any thought on a setting or a way to turn down the "sheen" on the skin or the legs in particular.  To be honest, on the stomach there, it looks a little more like sweat, so it doesn't bother me as much

I've tried some different textures, and same result, so I figure it must ne a setting I am missing.

Looks like you're using a spotlight. Maybe angle it on the legs more? What lights are in the scene?

Its a point light that is only at 10% about 2 arms length away...there is a spot from the bottom right that is giving a little fill further away at 27%, and there is an IBL up and back that is really dark at 10%

It does look more like a lighting effect to me also.  If, indeed, it is a darker appearance, check the texture for consistency.

Yes. Some textures have darker legs and the tones are different. To double check, open the limbs and torso texture in photoshop to see if they are the same.

I think 3doutlaw has hit upon something that I have wanted to bring up for a while. With EZskin or BB's scatter/blinn shader, I am getting way too much specular on my figure. Most of the poserverse seems to be okay with this overly shiny look (the girl looks like she's been lathered with baby oil). I see the look in gallery images and in marketplace promos. I'm not happy with the look at all, but I don't know how to fix it. I have turned down the settings on the blinn node, but I still get the too shiny look. I'm wanting a drier skin look such as I see in Lux renders or Octane. I'm sure this can be done in Poser and I'm hoping some shader guru will come along and explain how to do it.

I always turn the specular down a little bit inside EZSkin. I think it's too shiny as well (as well as the scale on the SSS node being a bit too low).

Laurie

I use a scale of 1.6 or 1.7. There are parts of the EZskin shader I just don't get. Like why is there a subtract node on the texture strength of the scatter? I've spent sometimes hours on a texture mod and then the texture strength is subtracted? I also don't know how to put a specular map into this set up rather than using procedural specular.

Yea, I would agree. 

I dropped the specular to procedural 0.4, and a lot of it went away.  I am trying now again with none.  It works in some renders...in a dry, cold arid tomb...not so much, IMO.  That's probably why the settings are there though :tongue1:

It still has a different "color" cast to it.  I opened it and compared torso and leg textures, and the leg actually could be argued has a little more peach in it...so it must be a lighting effect, as mentioned.

In agreement with latexluv on the specularity.  I just ran a quick test with EZSkin and concentrated on the blinn settings to control the overall specularity.  By decreasing eccentricity, SpecularRollOff and Reflectivity, you can get the skin to respond to light as close to realistically as possible.  The problem with eccentricity values is, if set incorrectly, would make a light source appear closer than it actually should.  Outdoors, the sun should not cast such stark specular highlights; balancing the blinn to lower values should improve better skin tones.

I'm still meddling with the settings on the blinn node. My laptop is set up here in the den where the tv is and for the last two weeks I've been observing the specularity on people's skin and in some situations where people are particularly sweaty yeah, the specularity is like EZskin, but over all what I see on tv and on people in the neighborhood is a more subdued specularity. And of course, women pay high prices for cosmetics to get rid of the shininess of the face. So I'm still working at this. I'd like to see a full discussion on this too. I'll try out any suggestion to get the appearance I'm looking for.

I am actually more than half way through Jeremy Birn's book, Digital Lighting and Rendering, 2nd edition, and it does touch upon specularity.  Many insightful explanations and suggestions, very informative. 

I do agree, taking a closer look at surroundings and surface, light interaction does convey a better realistic interpretation.  Television and movies are excellent sources for learning light set ups and illumination, things that we don't actually see done for staging renders.

Nice render.  Try placing a gray chip on the specularity color on the skin.  Any gray color.

The best thing to control specularity most likely is a specular map. That way you could decrease shine on things like the face :).

Laurie

Would be interesting to try a specular map with ks_microfacet node to roughen the surface.  That should soften specularity considerably.

hborre, if you make the shader set up, I will surely try it out! I am trying to create a character/texture set for the store and I just don't want to sell a set up that is so very shiny.

Very tempting.  Let me play with this; I have already seen a vast improvement on Miki3 texture using EZSkin and some setting modification just on the blinn node alone.  The renders are in Poser cache right now, nothing exported ATM.  I would like to put together side by side comparisons and jot down notes.  I like what I see.  I will post some renders tomorrow (Sunday, for me).  This has potential.

You guys are way past me, but I am interested to see what the result is!  :)

I stopped at "good enuff" based on some initial tips, here is the final before I'm off to bed. (click it for bigger)

Of course, I was going for a non-realistic, realistic look :tongue1:

Beautiful render.  Although you are going for non-realistic look, some lighting behavioral laws should look natural.  In your scene, the character's skin texture is reflecting too much specular, the arms are getting close to blooming.  That can be corrected by either tweaking any specular nodes present or using tone mapping to prevent the highlights from blowing out.  Also, the prominent gun flashes should be providing some illumination to the background and her face.  At first glance, the scene is acceptable but on closer inspection, I get a nagging feeling that something appears wrong. 

BTW, she missed.  There should be bone fragments exiting the back of the skull, lol.

Try running the blinn system thru a specular node. The blinn node adds to areas that are not even in the blinn effect.

You can also run the whole setup thru the SSS node instead of blending the SSS and specular afterwards, which further reduces the sheen.

Quote - Also, the prominent gun flashes should be providing some illumination to the background and her face. 

I tried that using point lights, but they seemed to illuminate the whole scene too much.  There was not a fall-off I could see, and they caused big shadows on the face due to the gun barrel.  I assume I was approaching it wrong using point lights.

Quote - I use a scale of 1.6 or 1.7. There are parts of the EZskin shader I just don't get. Like why is there a subtract node on the texture strength of the scatter?

The subtract node is part of a calculation to vary the amount of texture detail depending on whether or not the texture represents skin or some other material, such as hair (e.g. eyebrows). Skin is assigned a lower level of texture detail, while hair is assigned a higher level. The Component node tries to identify which bits of the texture represent skin by measuring the red component of the RGB value. This is an approximation which generally works well but may not be optimal for some skin/hair colour combinations.

Quote - I also don't know how to put a specular map into this set up rather than using procedural specular.

You should be able to simply plug a specular map into the Specular channel and let EZSkin find it and incorporate it into its own shader.

I just ran a series of renders using EZSkin and modifying only the blinn node values to achieve as realistic an outdoor render with a 3 point lighting system. 

Infinite light, 85% intensity, shadows @ 50%, key light
Envsphere, no image, gamma settings @ 1 on the material zone, not visible to camera, fill light.
Spot light, 42% intensity, Inverse Square attenuation.

Miki 3 was my subject, skin texture maps and morphs used from the Beautiful Asian package.  I rendered from default EZSkin through blinn shader node tweaks, just adjusting blinn values as mentioned before. 

As can be seen, specularity is rather noticeable, maybe too strong for average skin but otherwise acceptable if you are happy with this type of render.  The default blinn node values:

eccentricity set to 30%, SpecularRollOff set to 40%, Reflectivity set to 110%.

Now, analyzing the scene, I have 1 infinite Key light in the sky.  A typical outdoor scene.  The eccentricity on the blinn node is set to 30% which really gives a rather broad spot of brightness, similar to a subject standing close to a light source.  I reduced this value to 10%, subsequently minimizing the spot to a distant light source. 

The SpecularRollOff was increased to 60% to spread the spot based on eccentricity without intensifying the brightness.

Reflectivity was reduced from 110% to 40%; we are looking for something more natural, not Barbie doll or oil drenched.

Of course, I could refine this even more by introducing a specular map, if available.  But, I feel, that primarily the light source should be the first consideration before attempting to tweak shader nodes to achieve what you want.

I usually check "Use Rough Surface Fresnel" and "Modulate Specular Softness"

I found that increasing the procedural bump from1 to 1.5 can also spread and difuse the sheen somewhat

The above render used EZ Skin without any manual adjustments to the nodes

Lighting was a combination of IDL using an HDR image on BB's Envirosphere-and default poser 2012 lights with shadows turned to Rayrace and Shadown Min Bias set at 0.3, Gamma Correction ON. I don't see any Baby Oil effects.

I intentionally left those parameters you mentioned off for the demonstration.  But, yes, anything to soften the specularity is perfectly acceptable to achieve an acceptable end result.  This is not so much achieving realism, but making the shaders respond accurately to the available light sources.  Understanding how the material room works is a huge challenge to many users.

Nice render, Eric.  She looks like she belongs in that scene.

I admit that my light set up is unusual. I usually don't use HDRs on the envsphere. And I have my IDL intensity set at .8 and not 1.0. So I end up using less diffuse light that others artists and so I turn up my lights more. I don't find excessive diffuse light to be natural.

Hborre: Thanks! I think I'm in a minority who seeks after realistic looking renders (even in fantasy!).

 The material room is a challenge. I have some idea of how it work-but have a long ways to go. I've learned a lot from BB and others (you as well)-and lots of experimentation.

The skin is EZ skin-but the teeth are my own tinkering node set up.

Quote - I intentionally left those parameters you mentioned off for the demonstration.  But, yes, anything to soften the specularity is perfectly acceptable to achieve an acceptable end result.  This is not so much achieving realism, but making the shaders respond accurately to the available light sources.  Understanding how the material room works is a huge challenge to many users.

Nice render, Eric.  She looks like she belongs in that scene.

Of course its all in what we like-and not in right or wrong. I tend to prefer HDR and IDL-because it IS closer to natural.

Higher end programs use something called radiosity- which mimics the way light interacts with surfaces in the real world. IDL simulates this effect of diffuse light

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosity_%28computer_graphics%29

Quote - I admit that my light set up is unusual. I usually don't use HDRs on the envsphere. And I have my IDL intensity set at .8 and not 1.0. So I end up using less diffuse light that others artists and so I turn up my lights more. I don't find excessive diffuse light to be natural.