I only have V4 Standard texture, and that surely looks toony/plastic to me, no matter what I do with the lighting....using P6.
Most of the renders I see at the sites look the same way.

Are there any realistic looking textures out there yet?
Those that can compete with Syyds V3 textures over at RDNA, Some of those by Stefania (SteffyZZ)...and similar?

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect......Chief Seattle, 1854

Pretty happy with the DAZ V4 high-rez materials.  Examples in my gallery.

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Most of those I see look to be painted textures ... heavily made up as to not show much surface blemishes, pores, and so forth. Yours, pjr99,  look better than most I've seen for sure. 
I left some comments.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect......Chief Seattle, 1854

Your comments are appreciated very much - it's a problem with almost all of the V4 skins out so far, they look pretty smooth and creamy and featureless, or they look like they're wearing a huge amount of makeup (at least to me).  There are none I've seen at all that have decent looking freckles either.

ps: none of those is postworked one bit (hadn't got around to learning that chunk of skills yet).

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Well, I only have a few skins, but I adore RawArt's Dacy May (Black/African American), no make-up either and at least has a natural "beaver" instead of neatly trimmed!
Probably not what you're looking for anyway.

Dave have you checked out DAZ store??  There are a couple of offerings that are quite nice there!

3D Celebrity �Genesis�

and

Emma for V4

are the two I am referring to!

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Quote - Well, I only have a few skins, but I adore RawArt's Dacy May (Black/African American), no make-up either and at least has a natural "beaver" instead of neatly trimmed!
Probably not what you're looking for anyway.

 

DEFINITELY what I was looking for, where can I get it?  Thanks in advance (going out in a minute so I won't be on to thank you later)

Emma is a good example of the "really intense makeup" category imho.

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Attached Link: RawART Store

---Wolff On The Prowl---

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I bought a beaver from Lynn's Vista Internet Products, so probably don't need that one :)

I have Genesis in my cart over at DAZ. She looks to be one of the best out so far. I'm hoping Syyd over at RDNA does something for V4.

The Emma V4 pre-release images looked really nice, but I'm looking for something more akin to Maskedit's work...or Syyd, SteffyZZ, Catherina Harders, stormi, etc etc...
give me a zit

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect......Chief Seattle, 1854

Thank you very much Ramwolff, Kimber, that is exactly what I was looking for - of the other African-American skins out there, they look pretty unpleasant across the bridge of the nose, too much acne effect for me.  Great tip, thanks!

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The Daz Hirez is no better than the medRez. I have both and I don't bother using the Hirez version. It seem that Daz has decided to convence everyone that 4000X4000 maps are better than 2048X2048. Shame, I had thought the Daz HiRez would be of quality as the one they did for V3.

I was really surprised at the mount of JPEG artifacts In one of the other sets I bought from there and no, I wont say which one it is. Just open all of your textures you bought at Daz and you will have no problem knowing which one I was talking about.  OK so I'm strange because the first thing I do when I unpack  new textere, I open it in one of my paint programs to see what I really bought.

IMO I have better textures that are smaller in size. I think it is still to soon for the really good ones yet. Look at how textures progress with all new version in the past.

I have ExpressionImage's Laurie which I think is a pretty good texture.

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CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE

I like the Hi-Res texture that came with V4 package. With the texture plugged into the bump map, and settings sufficiently high, I think you get a lot of character in the skin. Just my opinion.

::::: Opera :::::

Quote -
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE

I like the Hi-Res texture that came with V4 package. With the texture plugged into the bump map, and settings sufficiently high, I think you get a lot of character in the skin. Just my opinion.

::::: Opera :::::

Excellent! I have the high res texture also I'll have to give it a try.

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If you know how, you can edit the standard bump maps in photoshop to be of a higher quality, and
create different  colours for different ethnicities too. Make up isn't too hard to do, nor changing the eyebrows for that matter, if you work in layers.

LOL You're welcome pjz (even though I got the names mixed up it's Macy Day :lol:  D'OH), sorry I didn't have the link up, had to run out as well!

RAM, you're a sweetie for putting up the link! :D

Great idea ccotwist3D! More bang for the buck if you just edit the texture directly, add a zit here & there, adjust hue & whatnots!

Glad to be of help hon!

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outoftouch has a very nice one at PoserPro.

http://poserpros.daz3d.com/store/viewitem.php?selitem=10312&start=48&selcat=0&selsub=-1

I think both Bethany and Lily by rebelmommy are both very good. :D

Warmest Regards,

Dallas

The Laurie at Daz has a definite problem. Like 1/3 to 1/2 of the head is lighter than the rest so if you light it the wrong way you'll not be too happy. Also, it's rather reddish in tone.

I've been using Rhiannon's texture "JoJo" from PoserPros.  It has been doing great for me.  And I think the Genesis texture from Daz3D is great also.  I have them both, but I mostly work with JoJo.  You can see a render I did of her at www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php.  You can get her at poserpros.daz3d.com/store/viewitem.php.  (I hope it's ok to reference the site here.  I apologize if that is not allowed.)

Hope you find what your looking for.  Keep in mind too that it's not JUST the texture that counts.  It has to be lighted properly to get the best renders.

Best of luck!

I think JoJo is a gorgeous texture.  See my most recent gallery image for a sample. 

Jojo is a great material set also, yeah - I find the defaults a little bit too greasy (unless you want that) but it can be tweaked down a bit.

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I am searching the same.For now i use the one from Daz..I also think that the others are  too much plastic,too much toony or have too much make up. Laurie at Daz se3ems not bad but i still hesitate .I have very good ones for V3 but i think i must wait for a good realistic one for V4

You do know you can use the V4-V3 version of V4 and use your existing V3 maps....

Quote - You do know you can use the V4-V3 version of V4 and use your existing V3 maps....

 

Sorry Nebula but you can't...

The V4-V3 .cr2 is only body shape, the mesh & texture maps are completely different. You can use V3's clothes but you can't use body textures.

Really!  Wow, I do apologize then.  I'm most definatly wrong.  Thanks for clearing it up Kimber89!

:)

No problem Nebula :)
That's what most people complain about, not being able to use V3 textures on V4 or morphs for that matter lol.
As it stands, V3 uses three texture maps and V4 uses seven. :O

A Dacy skin example (my own morphing) Final render quality, no postwork.

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That render looks really good pjz!! 

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It's a boring pose but I was just checking out how the Dacy skin looks in high quality (imo excellent) - two tones are bundled with that character pack, I used the darker one.  Lots of character but not so much zits.

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DAZ High-rez V4 with some freckles and lightened tone...

holy crap that looks terrible reduced... click the image for the full effect.

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(Pssst pjz..it's Macey :lol: ) 

Nice!! Love the face structure!
My morph attempt with Macey Day:

Ew, you're right! Your Daz Hi-Res pic does look awful in preview but Wonderful in full view!!

Attached Link: Much larger image here.

I think Emma from DAZ is by far the most realistic texture I've seen. There's a much larger image at the above link. Coldrake

Attached Link: An Untoony V4

How's about this one?

Looks very good to me, although there's a bit too much blue in the hair (wasn't your point but I wanted to give you something besides "looks good!")

You did a lot better with Grace than I did, I couldn't get past the sort of warty look that skin seemed to have as I remember.

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*(Click for larger version...)*

It's not necessarily the texture, but how you handle it. Especially when you talk about things looking "toony/plastic". In the end, there is definitely a garbage in, garbage out' dynamic, but you really need to work the lighting, obviously, and do whatever you can to at leastfake' sub-surface scattering. A good specularity map handled properly can also go a long way. Also, the eyes are always the 1st dead give-away, so it's essential to get them right as well.

She's nowhere near complete, but this is a work-in-progress skin-test of mine using the DAZ hi-res maps. 2 lights. No post-production.

I wish I could tell you, "Oh, go here and click the Make Skin Look Real button", but, unfortunately, that's not how it works. (I wish it did!) It really is just a lot of trial, error, and repeat. Stick with it. You'll get it!

(Check my gallery to see a different angle, with different lighting, and `place-holder' hair...)

this is looking real nice...the translucency of the ear i like a lot.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect......Chief Seattle, 1854

Some people have applied "toony" to just the default V4 face morph, which may or may not be true, but is pretty meaningless and stupid (why would you just load the default morph and change nothing?) 

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Attached Link: here

Hi,I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the V4 wet-maps at DAZ3d. heres an image i did with them (though i changed the tone with a bit postworking). 

Up close the texture really looks good

The DAZ mats in general are great (imo of all the ones I've seen, they're my favorite).  Just that the wet maps are pretty specialized, that's all.

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The Daz maps are a bit disappointing. The screwy chest texture just looks bad and there is that leg texture that is just poor workmanship. Like they didn't do the seam right. The image is to show that I'm not kidding or just Daz bashing. What is even more sad, the hi-rez maps are the same as the med. maps just bigger in size.

There are more flaws if you look, these are a couple that stick out more. And look out if you use any good lighting, IBL/AO/HDRI, the flaws show up even worse. Don't know what Daz was thinking when they released this or maybe the rumours are true and Daz quality has dropped. I know I have not spent as much there as I use to and I have had to ask for a refund on a few things that I never had reason to do before in many years there.

I don't see what you're pointing out on the leg?

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There is a line, a bad seam, the two maps don't match/blend right. I may have compressed the image to much for a clear view. If you have the texture, load and look. Not hard to find.

With exception to Realism nodes and skin tones, I do NOT see how any 3rd party texture here does reinvent the character. Morphs yes, textures? Not much.

Good study of lighting, lots of experiments with mat nodes, at least one diffuse IBL and that essential Realism kit would do the default much more un-toony good than another texture. :) If you can't afford to make a specular map, careful processing in PS, preferbly a matte image, would yield roughly the same results, maybe even better.

In This Twilight- My FIRST public poser work in 2 years!
Also the reason why I endorse postwork (:D)

I really like Emma from DAZ, i think the texture looks very realistic, but i also like the face morph Maelwenn created for her

Quote -
but I'm looking for something more akin to Maskedit's work

Have you checked MaskEdit's store?
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=53592

Also RebelMommy's merchant resource at RDNA is very good

What we do in life, echoes in eternity.

E-mail | Renderosity Homepage | Renderosity Store | RDNA Store

i like the chest thing.  it looks like rib shadow.  i know it would be cooler to actually have rib ridges to cast real shadows from...shadowing like that is just too sims-ish.  but i still think it looks good.

emma will be my next purchase.

I like it too, but I admit it's very uncommon for a woman to have that degree of shadow right there on the breastbone.  I actually prefer it for my primary character, because she's very, very thin, but that's just me.  Most women don't have that kind of bone definition right there, there tends to be a little more subcutaneous fat.

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I find it looks wierd that the ribs are fused together and not joined with a breastbone.

I hadn't really noticed it too much myself because it tends to not show up quite like that in my renders, due to a shallow depression along the breastbone that my morph of V4 has (whether or not that is terribly realistic I can't say).

exempli gratia:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1364153&member

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Yes your morph helps hide it. I still shows up to me. That is something that should be banned, that and painted on highlights. That is still the leftover of P4 mentality. The problems show up more with the better lighting and renders.

Nice render by the way.

Thankee :biggrin:

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the-negative: i find quite the opposite.  if i'm doing a full body shot with clothes, then it doesn't matter so much.  but even from a distance, if you can see the body and it's a uniform color instead of natural variation, all sss, fake or otherwise, will do is make it look like another type of plastic or maybe wax.  i've just spent several hours over 2 weeks tweaking lighting and skin shaders on a simple scene just to see if i can get a decent match to a bg photograph (it's kind of hard since there's nothing to cast shadows in the photo).  that is, i spend a lot of time on light and skin materials.  i'm not systematic or sensible about it, or i'd be better, but i work at it.  i still find that if a texture doesn't have variation on the face to show softer and smoother skin around the eyes with more pores showing on the forehead and nose, it tends to look fake. same goes for the neck (variability of sss), arms and elbows (variation in tanning, and elbow wrinkles), legs and knees (paler on the upper inner thigh, darker wrinkled knees), and especially feet and hands.  and that's the large details, not the miscellaneous variations in color, scars, freckles,  and other marks that everyone has on their body.   

i can paint all those in after the fact, but it's a lot better if i'm just using a texture that already has all that.

vektor - i assume from your post that you'd prefer to keep your lighting and shader as trade secrets, but as someone who has tried (if mostly ineffectively) i have to ask if about them.  did you use ibl?  i know that i haven't been able to get the softness your images show in poser (it's no problem in d|s with pwSurface), but the closest i've come is accidentally with ibl lighting. if it's ibl, is there any special source "image?"   second, are you using the fastscatter node?  if you are, have you changed it somehow?  i've never seen it behave that well. 

hoping you share some of your technique...

Hmm, I didn't consider about full body details, since I'm much more of a potrait guy (no big boobs swaying around here).
Still, I despise how overwhelmingly obvious the "realism traits" are in quite some textures:  big freckles, big (scale and magnitude) displacement till the age of 45, and the lips. Maybe it's me again, but some improvements seem to bring the uncanny valley to the next level. Textures won't look convincing until the shader and lighting react like it does in real life (or those contrasted catwalks, who knows.)

Vektor's "Princess" images are more akin to what I'm mentioning (without the smaller spots and subtle freckles though). It might appear to be full of makeup and a "perfect" skin, but as far as dodging that "Poser/D|S" look, it suceeds, no doubt.

/Semi-OT. :D

In This Twilight- My FIRST public poser work in 2 years!
Also the reason why I endorse postwork (:D)

*(click for larger version...)*

CobaltDream, here's a shot of Princess' body using the same skin, same lighting, (even tho the lighting was only set up for her face,) same pose, etc. Granted it's not finished, let me know if you think it looks like plastic or wax.

Matching background plates is a completely different animal, and an art unto itself. In a way, that's why I do these skin-tests. Once I get the skin nailed-down in a controlled environment, I can put it in any scene, confident that I know that it will react to light correctly for the most part. Then it's just a matter of doing the lighting and maybe some slight tweaking. That way, if it's off, I know it's the lighting, not the skin, rather than chasing my tail. You tug something here, it pulls something over there, repeat, ad nauseum...
I feel it does help to be systematic about it. But, then, I'm anal-retentive, so that part of it comes naturally to me. 8op

All of the adjustments you mentioned, (variability of SSS around the neck, variation in tanning on arms, wrinkles on the elbow...) are all very valid details, and can be addressed fairly easily by customizing your own texture, bump, diffuse, and specularity maps, especially with nodes, and especially if you know what you're looking for and want, (which it sounds like you do).

And, no, I'm not one of `those guys'. I don't keep trade-secrets. I know how frustrating that can be, and I don't understand it. "I don't want anyone to be able to make renders as pretty as me!" That's ridiculous. That's not how I operate, or how I've been taught to operate. I go to 3D meetings every month with guys from Autodesk, Rhythm&Hues, you name it, where all we do is sit-around and share how stuff is achieved; our own as well as feature-film. Sorry. Off my soap-box.
Truth-be-told, I don't have any trade-secrets! All the stuff I'm doing seriously comes from just trial-&-error. Hell, I'll point you directly to the tutorial I used as a platform for these skin-tests - it's free on-line - but I hardly think it will answer all your questions. It's far from a "Make Skin Look Real" button. It's based on an alien, and my first render after going thru this tutorial looked like @$$.
I'm currently using mental ray. I didn't intially post in this topic to illustrate what skin could be achieved in Poser, specifically. I was just responding to the OP that the texture alone doesn't necessarily matter so much as what you're doing with it. I happen to be working with Victoria and the DAZ hi-res textures at the moment, so I decided to post to illustrate that point.
But please don't let that dissuade you: all of these principles are possible in Poser and D|S as well. I wish I had time to go do it in Poser and D|S, but I don't. I'm sorry. We've all seen it, tho. They're perfectly capable.

No, the lighting is not image-based, but I'm confident that the skin might look even better if I did use IBL, and I do plan on using IBL for the most part when I do start putting her in scenes. So if that's the case, why didn't I use IBL for the skin-tests? Wouldn't that make sense? No. Cuz, again, there's not enuf control with IBL.
All of these shots use 2 lights. 1 for general lighting, 1 `blown-out' light for hot-spot and translucency checking.
Remember that the "softness" that you're talking about can be a result of several different things, including the softness of the shadows, the quality of anti-aliasing, ambient-occlusion, and depth-of-field. (I'm not using the last 2 in mine yet, tho.) All of which can be adjusted in Poser. Keep in mind that SSS softens bump-maps as well. I'm sure the fast-scatter node is capable, but if it's easier for you to use pwSurface, (where, let's face it, as you mentioned, it's not a problem,) then do that.
I've also added a bit of reflectivity to her. No map. She's just reflecting the blue background right now. It can add a nice extra element, but you gotta be careful with it.

Take a look around. Find the people who are selling the products that sport realistic, no post-work renders, and purchase their product, especially the ones that include the lights and set-ups used in their renders. Take them apart, see what they did, and incorporate it into your own stuff.

I sure hope all this helps.

he!  that's so funny.  in the back of my head, i was thinking that it reminded me of "globulous."  that's the tutorial that i was trying to use to do stuff in d|s.    in d|s, pwSurface has a single sss layer and translucency.  at the time, this is best i could do for an asian skin shader (no tex, iirc- the eyebrows are transmapped).  which is not yet vaguely acceptable.  i figure i'll revisit it again when i actually have more stuff done.  2 spots- 1 backlight, 1 main light from above.   i think i'm going to find that first of all i should work with more light in the scene; i think i'm trying to use the material too much to make it lighter.  second of all, i think i'm going to find it best to have an sss map.  i don't know a thing about how that would work or how to make one, and i'm (unfortunately) not anal, or i'd be more methodical.  and actually figure some stuff out.  as it is, i'll flail around until i achieve something or other. ;D

i've been thinking about the reflection technique,  based on that tutorial.  i've never tried it though.  i can see why it would be useful. 

no, i don't know of anyone who's done anything like what you have in poser or d|s.  the only place i've seen "soft" edges even vaguely akin to that is in the promotionals of an hdri light set for poser 7.   in default poser, there's only a really faulty and bad version of the backside sss (see many posts on the topic, especially bagginsbill's- he suggests avoiding the fastscatter node).  the translucency node also works incorrectly and strangely (see rdna node cult forum). so in poser, sss needs faking with nodes.  while many have come up with wonderful and effective skin shaders,  absolutely none have achieved the soft translucent quality in that image.  i've seen bagginsbill get close to the pwSurface jade, but that looked opague compared to your skin.  basically, you can get photoreal that's very opague, but i've yet to see anyone achieve the soft translucence of light actually scattering inside skin (or stone, or plastic, or liquid).  i'm not even vaguely saying it's impossible.  it would just be a lot nicer if poser just implemented proper translucence and sss. 

and that tutorial showed me what i had always felt had been missing in the existing poser solutions: the epidermal scattering.  not all lit edges are overexposed.   a good example of the look effect i'm thinking of  is that "Globulus and friends" example, especially the top of his ear.  after the strong red of sss, that thin pale layer.  since i love light like i do, i'd love to use something that allowed me to combine those different layers of scattering.  but i'm sure i can do a lot more than i have with the tools i already know and use.

thing is, i haven't seen one person using poser or d|s accomplish what i want.  i've seen it in works done with higher powered 3d apps, but not with poser or d|s.  i've seen tons of solutions that amaze and astound me.  but none with the particular features i want.

on your work... i have to admit that as much as i love it, it does look more like a facsimile of skin to me, because of the lack of variation in tone, tanning, etc.  but that's just my preference.  thanks so much for sharing your knowledge- some people find asking about their techniques insulting and prefer you go through the same work they did.    i didn't want to offend you just in case. 

you've definitely helped.  i feel much better equipped to approach a pwSurface solution again.  in poser.... i just don't understand enough of the basic math involved with sss to even begin.