Hello.

Poser 2014, Firefly

I  have only two light sources, spot and diffuse, and I switched off shadows in both. The question is - how come there are still shadows on the render?

Thank you if you know.

Switch to some other light rather than the Diffuse IBL and see if it still shows shadows.

hborre posted at 12:29 PM Tue, 26 September 2023 - #4475290

Switch to some other light rather than the Diffuse IBL and see if it still shows shadows.

Yep. Now I have only one spot light pointed at the character.

To tell the truth, I am trying to figure out where this dark line over the lips comes from, like a moustache.

* Sorry for the name of the topic , I missed @from@ and it sounds too deep. ))

While the light isn’t casting shadows, it’s still being blocked by the figure so that side is darker. 

As far as the line, I’ll need to wait until I get home. The image is too small on my phone 

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RedPhantom posted at 12:55 PM Tue, 26 September 2023 - #4475292

While the light isn’t casting shadows, it’s still being blocked by the figure so that side is darker. 

As far as the line, I’ll need to wait until I get home. The image is too small on my phone 

No pressure )), it's an old problem I have with many rendered images. It's often impossible to set the light so that the character won't have this line, I have to deal with it later in photoshop.

I set all transparency offsets in the head to zero and i minimize the Shadow option in light sources settings and it helps to some extend, but still the upper lip has this outline.

If somebody can give advice, I'd really appreciate it.

And here is the difference between preview:

and rendered image:

Also, I don't know why the rendered lips are like frosted.

There are 2 lights - a spotlight pointed at the face and a diffuse lamp from a side.

And this rendered with checked indirect light in Render Settings. It is better, but indirect light doesn't always solve this problem and also it is often undesirable for artistic purposes.

Without seeing the Material Room set up, that line above the lips may be a transparency mask with hard edges.  Those edges should be feathered smoothly in Photoshop or 3rd party graphics program.  Also, it appears that the skin textures are casting a bluish tint, an indication that there is a blue color chip on the PoserSurface node.  That is not a correct procedure but, then again, I don't know how the texture shaders are created.  

We really need to look into the Material Room for some answers.

hborre posted at 2:20 PM Tue, 26 September 2023 - #4475297

Without seeing the Material Room set up, that line above the lips may be a transparency mask with hard edges.  Those edges should be feathered smoothly in Photoshop or 3rd party graphics program.  Also, it appears that the skin textures are casting a bluish tint, an indication that there is a blue color chip on the PoserSurface node.  That is not a correct procedure but, then again, I don't know how the texture shaders are created.  

We really need to look into the Material Room for some answers.

But as I mentioned before I zeroed all parts with transparency - their falloffs, as for edges they are zero anyway.

Here are some materials

hborre posted at 2:20 PM Tue, 26 September 2023 - #4475297

Those edges should be feathered smoothly in Photoshop or 3rd party graphics program. 

The problem is that to finish skin around lips is not easy.  And around eyes.

Right off the bat, these material shaders are horrible, even for Poser 2014.  There is self-glowing being emitted from the skin, and there is a blue-colored chip on the Diffuse Color channel.  You have a Diffuse_value set to 1 which is also being multiplied with the Alternate_Diffuse channel; in this case, use either one or the other, not both.  The ColorRamp nodes are necessary because they are trying to simulate Sub Surface Scatter.  IIRC, the SSS node was introduced in Poser 2014.  

Lips and nostrils materials deleted (the same dark line)leted:

hborre posted at 3:57 PM Tue, 26 September 2023 - #4475305

Right off the bat, these material shaders are horrible, even for Poser 2014.  There is self-glowing being emitted from the skin, and there is a blue-colored chip on the Diffuse Color channel.  You have a Diffuse_value set to 1 which is also being multiplied with the Alternate_Diffuse channel; in this case, use either one or the other, not both.  The ColorRamp nodes are necessary because they are trying to simulate Sub Surface Scatter.  IIRC, the SSS node was introduced in Poser 2014.  

Thank you for the information, I sometimes really have trouble with those bluish people, but I don't make those skins.

ColorRamp - this is a bit above my mastership. ))

Lets fix some things so that you get a decent render in Firefly.  The Illustration below outlines the troubleshooting you should address.

Starting with the PoserSurface:

Change the Diffuse_Color from blue to white and change the Diffuse_Value to 0.  You will use the Alternate_Diffuse channel for the meantime.  Set your Specular_Value also to 0, you will connect your Specular map to the Alternate_Specular.

The Ambient_Color channel is a cheat to simulate SSS; right now you don't need it.  Turn that color chip to black and set the Ambient_Value to 0.

Reflection_Lite_Mult should be unchecked.

Get rid of everything that is not connected to the PoserSurface node and render your scene.

If you followed my instructions, you have simplified your Material Room skin shader to give you a better render.

I deleted all materials in the lower part and the head and connected skin texture directly with Diffuse and Specular, nothing else.

Still blackness.

What's the Diffuse_Value?

Screencap Material Room.

hborre posted at 4:24 PM Tue, 26 September 2023 - #4475315

What's the Diffuse_Value?

Screencap Material Room.

It was 1

Screencap the Material Room.

Here s the thing.

I change diff color from blue to white and the black line stays only in shadowed places and disappears on lighted surfaces. If my eyes don't lie to me.

blue:

white:

Like so, I don't feel at all that the characters has a moustache. It looks like a shadow (a bit excessive maybe)

The problem is I can't use this pink face and It will take too long to improve the textures. (((

So maybe this bluish tint is more of a problem then I imagined. I also used Stephani, she is blue and I had to photoshop her lips a lot.

Dear hborre, thank you for your help.

I will try to implement the instruction you have given above.

Right now, I am putting together a simplified Skin shader that works for V4 in Firefly, but it won't be ready until later tonight.  The blue tint around the lips comes from the surrounding skin texture the vendor created for the figure.  Usually, this can be corrected with a transparency map based on the figure's template.  I imagine that the vendor's texture does not quite match the template.

Presented below is a Firefly render of V4 with 4 lights on the stage, one of which is a Diffuse IDL.  The skin shader has been simplified and slightly modified to reflect how it should render.  The texture is from the same vendor you are using but for a different character, although the shaders are the same.  

Excuse the nudity.  This is to illustrate the new skin shader.  Below is the Material Room with a simplified arrangement of nodes.  

Study it closely.  It can be applied to other figures with modifications and tweaking.  Gone are those ColorRamp Nodes that faked Subsurface scatter, replaced with a true SSS node.  A Blinn node was added to control specularity and reflectivity, and a gamma node to Gamma Correct the Grayscale map generated from the Color Map.  

The Render settings below are just generic for guick rendering.

Bookmarking this for future reference.

Maybe pin this thread.