Hi All,

Started work on a new texture package, and wanted to give you a little preview. This is Melody. I Plan on including lots of goodies in this one, and would like inputs for what people really want in a texture pack. My initial thoughts are to include several face morphs, like the one you see here, plus several eyes and some different body textures. I've read several posts which seem to indicate folks are tired of the same old thing. So, please give me you inputs, and I'll see what I can do to make you happy.

Thanks,
Spectre

What I want in a texture pack is TEXTURES. It's not enough to have different colors for the lips and eyes, but we need to include the eyebrows in that as well. It looks really weird to put red hair on a texture with black or blond eyebrows. Forget the MAT poses, forget the face morphs (those should go in morph packs, not texture packs), just give us textures that won't drive us insane trying to correct the eyebrow and eyelash colors to match the hair. Like this one, for instance, would look totally stupid as a blond,redhead or brunette. She has coal black eyebrows. So, she's only gonna look good with black hair. She's pretty, but she's limited. Kate

I agree Kate. I did exactly that with my Miranda package.. three eye brow and eye lash texture colors so that you can use almost any hair color and have it match. The easiest way to do it though is by using the upperbrows instead of painting directly on the head texture, but it doesn't seem that most people use the uppereyebrows. shrug Additional textures to add things like freckles would be nice too...

Good input! That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for :) You made some very good points too. As far as eye brows go, are you talking transparency, or actual eybrow textures? Would you have it so you can change the eyebrows just by using a MAT file rather than fooling with a transparency, or forget the MAT file and have a totally different head texture which has different brows? In that case the package size could get pretty hefty. The head texture above is over 2MB.... Spectre

I'm so glad you that you touched on the eyebrow trans, I'm presently working on a texture for Mike2 and I wanted to do that with him but I was a tiny bit confused as to how the actual texture for his face should be. Does it matter if the brows are on the head texture if there is a transmap included or does the brow area have to be blank on the head texture. Sorry for changing the subject. To back get back to the original question, I have to agree with some of the other opinions as well, a variety in texture - light, dark, freckles..... that would be great.

I think including head morphs would make the package more attractive. In fact, I think we are reaching the point where they are necessary to compete with all the very similar looking faces that have flooded the marketplace.

Eyebrow colors and pubic hair colors. Blue eyebrows blue pubic hair. Red eyebrows red pubic hair. Humma Humma Humma. - Gazzy

I love the make-up on this one. Very pretty.

What am I looking for in a texture package?

1. Multiple make-up styles, easily applied with MATs (day, evening styles at the least)
2. A nude version, blemishes and all
3. Changeable eyebrow/eyelash MATs (red, brown, black, blonde)
4. Skin tones (pale, medium, tan)
5. Eye colors (and possibly a choice as to whether to have glints painted on or not.. I am so limited in eye textures in Bryce because I get glints coming from all over..)

As for differences, those things that make a package stand out.. well, I wish I were a better texturer because I have tons of ideas. Many of these wouldn't be appropriate for this package, but here are some of my ideas that you might want to chew on..

1. Henna on hands/feet partial subdividing pose
2. Body glitter (chest, neck, cheeks, for example)
3. Lip art (check out covergirl.com.. it's this new weird thing that people do that looks kind of neat)
4. Scars. Everyone has at least one.. I have a cool one that splits my right eyebrow that I acquired when my brother smashed my head with a wooden operator telephone. ;)
5. Nail art

Oh, and I forgot one.. it would be kind of neat to see texture packages aimed at sci-fi or fantasy artists. A lot of them can be adapted to something other than a modern setting, but I think there is some great potential for more specific packages. For example, Vicki-warrior-babe, complete with a couple of tasteful battle scars and some wild make-up styles. ;)

This is great stuff :) I appreciate the inputs. I have to agree with ronknights. I love MAT poses. They make everything so much easier to work with IMHO. I think I can do MAT files to change just the eyebrows. This is a quick test of that theory. As you can tell, the brow on the left is a totally different brow from the right. Even though it's not perfect, a little Cut and Past in Photoshop, some cloning and touch up, with an eybrow only template saved as an image applied through a MAT file may just work :) You could not only have different color eyebrows, but different types as well.... Keep the inputs coming ! Spectre

For me, the best way I could think of to do the eyebrow change would be the same way some people did the eye color change in the beginning. The map would be totally blank except for the iris. why couldn't you just do the same thing with the eyebrows since they would only load that section of the map anyway. That would pretty much eliminate the map file size issue. And if you're going to use the upper brow maps, then I would suggest making a smooth, browless area on the face itself to avoid that heavy overdone look. As for the MAT file thing, it's much faster and easier for me to just go into the material editor and apply the map to the specific area. Since I installed win98 on this thing it takes me forever to scroll down that stupid, idiotic ONE LOUSY FREAKING COLUMN. I miss my old three column wide, click on the one you want in an instant drop down that I had with 95. sigh

Kate, that's basically what I'm was talking about doing. I'd leave the initial head texture without any brows, and create my own eyebrow template (actually it would be most of the forehead with eyebrows on it) image to load. If you didn't want to use a MAT pose, the image would still be available through the material editor so you could set both the eyebrows and upper eyebrows to it. I'm not sure the blending would work your way, or how realistic it would look, but I think I'll try it to see. Certainly makes sense to me and would be a whole lot easier :) Thanks, Spectre

Okay...my interest is peaked! I bought your Laura and I just love her!

I love the eyebrow changing MAT files. Ohhh..that would be sooooo nice. (I will mention that I once created a freebie texture with blonde eyebrows and was told that she would be perfect if I had just darkened her eyebrows. heehee)

MAT files are a must for me if I am going to buy a texture set. I'm lazy as hell.

I also like the idea of having the option to use the highlights in the eyes. I do alot of lighting work only to have it blown because the highlights on my models eyes are in complete contrast with the lights. Noone ever notices but me....but anyway...

The thing that I like most about Laura is her lips. The lips on this texture are getting my attention also. My problem with lip textures is that every texture set I have with multiple lip colors only has 1 or 2 shades that I would ever think about using. Alot of light pinks and semi-light pinkishes. How about some DARK lips. Some deep mauves? Some dark browns? Just darker for when she decides to step out for the evening. No woman in her right mind wears light lip color at a nightclub. LOL!

Skin discolorations and skin defects. Not to the point that she looks like a war veteran or a spotted dalmation...but a beauty mark or two on her face wouldn't hurt.

I know I can do this myself in Photoshop...but like I said. I'm lazy...and I do enough postwork as it is without having to fix the texture in pre-work. (Which I do...but would love to have done for me.)

Give me awhile...I'll come up with some more. Once again...LOVE LAURA! Thanks!

I am all with Kieraw, niche textures would be kewl. Sci-fi battle maiden with scars and rank tatto's. Warrior maiden with old wounds. Crazy! I mean CRAZY makeup. Why don't I do this myself? I try but why take the time when a professional can do it! It is sorta like changing your car oil. You can do it. But it takes alot longer then Jiffy Lubes 10 min oil change. MAT poses rule. Altho I hope in Poser 5 there is a different section for MAT poses but that is a different thread all together. IMHO I really like the makeup on this one. Melody that is. Another thing I would say is (and this is just me as a buyer) how do the nipples look on VV2? Ramble Ramble ramble... - Gazzy

You know I just thought of that. If I were a vendor of textures I would show it on the most popular vicki varients, in addition to plain old regular vicki out of the box vicki. Like say for image 3 it would be VV2 and SMMV and umm... Well those are the only two varients I can think of... right now...

Sci-fi battle maiden with scars and rank tatto's. Warrior maiden with old wounds. Crazy! I mean CRAZY makeup. I vote for that too!! LOL!

Please include a a MAT with no eyebrows on the headtexture. This way I could use the upper eyebrows to give her a different eyebrow shape.

Keep putting MAT Poses in your packages.

oh no....where is that credit card....great, I will have to have this too. Sharen

I would love some "wild" head textures too, something fantasy-like, like for example a very pale texture with very dark lips and eyeshadows and stuff like that. Something different. The kinda stuff samildanach's Lil set has. :-) Also kieraw's suggestions were excellent.

Really lovely looking lady, spectre. Subtle... Id say keep the base textures as light as possible and use MAT files to create darker tones changing just the skin colors. I havent tested this myself yet, but i think basic light greytones for the irises and MAT files for the colors will work too. And I think that freckles and other natures mishaps on a face gives it extra charme. Maybe a 2nd texture or a layered PSD? A lot of beautiful faces are beautiful BECAUSE they are not flawless... Maxx :-)

keiraw's suggestions are very cool, I was going to say most as well-great minds? g really good suggestions, imho. I love the makeup on this texture. One variant that I have never seen (and tried to accomplish at home w/laughable outcomes) is a Vicky with quarter sleeves, half sleeves-or best yet sleeves. I love textures with tribals on the low back, but as a tattooed girl-would love to see more, and faded sleeves!

My texturing needs: A no make-up option (not as important for Mike.) ;-) Multple colors for eyebrows. I have some physically blond characters - naturally blond characters - and the dark eyebrows make the hair look like a dye job. Clean shaven and full beard texture pack. (Not so important for Vicki.) ;-) Scars, blemishes, etc. are an interesting idea, but I don't want to be locked into having a scar where the texturer wants it. As an extra, it would be a good idea. You might want to put in lots of blemishes so the purchaser can copy/paste in the ones they want and leave the rest behind. cwshorty - is that Mike texture a blond one? I am desperately looking for a blond Mike with a goatee! (Of course if there is a clean shaven and a full beard texture, I can split the difference in Photoshop.)

I am glad people like some of my ideas. It means that I am not on crack, and that there is a still a TON of stuff that could be done in the texture market. =) Overall, I think that there are a ton of well-done all-purpose textures. Now is the time to look into being innovative and daring. Spectre is a great person to try this because the textures already in the marketplace are such a bargain in terms of quality vs. cost. It just might be worth it to do some really different things on a $5 - $8 texture just to see what the reaction is. =)

Thanks everyone for you inputs ! You have given me some really great ideas to go on. I think I can handle the different makeups(no makeup,fantasy,sci-fi,warrior) skin tones, tattoos, lips, eyes, face morphs, scars (yikes !), eyes ( glint and no glint) etc. The toughest part to deal with would be different eybrows without using a preset transparency and only a MAT file. The Image above shows what I've come up with to solve this. Original texture is on the top left. The top right is a modified (browless) original texture with an 88K file size brow template applied. This could be made available through a MAT pose, or the material editor. Bottom image is Vicky with the template applied. Erasing the brows screwed up te original texture, and I it left some nasty artifacts. I think if this template were used on a clean texture, it would work as advertised. You could have brows in different positions, color, and type. Would this type of brow thing work better for you? BTW, with a browless head texture, you could still use your favorite brow transparency :)

Spectre

I think you're right on the money, Spectre. And I agree that it would be best to do this on a clean texture to avoid the artifacts. Yippeeee! :) Changing eyebrows. I am definitely gonna have to get this one when it's ready.

I did look at the first picture again. Normally I don't like painted woman, but I really love her eye shadow. ;) One more thing, can we have a no gloss option for the lips? I usually do my final render in Cinema 4D and can make my own gloss, if I want to.

browless is definitely a cool option, because you could really get into incorporating different things, such as nfredman's real grrls package of characters with their distinct eyebrow transparencies.

Thanks Kate :) Now to clean up the original texture....

mi-scha, Sure, I can do a no gloss lip option :)

To all,

I think Melody will be joint project with mizzthangg. So far, I plan to throw in the changing eyebrow texture thingy, some different eyes, lip colors, and some modified body textures ( not sure if we'll be doing different tones or something like tattoos, both, etc.) Plus a pretty good selection of awesome face morphs from mizzthangg for character variety. I just can't make myself scar up that little cutie :)

Thank you so much for your inputs ! I'll surely incorporate many of them in future texture packs. Even scars and blue hair (Yikes !!) :)

Spectre