I need your help...

I'm currently creating a huge scene, and I have problems with the skin texture of imported POSER 4 models. I've included an image with the 5 models only (they are actually on a bridge and there will be a castle in the background).

My skin materials look perfect in POSER, but when I load the pz3 files in VUE they look totally different. Some details (spots, scars,...) even disappear.

the mapped pictures (P4 woman texture.tif, PaleGal.jpg, and custom made textures) are correctly imported and the scale is right. I really don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I have also problems adjusting the highlights and the bump production (it's either too bumpy or not enough !).

As you can see it on the image, the skin of all the female warriors are similar : flat, homogeneous and "life-less".

Some of you (Laurent, Guitta, Laurie, and the others) are doing it perfectly. What's the trick ?

Thanks for any help.

Eric

Wow I love their costumes....can't wait to see the completed version. Where did you get their costumes. Sharen

I really don't know what I'm doing special. I just add shadowless lights (spots or point) to the figures. You say I (and the others) do it perfectly, I don't think so for myself. I'm very unsatisfied with the light features in Vue and never can get what I want. To change the bump production, just play around with the bump filters and the gain size. As Vue doesn't recognice *.bum files, you have to convert them into jpg (just rename it) and add it by hand in Vue. I think the scares and spots are bum's in Poser. Not very helpful, but maybe someone else... The costumes looks great. Guitta

I do the same thing Guitta does. Sharen

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=488375

Check out this link on global 3-point lighting.

Eric, I can't remember if you already have it, but if you don't, be sure to get the 4.03 patch. There was a problem in the early v.4 related to Poser models and light/shadow effects on them. And good luck, looks like it will be a cool image when done! :)

This how the model is rendered in POSER and VUE. It's exactly the same character, the only difference is the materials used for the armor. I don't even recognize the model !!! VARIAN : I have the update patch... SITTINGBLUE : I'll check the topic, thanks. GUITTA : you are doing it "perfectly" compared to me... SHAREN : the costumes are mixtures of various clothing figures and props I found (free) on the internet : Lourdes Mercato (www.cg-fantasy.com) AwfullSoul (www.aerysense.com) John Malis (www.3dcc.com/posergamers) Charles Taylor (www.nerd3D.net) Joat Mom (http://home.att.net/~pmorris57/) and the poser free stuff section here at renderosity. Eric

Okay, this comparison image makes me think the differences are entirely due to the lighting. The Poser rendering has a stronger ambiance, and at least one (maybe more) fill lights on the model at various angles, most likely in shades of gray to white. The Vue rendering has lesser ambiance (creating deeper shadows) and apparently only a single light source (at a high angle) with a strong yellow tint.

heyas; if you're using an ambient colour that is not black (such as dark brown for the skin) on any poser materials, that won't translate into vue. in vue, to get that effect, you need to turn up the material's ambient lighting percent. don't turn it up too much, or things will really glow. if you're using vue 4, check the colour of the material. vue 4 will mix it with the obj base colour from poser (if you're using something besides white). you may need to turn that down, or off. or turn on/off the 'colour mask' option with it.

kTo get better lighting in Vue, I found that I have to play a lot with atmosphere settings (exposure especially) and add multiple lights around the models. Multiple shadowless lights create a limited global illumination. If you also add lights with shadows, you can adjust the ambiance of the scene a lot better. A default lighting in Vue is barely just a beginning... :)

Here is a quick example of the importance of lights and exposure in Vue. The top image has been rendered with a default volumetric atmosphere. The bottom one is using the same atmosphere but a much darker exposure and a lot more lights around the scene.

And this is a quick shot of the additional lights. Only the spotlights have shadows. So.... convinced ? :)

WOW ! this is what I call support ! Here is an another attempt... As Varian noticed it correctly, The atmosphere was the main problem : a too strong sunlight in a dark exposure global lightning. Changing the setting of the atmosphere enhanced the aspect of the skin texture a lot. Usually I give to my scenes very low amount of ambient light. Although this produces fantastic effects for landscapes, it's really inadequate for "human" models. A gentle uniform ambient light is, in most case, more effective. To keep the softness and the brightness of the skin reducing the shadow density of the sunlight (down to 60%) was also necessary. Bloodsong, the "color blend" in the material editor was indeed not correctly adjusted. The color was totally hiding the mapped skin picture. Agiel, your tip about highlighting the model with multiple spots and points lights is very useful. As they are visible, I won't be able to use point lights for models in the background. Nevertheless spot lights work perfectly. In this little test I used 4 of them with different colors. I'm totally convinced by this technique ! Thanks again. Now I have to work on the bump maps.... any idea how to create a realistic skin bump map ? Eric

Eric, you can make the point lights completely invisible but lighting. Just disable EVERY thing here. (I have disabled the "cast shadow too, this one depends of what you need, shodows or not). Guitta

Agiel, where did you get the cloth for the women in your image above ? Guitta

Laurent, I wanna know, too! They look great. :) Eric, great job! You're definitely "on the way" now. :)

To make a light invisible, just disable the 'lens flare' (first option on the left). About the clothes... The women in the background are P4 female characters, using a set of costumes from DAZ. I don't remember if they are sold with Poser or from a CD available at Daz store (clothes and props). Among other things, there is a long robe, a head veil and a face veil in that package. For the character in the foreground, I used the previously mentionned head veil (P4 fem fitted manually on top of vicky's head). Her face veil is the posable clothe strip, available I think in the free stuff. I can check later tonight where that one came from.

Thanks for the info! :)

yeah! tha's right, we bad, we bad! :)