either use math in the Material Room to accomplish this or take the maps to a third-party program for more manipulation.

hborre posted at 5:35 PM Mon, 1 May 2023 - #4463976

Take into account, older hair was subjected to many Poser 'hackery' to make them look decent.  Baked-in specular/highlights, generating bump/displacement maps with math nodes from the original Diffuse texture, and active ambient channels were some of the techniques employed in the material room.  Shortcuts to simplify the production process and get it to market quickly.  

I do agree, there are significant differences between lighter-color and darker-color hair.  Darker hair requires more detail, and the contrast should be exaggerated so that you see a difference between the strands.  You either use math in the Material Room to accomplish this or take the maps to a third-party program for more manipulation.

@hborre

the lines get harder to see when you subdivide the mesh. I have seen these lines before with the shader in mu store. The lines go away or get harder to see when you subdivide.

Those lines actually disappear when Unimesh is activated without applying the subdivision depending on the model.

@thoennes that would be this https://www.renderosity.com/marketplace/products/99725/sabby-sisters-kimmi-kyrsi

I modified the face maps in Photoshop so it looks a bit different than the default character. Yes, using my eye shader.

hborre posted at 9:03 AM Wed, 3 May 2023 - #4464120

Those lines actually disappear when Unimesh is activated without applying the subdivision depending on the model.

From what I recall, the "unimesh" in Poser is a sort of hack to allow subd to work at all.  Not sure what they're doing but just giving it a quick thinking... it can't be easy :)

Thank you for your excellent tutorial on using the Cycles PBSDF shader!  I have been using SnarlyGribbly's EzSkin to convert "legacy" (i.e. ancient) textures to Superfly.  The results are OK but the PBSDF shader gives much better results.  
Something you haven't mentioned is vascular maps.  EzSkin ignores vascular maps when converting shader trees to Superfly, and trying to connect a vascular map to the displacement input of the Physical Surface Node doesn't produce very realistic results.  
Vascular or vein maps have been discussed elsewhere in the Renderosity Forums, but I want to show how they can be easily added to Ghostship2's Cycles shader tree.  
1. Open the vascular map in a standard image_map node, using a gamma of 1.0.  
2. Open a Cycles Mix shader (Cycles>Color>Mix) and connect the Color output of the image_map to Color1 on the Mix shader.  Set Color2 to BLACK.  
3. Blend Type should be set to Mix.
4. Connect the Color output of the Mix shader to Displacement on the root CyclesSurface node.  
5. The strength of the vascular effect is determined by the Fac parameter in the Mix node.  Fac = 0 corresponds to the maximum vascularity and Fac = 1 to no vascularity.  I have found that a value of 0.7 or 0.8 looks pretty good, but this is a matter of taste and the subject matter (eg pumped body builders).  

YESSS!! Bless you! I have been trying to hack those for ages... saving this for posterity and trying out tonight.

Thank you for your generosity in sharing this!!

@oz_tangles you'll probably want to set subdivision fairly high for good results.

Thank you so much. I used to have an old Vascularity pack for Vic4, and even though I managed to have the vein appearing on Vic4's skin, I was missing the displacement.
So using this:

I have this:

Awesome 🤩

As ghostship2 points out, you may need to subdivide the figure's mesh to improve the appearance of the vascularity.

On something completely different, male genitalia are usually an add-on to most figures.  When using the PBSDF node for a gens figure I found that there was an objectionable  seam between the genital figure and the hip of the parent figure.  The textures for male gens usually include a transparency map which blends the boundary so it matches the texture of the parent.  PBDSF doesn't have a transparency input, but it does have an alpha channel input, but connecting the trans map to the alpha channel didn't work.  RTFM!!  The Poser documentation states that you must use the Cycles image map, not the Poser image map!  This node can be found at Cycles>Texture>Image Texture.  When the transmap is opened in Image Texture node and connected to the alpha input, it works perfectly.

@oz_tangles Use a mix closure with one side going to your PBSDF and the other going to a transparency shader. This will be driven by your transparency map. The collision lines can be mitigated by using a different SSS group number on each PBSDF node (down near the bottom of the shader)

POSER 12 and 13 SSS

Is SSS not functioning in POSER 13?

The SSS material that is working in POSER12 is not working in POSER13.

I do not know where it is wrong.

Can someone please advise?

Material used in this case.

Rendering in POSER12.

Rendering with POSER13.

Change the SSS Method to Random walk fixed radius on the PrincipledBsdf at the bottom.  Also, your surface value is too high; start the value at 0.01.

@oz_tangles Here is what that setup and render would look like

Change the SSS Method to Random walk fixed radius on the PrincipledBsdf at the bottom.  Also, your surface value is too high; start the value at 0.01.

@oz_tangles Use a mix closure with one side going to your PBSDF and the other going to a transparency shader. This will be driven by your transparency map. The collision lines can be mitigated by using a different SSS group number on each PBSDF node (down near the bottom of the shader)

Thanks!  Again, I should have read the Poser Manual as it has a section on "Connecting the Nodes for the Transparent Materials."

I cannot seem to get the wonderful ear glow I'm looking for that you all have ... I'm sing ghostship's original settings.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I am guessing it is the lighting.  what lights did you all use and position?  Gotta go.  I'll work on this tomorrow.,

@Boni

It also matters what figure you are using. V4 has a proper modeled ear others may not. It matters how thick the ear is and in what places. You can use the light set that I made for P13 that comes with the program. LIBRARY/LIGHTS/Included/Basic Lights

Under normal environmental conditions, you typically won't notice the SSS through the thinner skin layers.  Position your lighting from behind and have it at a higher intensity.  If SSS is correctly set up, you will see a difference.  However, it is mesh depend; if the figure is too large or the mesh too thick, settings need to be adjusted accordingly to see an affect. 

Cross post.

Hey Boni.  From my understanding if you are using La'Femme or L'Homme there lies the problem.  Hopefully LF and LH 2 will have this corrected!

I was using V4, and had a setting off ... Now working great. As for LF/LH.  Found a set of SSS maps and setting to go with Ghostship's free SSS mat shader from ShareCG. Will post images tomorrow.

If it's LF or LH, go ahead and grab my ear tweaks from the freestuff area: https://www.renderosity.com/freestuff/items/83156/detail-ears-morph-for-la-femme

Their default ear shape isn't really realistic, is thicker than it should, so SSS doesn't go through well.

Ohki, hi my friend. I will grab that tomorrow as well. Thank you.

Ohki, hi my friend. I will grab that tomorrow as well. Thank you.

Took me a while to get this the way I wanted it.  Ohki's ear morphs ... The modified Ghostship shader and subtle but effective I think.  How's it by you?

ghostship2 posted at 5:56 PM Mon, 15 May 2023 - #4465433

@Boni

It also matters what figure you are using. V4 has a proper modeled ear others may not. It matters how thick the ear is and in what places. You can use the light set that I made for P13 that comes with the program. LIBRARY/LIGHTS/Included/Basic Lights

Any clue which content pack those lights might be in?

I didn't download the older stuff since I already have numerous copies of it, but I did get everything tagged P13.

Really cool picture, Boni 

ghostship2 posted at 5:56 PM Mon, 15 May 2023 - #4465433

@Boni

It also matters what figure you are using. V4 has a proper modeled ear others may not. It matters how thick the ear is and in what places. You can use the light set that I made for P13 that comes with the program. LIBRARY/LIGHTS/Included/Basic Lights

I don't have a directory called "basic lights" in my P13 included content.

Any clue which content pack those lights might be in?

I didn't download the older stuff since I already have numerous copies of it, but I did get everything tagged P13.

@AmbientShade

Ok, it showed up after I re-installed core content.

Weird.

Thanks tho.

Y-Phil had a valid point about the eyebrows being to diffuse and not saturated enough. I think I've come up with a solution. The invert and Brightness/contrast nodes exclude/modulate the roughness for the eyebrows. Have a look

Thank you Ghost!

Thank you Ghost!

 If the "Basic Lights" content isn't in the "Included" or "Core Content" sections that you've downloaded, it might be worth checking if there are additional content packs available, either from the same source where you obtained the "core content" and "humans-other," or from third-party vendors. You might consider looking through the official Poser forums or community websites for more information, as fellow users might have insights into where to find this specific lighting set or whether it's available as an additional download.

At this point a thank you to all who have written here. This is a lot of useful and helpful information. That's why it would be very useful to pin this thread.

With best regards

Looks really nice Bastep!