mathman opened this issue on Jul 14, 2003 ยท 23 posts
mathman posted Mon, 14 July 2003 at 7:45 PM
I am just wondering if anyone has some good tips for achieving an ultra-realistic effect when rendering a person's head ? An example of truly realistic renders (in my opinion) would be some of Syyd Raven's promotional images at the RuntimeDNA store. Some of things that detract from realism in the images that I create are : * Glassy eyes; * Glow emanating from mouth and nostrils; * Stiff, plastic-looking smiles (as opposed to, say, DAZ's freebie smile pose, which looks truly natural in the promo); * Teeth that are too perfect (even dentures don't look that fake); * Unable to get right combination of lights; * Camera positioning. Any feedback would be appreciated. thanks, Andrew
PheonixRising posted Mon, 14 July 2003 at 10:52 PM
-Anton, creator of
ApolloMaximus: 32,000+ downloads
since 3-13-07
"Conviction without truth is denial; Denial in the
face of truth is concealment."
PheonixRising posted Mon, 14 July 2003 at 11:00 PM
-Anton, creator of
ApolloMaximus: 32,000+ downloads
since 3-13-07
"Conviction without truth is denial; Denial in the
face of truth is concealment."
PheonixRising posted Mon, 14 July 2003 at 11:01 PM
ps: hope you care read through all the typos. :)
-Anton, creator of
ApolloMaximus: 32,000+ downloads
since 3-13-07
"Conviction without truth is denial; Denial in the
face of truth is concealment."
PheonixRising posted Mon, 14 July 2003 at 11:43 PM
-Anton, creator of
ApolloMaximus: 32,000+ downloads
since 3-13-07
"Conviction without truth is denial; Denial in the
face of truth is concealment."
Niles posted Mon, 14 July 2003 at 11:44 PM
Catharina Przezak has posted some very nice renders in the past few weeks, go check her gallery. Maybe she can give you tips.
stewer posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 1:04 AM
Attached Link: http://www.keindesign.de/stefan/poser/
A subtle depth of field effect is also a good source of realism, as there is no real camera that does not show that effect. Keep the focus on the eyes. For realistic eye reflections, I'd recommend using environment mapping. For lighting, get a book on photography. To avoid glowing nostrils, you can try a) increasing shadow map size b) lowering min shadow bias c) switching to raytraced shadows. See the Poser section of my website for a few rendering tips and a tutorial on depth of field.jarm posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 1:49 AM
marco-xxx posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 3:36 AM
Do you think are more realistic shadows maps or raytraced shadows? Raytraced shadows appear more fast
mathman posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 6:30 AM
Thanks, everyone. In particular, thanks PhoenixRising - you have gone to a lot of trouble to give me plenty of food for thought. Hopefully, I will be able to produce some results shortly ... BTW, Niles - I've been in touch with Catharina, and joined the Mec4D forum....
SWAMP posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 10:13 AM
Thanks,Anton...as always,your very generous with shareing your knowledge with us. Jody,that's a really nice image...good job. For the glowing nostrils,useally a small amount of postwork has fixed that for me.In extreme cases,Travler has a set of morphs(free RNDA),one of which completely close the nostril,which I then paint back in.(Note:Vicky3 doesn't seem to have the noseglow problem) SWAMP
ziggie posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 10:46 AM
jarm: to be perfectly honest... your render is one of very few where my first reaction has been... 'that can't be a render'... and where I have had to look closer to convince myself that it is not a photograph. I think it is a wonderful render. ziggie
"You don't have to be mad to use Poser... but it helps"
jarm posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 10:58 AM
The elbows give it away :-) But yes, I was very, very, very pleased with that one. Best wishes Jody
praxis22 posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 11:46 AM
Yeah, Don't try... Seriously, you will ultimately get to a point like I did with sculpture where you realise that they will never breathe.... Though having said that I once saw a bronze decco bust that had a skin patina, amazing bit of work, but a bit too expensive to take home :( But then again, sometimes the journey is it's own reward... But yeah, Global lighting, (you'll find some in freestuff by ZrincX) dail the camera out, add a little grain to the image in post, real images are rarely pin sharp. later jb
varianie posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 2:14 PM
Attached Link: http://www.morphworld30.com/
Here you can find a free no glow nostril props for V2, Michael and Stephanie. They are smart props, but they also come with some dials to place them exactly where you want. I found them very useful when i was using V2! Hope it helps :)varianie posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 2:21 PM
oh, i forgot! To achieve more realistic smiles I use "smile right", "smile left" and "frown" morphs. Smiles are not completly simetric, so using "smile right" and "smile left" for "unbalancing" them achieves a more realistic look. I use frown with negative values, so lips corners turn up a bit. Good luck ;)
ronstuff posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 4:20 PM
mathman posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 7:51 PM
Excuse my ignorance, but what is "complex global lighting" ?
dialyn posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 8:46 PM
Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/tut.ez?Form.ViewPages=155&PageAction=View&Page=6
SnowSultan explains all about lighting. See link. Personally I'm one of the minority who think ultra-realism is over rated. If you want ultra-realism, then take photographs, is the common argument and I see much rationale in that. It makes no sense to me that people want to do fairies and then complain that they don't look realistic. Why should they? What's wrong with the fantastic looking fantastical? Poser lets us go beyond reality...that's much more the point for me. But I'm always out of step. I've even gotten used to it.mathman posted Tue, 15 July 2003 at 10:27 PM
Yes, I agree. Its good to know how to achieve ultra-realism, and I've learnt a lot over the last 24 hours. I also was trying to find ways of getting away from the glassy eyes, fake grin, and perfect teeth look - so that the subject of the render has some genuine humanity and warmth. This is where I think that Syyd Raven's images really look good, in that her images don't look 100% photographic, but she captures real authenticity and warmth in her characters. Thanks again to all who have helped me. I have learnt a helluva lot through this thread :)
thip posted Wed, 16 July 2003 at 12:48 PM
praxis22 posted Wed, 16 July 2003 at 1:46 PM
Ait it wierd haw some charcters seem to have DNA, I looked at the above image and thought "Zrincx" Nice shot. later jb
bloodsong posted Wed, 16 July 2003 at 4:43 PM
heyas; anton (and other shadow mavens): how do you get shadows to work well with hair? even using big maps (4096), i get blocky or checkered shadows with kozaburo's hair. for the glowing nostril/teeth/tongue/etc: first, make the nostril material base colour a dark black-brown. i also make the inner mouth bits non-white colours. for example, i make the teeth base colour a pale yellow-white. (about in the 25% black value; ie: the top 1/4 of the value column.) the tongue and inner mouth material i use a pale pink-grey or just grey. the darker base colour keeps those materials from shining too much when light hits them. you can darken them up to suit your scene by adjusting those colours.