I am working on a M4 character set with one facial, two body morphs.  SSS skin and a possible non-SSS skin option for those that do not have Poser 9 and above.  The veins I have changed up since these renders to smooth out certain overly veined areas; test renders, gotta love'em. XD

I am tweaking the base SSS at the moment and have a few pics.  I am open to all crits and ideas- his other options will include tats and gothic/cyber make up options for those of us that don't have enough of those men to match the women out there. ;)

A quick test of the mouth textures with his head visible and using IDL with the SSS.  Next, I'm testing out the Sunlight set from RDNA to see how his textures react to different lighting.

Nice looking character so far!

W10, Ryzen 5 1600x, 16Gb,RTX2060Super+GTX980, PP11, 11.3.740

i like his face :)

eyebrow color options would be nice.  i only have a couple blond eyebroe chars for my mike.

---

♥ My Gallery Albums    ♥   My YT   ♥   Party in the CarrarArtists Forum  ♪♪♪ 10 years of Carrara forum ♥ My FreeStuff

Thank you both!

I was thinking of the eyebrow idea- haven't figured out a good way to do that yet, but I will keep that as one of my "to try" lists. ;)

Here he is in the Sunlight light rig.  IBL, Environsphere and one Infinite as the Sun with the SSS settings.

Same light rig- updated vein settings.

Nice work.

Thank you very much!

The nails have been re-worked..a lot.  They are about half way there, but I think I'm done for the day.

I love the face

My Store & My Freebies

Thank you!

Playing with ink ideas- very basic and nothing other than black and white right now.  They won't be all together when I'm done- I'm thinking geometrics for one option, and either traditional or decorative for the second.  First test render.

Hands are awesome. The face seems somewhat plastic. LOVE the shapes and effects you have going on here!

Thank you.  He's not so "Plastique" with expressions.  ;)  I hope, anyway.  I'll update again soon, but for today- I'mma out.  

Really nice work! Especially for those who really like the perfect sultry bad boy. I particularly like the profile.

I would want to masculinize him a bit --  more texture on the skin, eyebrows less manicured, stubble, less refined features, some asymmetry in the face.  

Your character would be a very good starting point for what I'd want to do to him. I'm definitely not suggesting you change that perfection you've got. Sometimes absolute perfection is what an image wants, and it's very popular in the market. Plus it's much harder to idealize a morph that has realistic flaws than to introduce those flaws into one that is perfect. So I think you should keep the morph pretty much as he is. Though some bump for skin texture would be essential, I think. Also, even if he's smoothly shaved, he needs subtle evidence of facial hair. I think this could be achieved with just very delicate shading and bump, rather than actually pasting on stubble. But I'm not sure. He's more like an idealized painting than a real human -- and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, just judging from the galleries, I think it's what most buyers really want.

As for tattoos, I'd say, go full romantic goth -- you've got a great start with the shoulder tat. Whether you intended it or not, the guy IS a vampire.

Edit: Oh, and the idea of gothic-cyber... cool. Actually combining both concepts sounds very intriguing. 

---

PoserPro 2014, PS CS5.5 Ext, Nikon D300. Win 8, i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz, AMD Radeon 8570, 12 GB RAM.

Thank you, very much.

The asymmetry is something, if added, is always done last when I work on a character.  The second head morph, once I get it finished, will have subtle flaws here and there to oppose this facial morph. ;)  

The bump on him is fairly light, yes.  I may add that stubble (I was contemplating that myself earlier in the process) for a second mat option- this way there is an option.  I like options.  lol  The tats will be more: I want a full set of the cyber-goth/geometric and one with a more "romantic" decorative and a way to mix both if wanted.  It's easy to do if you separate the leg/arm/body tats into options.  I've done it for myself, doing it here is not a big deal.  They are just slapped on for now- I'm working on ideas and placements.  Once I settle on where and how they'll look, I'll work the textures into the skin a bit more (seemingly) realistic.  It's good I have photos of real ink to go off of.  XD  Love tat shops.

Vampire, he can be. ;)

The "plastic" look to which I referred was the lack of texture on the face. Mori covered all of my bases. :)

Gotchya.  XD

There seems to be a luminous Glow to the whites of the eyes&teeth

 (particularly the IBL renders)

My website

YouTube Channel

Heya Wolf.

No glow, not even ambient on the whites of his eyes.  For the Sclera, there is only one map and a scatter on the alternate diffuse.  

There is a black ambient to the whites of the teeth in the set-up I have so far.  Other than that, it's all in how the node set up is.

I like him but if I were to buy him I would like a facial scar option with maybe displacement or a scar morph, and also an older face ie head and face wrinkles (mild). of course we all have different requirements for a character.

Love Esther

Ps very good work so far.

MY ONLINE COMIC IS NOW LIVE

I aim to update it about once a month.  Oh, and it's free!

I have a way to alter the color of the brow using the upper brow.  I will PM you on Monday with the details if you are interested.

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

I have a few minutes ... let me just give you the step-by-step quickly for lightening (or changing the color to anything at will) the brow.

1. open face map in Photoshop (Paintshop Pro, Gimp ...)
2. Duplicate map
3. De-saturate color
4. Raise the contrast
5. White out all but brows
6. Invert to make a transparency map
7. Save for Web as brow transparency
8. open advance material room in Poser
9. Choose "eyebrow" from your character
10. add node to transparency, 2d, image map and brow you saved.
11. Turn GC to .5
12. Change color as desired from diffuse color.

Bonus: change the displacement map in the brow to bring out the 3d of the brow.

I hope this helps.  Ask questions as I didn't add any samples in my step-by-step cuz this is quick so I can make an appointment. :)

Boni

P.S. You may want to add a slight tint to the sclera, cream or even grey-blue to tone it down ... very slight.  Again, add bump and even a little reflectivity.  Just a suggestion.

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Sorry for not responding sooner- work has had me run ragged.

Thank you for the tips on the brow!  I'll see what I can do on that and post results.

As for the sclera, I'll see how the tint on the diffuse will work- I do not add bump or reflectivity to the sclera since the eye surface covers it completely.  The reflective nature of that coupled with the sclera makes it over done, and using a bump on it when there is the surface covering it seems moot?  I'll play, though, and see how things work.  

Thank you again!

I added a slight color node (a warm peach) to the diffuse and another (cool gray) to the alt. diffuse for a blend.  The effect is 

subtle, but I can see what you are saying.  Thank you again, Boni.  There is the bump map in the sclera as well, but it

is obviously too low to make a difference. I'll keep playing with this until I get something that can be usable before I try

that brow trick. ;)  I also have an idea for a scar, which I will work on after the brow.

The tats are still in piddling mode, but they have been in the process now for a week.  I've changed up those and am still working

on the decision of which to use.

And the same while changing out the IBL with using IDL/matching environsphere map.

Just started to work on the ol' Glasgow Smile.  Using photos as references- just working on placement then will be Really be working on the disp. and bump maps.

Looking really good!  I like the soft edge you added to the iris, that is a hard thing to do. :)

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Thank you.   That render has no GC to it, that may be why it's softened.  Hm.  XD

Another angle of the smile.

aaand just started the stubble option.  Like, two hours ago.  I will have a mix of the stubble and scars as an end result.

SSS/IDL- been using the light rig for a while now.  Gonna switch to another and see how that looks.  No GC.

The SSS pass after the IDL pass.  Shows the disp/bump maps. 

The render in !13's Freedom IDL set.  Which...I adore.  Seriously.  Very low render settings, and am rendering another brighter version.

(Just noticed today- May have to re-work the spec map  or get rid of it and use the specular node system a bit more - except for the scar. )

Brighter IDL version.

Just got to this and it's the end of the day for me ... I just wanted to say, this is coming along fantastic! I would love to text this character! 

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Not trying to be too critical but just some issues I've noticed, if you don't mind.

There is a small dot towards the top of his eyebrow directly above the pupil on both sides. Looks like a speck of sand stuck in the hair. Is in every image so not sure if you've noticed it. Stands out to me tho.

The lacrimals seem very purple when they should be more pink. Maybe this is a lighting issue. 

Also, the creases and texture of the skin of the bottom lid don't seem to line up very well with the contours of the model. It's the darker thinner areas near the lacrimals and corner of the eye that seem to start too far down the curve of the eye lid. The one crease in particular feels very unnatural, like it should start closer to the corner of the eye but instead starts about a quarter into the curve of the lid instead. 

Are you intending to do any JCM or weightmap work on the thighs, knees and shoulders? 

Overall, nice work. Skin texturing id definitely a chore. 

;) Thank you, Boni!

AS- I don't mind, I appreciate.  

Great eye- I didn't see those specks at all, evidently I need to clean my monitor?  Thank you for that- they are now fixed. 

The Lac's...yeah.  I've re-colored them from the original a bit, but they are far from where they should be.  As it is, he looks a tad bit diseased with the purplish look to them.  I may use another MR to fix this, or simply make my own before the base skin texture (over all) is complete.

...I hadn't noticed the creases under the eyes, being so concerned on the shader nodes, lighting tests, tats, stubble, etc.  Good catch.  I will work on those (on diffuse and bump maps) to see if I can correct the issue.  

I haven't tried JCM or WM work before.  Hm.  That may be a challenge I can step up too, but probably not until I get more time or at least finish this product to put into the vendor room.  I'd hate to really screw that up when I am just starting out as a vendor.  lol

Thank you again, really.  (Updated renders- specks on eyebrows fixed, working on getting the MR's to match, and a new eye option)

Spamming now, I think. lol  Checking under the jawline.  Last one for a few until I work more kinks out.   I'll need to work it further outward, I think, to get to the corners of the jawline itself.  Other than that I think I like the placement and how it's progressed so far.

I really like this character ... I look forward to seeing more of your progress.

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Very nice work Darwin. 

Wasn't trying to be too critical. I like his nose. 

Are you working on a dev rig of M4, or the main production rig? 

I ask because the bends in his hips and knees are crimped unnaturally, so maybe your morph is too extreme for default M4. 

That's why I asked about the jcm's. If his shape is vastly different than default shape, then jcm's are usually required to make corrections. 

M4 does need a good weightmapping, but so far no one has taken the time to do so.

 

Thank you, Boni.  I'll keep updating as I can. ;)

Thank you AS.  You know, I don't know honestly which would be better suited to a package sort of thing for a vendor?  I do know about the crimping issue at the hip and knee,  and if I can get to the jcm's or weight maps I'll have to do some research on how to do that properly.  Then those (weight maps) would be only for Poser, and the jcm's could work in both Studio and Poser? 

Hm.

I was experimenting with the pose you have in the full body shot on the previous page and determined that it is likely due to how you have the hip positioned, that is causing so much distortion at the thigh. Rotating the hip on the -X axis a bit (about 10 degrees) helps to remove that distortion, at least with M4 in his default shape, as it requires less bending of the thigh to get to the sitting pose and keeps the pelvis in a more natural position (i think). But this might depend on whether or not you have done any custom sculpting on the body or if you're just using the morphs++ (or one of the other stock daz morph sets).

Apologies for the crappy lighting. 

Hm, I'll try that out.

He uses the ++, Elite, and Enhanced morph sets for the complete morph.  I'll see if changing the hip angle helps in that crimping, or if it's the morph itself.

I've done some trolling for jcm's and wm tutorials- so that can be an option if I can get it right.

Working on rendering another test for maori tats on his arms at the moment, and no apologies needed.  lol  Sometimes crappy lighting is all that's needed to show an idea.

A slightly different pose (from that set) with some shifting of the x and z axis on the hip and a few other changes...and the tats.

Yeah, may have to see about that creasing.  No matter how I worked the pelvis/hip, it was there or got worse.  Hm.

I decided to actually render him out and post process this one as an actual portrait.

Seems I do have tuts on jcm's-so that may just be an option.

Update:

Lacs are updated.

Added warmth layers around certain areas of his body/face.  Eyes, ears, neck, lips- to help add a bit of color depth to the texture.

Updated eye surfaces and bump for the scleras.  I had them inverted.  I re-inverted and worked on them.

No, no, no. I do NOT need another sexy hunk in my runtime. Oh, who am I kidding? And how soon can you take my money? ;-)

Very good eye texture, as a duddi ng almost vendor myself I am very interested in your progress. As for the crimp, OK at your settings on the hip crest, might help.

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

He needs some chest fur and treasure trail options. 

Just sayin...

Thanks Boni!  And Byrdie...well.  Hopefully soon(ish).  ;)

Yeah, that is actually one of the projects I'm working on- getting both of those, AS.  lol  Smooth and hair.  Gotta have both.

Time for bed- started the process of body hair and more color variations to his skin texture.  Just a start, but I like it so far even if there's much more work to do.  I have a good basis to finish off this, the stubble, and finalize the ink.  Then it will be back to the scars and a possible second, older head morph. ;)  OH- and another eye update.

Your progress on this M4 character is fascinating. I have dabbled in character creation myself and can appreciate the extensive work & work hours involved. His scar options, along with tattoo and Gothic makeup options, all sound very cool indeed. Very nice to see a male character being developed; there are not enough out there, in my opinion. Superb work.

Thank you very much Xydren.

I've been playing with the make up/contact ideas.  Here is one make up, two contacts renders.  Still in the working stages, of course.

Finalized the ink, but pardon the lighting.  It was overly moody and not the intent.  As it stands, that's done.  lol

I like this idea: needs much work.  Still it's a start.

So, updating again.  I lost the graphic eyebrows (they bothered me) and updated the make up options- the lip will be available to add separately from the facial make ups.  New contacts, and I have the red version rendering now.  IBL is used in these, rather than the IDL in the previous- just to have different lighting to compare by.

same lights- red version.  Doing an IDL atm.

and here it is.

Tech Contacts- close up

The RedWhite Contact-

I meant to mention that the Contact options will be able to be used with any eye option- all that changes with it is the iris and pupil so the rest of the maps on your M4 or V4 will remain the same, including tear and eye surface.  Though the RedWhite has the grayblue iris with it, so as it's shown, that will be how it loads.  One contact, one regular iris that is part of the diffuse map.

Yellow Danger Contacts- There is an aqua blue version to match the blue make-up option.

Skull Contacts-

Biohazard- these are the corneas only.  ...I have to go back and fix the eye surface and lacs again.  Darn it.

Fixed.

And the last- radiation contacts.

One of the full make up options that will be for Trystan- IDL and SSS, raw Poser 10 render.

...something happened to his mouth, I'll have to look into that later.  For now, sleep!

Figured it out- the black ambient on the teeth caused the reddish glow.  It has since been removed.

Red..with the teeth fixed.

and the Blue option-full.  Each has an option without the black lips.

So- Stubble update AND a thing I noticed on his ear.  Wth?  Sigh I'm going to have to go back into his displacement maps and see what that is.

Someone is having a lot of fun ... I love what your are doing here.

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Yup!  Until now, that is.  Thank you, btw!

Ok- this is weird.

he crack in both ears is there no matter what I do.  I've taken off the displacement to see if it was that.  It was still there.  I switched and took off the bump completely and left the displacement on, it was still there.  I took both the bump and displacement off of M4, and it's STILL there.

I rendered it with one infinite light, no IDL, it's still there (the other renders were all IDL).  

First render is no bump/displacement in IDL.

Second is no bump/displacement with no IDL, just the one infinite light.

What the hell?

Okay, now I can't edit my post to correct the spelling error.  Oi.  I can't explain the ear thing- I'm at a loss.  The two ear renders are with no displacement, no bump, and even in the Poser default lights they show up. I dunno what I did, but I think I broke'm.

I started a new scene,(closed Poser and re-started the program first) with a new M4 and did the process of injecting the morph sets, the dialed morph, the texture set and rendered again (IDL again).  They aren’t so obvious, but the cracking of his ears is still there.  I’m not sure what the heck is wrong, but it’s really frustrating to me since I’ve not had this issue before in making M4 characters using any light rig up until now. 

Try "smooth polygons" and check the settings in your bump and displacement maps ... sometimes there is a conflict there.  If that fails, check your wire-frame and see if you've "squshed" the mesh. 

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Smooth is checked, I took off all of the bump/displacements (no settings, no maps), the second pair is a new M4 and I didn't mess with the mesh.  So it happens on the morphed M4, I'll see if it does with a fresh non-morphed M4.

It could be that some of the mesh from the back of the ear is intersecting with the front of the ear, so yes, try it with an unmorphed M4 and see what happens. Pretty much the only other option at this point it seems. 

ETA: It appears to be an issue with the normals on the base mesh, as rendering the ear with the default shape and texture produces the same results. Which means that every M4 character out there likely has the same issue, aside from those that use custom ear morphs.

Creating a smoothing morph with the morph brush (or with an external modeling program) will fix it. I just used the morph brush to quickly smooth and flatten the problem area and it renders much better. 

Hm.  I never noticed this before.  I'll see what the unmorphed M4 looks like and if need be, I'll do as  you suggested with the morph brush.  I am not sure how to save it afterwards to share within the dialed morphs.   Yet.  

FINALLY.  I found an old tutorial here : http://www.acrionx.com/3d_modelling_poser_tutorials/?pg=how_to_make_INJ_REM_Pose_files_for_Poser_custom_character_face_morphs 

I used the morph brush to smooth out that area on both ears, followed the directions in that tutorial (though I did not make the 

remove option) and he now has an ear fix inj dial on his head parameters!  I've been trying to figure that out for years and  no matter

what I tried it didn't click.  I saved that tut into a Win document for later reference.  

Update again: Stubble this time.  The morph I made with the brush and that tut works on the new, untextured and unmorphed M4 in a new scene after closing and opening Poser 10 again (I'm paranoid; I like to start from scratch to see if things work.) so I finalized the stubble maps.  Somewhat blotchy skin, but hey- I get that way too, why not?

Fantastic! good to see you back on track!

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

working on it!  I think I have the scarring option - doing a test render on the morph/maps.  Need to tweak the chest hair a bit and onto the gens.  Then I can start making the material mt6's and update the data in the text editor to make them for P9 and above and get rid of any junk (the v4 files routed you to James for some reason) and zip this up to send to my testers.  I'll post the test render after it's finished then I'm to bed!

First test- morph set to .56, second one (that I will post in the morning) will have it set to .7.  Seeing how the dialed morph works with the textures (and an expression on the second test render) so far.

So, having issues with the morphing and the scarring so far.  I may end up making a second, older version of him and keep what I have for the younger/goth guy sort of idea.  This way I can finesse what I have instead of cramming it in and making it crap.  May actually be a good idea, considering some people may not want the younger version's make up options at all.  Still, here is the render with the morphing up; as you can see, it's not very accurate yet.  I used different lighting as well (testing his skin in different, purchasable light rigs as well as my own verions, IDL/IBL and non).

Gorgeous! When can I buy him!

Darwinsmishap: you ave an amazing character here ... can I make a small suggestion? Make the brows slightly different.  They are mirrors of each other and I'm not surethat's what you are going after.  :)

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Gorgeous! When can I buy him!

Hopefully soon! I am going to have him split into two sets- older, wiser, scarred and battle worn and this one as the younger version with the cyber-gothic style.  Both will have the ink/stubble/chest hair options as well.

Boni- Yeah, I've tweaked the maps twice now to do subtle changes on the viewer's right side brow so far.  They aren't the same, but they are still too close.  I did plan on going back to change it up again, but that also means re-doing all of the facial maps after.  lol  It will depend, honestly, on how much oomph I'll have in doing it.  But thank you so much, both of you!

If you work with the upper brow in conjunction with the face-mapped brow you may save yourself some work.  I have a couple threads farther down that touch on that.  I do think you have a high quality model here.

Boni

---

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Yes, I've read through them and the idea will be worked on in my next set to see if I could/can figure the technique out.  For me it may just be a matter of time.  

The first changes I did make to his brows only took ten minutes, and updating all of the maps and saving them took a half hour or more.  Not too bad, considering.  I'm not the greatest at making transmaps for masks just yet, but I'm getting there.  Lol. 

Thank you, Boni!   I appreciate all of the tips and input from you and everyone else they've come from.  ;)

Seems I've hit a snag or two.  The resource I used for Trystan has major issues with the maps between the torso/hip and genital area.  Soon as I figure out how to fix the discoloration mis-match, the stretching issues (I had a UV set for M4 somewhere, but can't seem to find them on either the HD or the external) over the top and the odd coloration of hair between them both.

I'll keep updating.

The texture stretching at the base happens because that is not the default position of the model. It was modeled and mapped in an 'upright' position, so the down position causes the stretching. 

The only way I know of to fix it is to repaint the texture in a 3D painting app like blender or zbrush where you can paint directly on the model in its current position. Painting the maps in 2D will always result in stretching in that area because the geometry is being stretched. 

You could also get more complicated and create a series of animated textures, where the maps change based on the 'up' or 'down' state of the gens. 

I had no idea that was how it had been done.  Oi.

Well, I put the gens model into Silo and made a larger UV map (4000x4000) before applying and tweaking the textures a little bit more in PS before applying the updated maps to the prop.  Combined with working on the base torso/hip area to help even things out, I seem to have gotten a pretty good fix.  The stretched uv's are still there, but not nearly as bad with the larger maps.

So, he's off to the testers to be run through and pulled apart.  He seems so happy at the prospect.  lol

Question:

With a full body or full character inj pz2 file, I save it using Morph Channels only in the Pose folder in the runtime Library why is it when I use it on M4 in a posed position he snaps back to the zero'd position he was in when I created the morph pz2 injection file?  I did not save it with body transformation checked.  

What do I need to do to have it NOT snap him back to the zero position if someone already has him posed when I save the pz2, or can I fix it in the editor in the file itself?

Nevermind- I finally got the Pose Writer Panel to work again and saving just the morphs in that solved the problem. XD

So.  I had to make two more dial fixes for the gen (for each body morph) to have them fit correctly against the morphed M4.  Hopefully this isn't something that will cause issues when he is submitted to the store.  If so, I am going to have to take them out and have people try to tweak settings themselves, which doesn't give a very good fit.  That would not make me or other people happy.  

So.  I had to make two more dial fixes for the gen (for each body morph) to have them fit correctly against the morphed M4.  Hopefully this isn't something that will cause issues when he is submitted to the store.  If so, I am going to have to take them out and have people try to tweak settings themselves, which doesn't give a very good fit.  That would not make me or other people happy.  

You should be good with making a fit pose for the body shape you are packaging with your product. As the gens itself has a limited amount of morphs, you wouldn't be able to account for them all.