Works in Progress

Nanobot

By the way...his eyebrows appear at a glance to be perfectly mirrored. Um?

GRIM

Yeah, there's a little reddish in the scruff. Not blind, crazy tho.... :D Yeah, I noticed that too. I dunno if I'm going to fix it (since that means I have to fix ALL of the maps I.E. make ups, stubble, scar) yet. *Smirk* I dun likie, tho.

GRIM

Just thought I'd share what he looks like in Studio 4.8 using Iray's render engine and light set up as well as Studio shaders...which will have to be re-worked to use in the Iray render engine. AND the displacements won't show up, so I wonder if I did something that screwed them up.

Nanobot

Softened him up a bunch, but my, I like the subtle vein textures. Very nice. I'm going to have to mess up one of his eyebrows when I get him. >_<

GRIM

I went in after and fixed one of the brows. ;)

Nanobot

Oh, thank you! I thought perhaps something as minor as filling in the little gap on the top inner bit would be sufficient.

GRIM

Well..I did go in and brush out several areas around one eyebrow, but you have to be up close and personal to frickin' see it. I may go back and work on that gap to add a bit more since it's damn hard to tell the difference atm.

I used an exr. IBL map on the environsphere in this IDL render, with an array light prop in front of him, a spec distant light and a curved emitter to the viewer's right to oomph up the lighting from the map. As you can see...or can't... there's no difference in the brows from first glance.

Worked out the chest hair a bit more, added more to the displacement/bump on the stubble and have been working on the scarring (the scars will go through the stubble, so there's another option) on his face ..oh, and started to tweak the gen maps.

Still a lot to do.

GRIM

Honest, they're changed. ;)

Nanobot

He says, "WTF are you doing to my eyebrows, man? That tickles!" *scowl*

GRIM

LOL-yeah, not happy?

Here's another test:

A 13 minute test render using an exr file for the environment map, the dome and scene settings, and an overhead umbrella lamp for Poser Reality with the Iray emitter shader.

The shirt is from Cyberpunk for M4 and the hair is Punk for Genesis. I didn't change the shirt settings other than to use the Iray base to set the displacement to 2. I set the hair's smoother up a few notches and added extra spec settings.

The Iray base for the skin, and some serious tweaks in the bump, displacement, etc. The eye surface is the thin glass from Iray, tears are thin water and the cornea is thin glass with 1.45 refraction.

Not bad, considering my Studio renders end up cooking for hours with the settings I tend to use. I'm going to let this cook overnight (I need sleep) to see how well it will get the bits of artifacts out in this.

Terre

Interesting. Looks like Iray will be a nice choice for some people.

GRIM

Yup- even without the Nvidia graphics card, it works well enough for me. Here's the overnighter, but I think I had the settings stop after two hours.

GRIM

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.

Wayii

Bear in mind there's no disrespect meant to you in this but I have to say it.

So far, judging by all the renders popping up with DAZ's new render engine... well I'm not at all impressed with it. I had thought the waxy-skinned look of many Reality renders was bad but I see they've brought us something even less in my aesthetic.

Also, while technically I think the giant facial scar thing is coming along well... it's very much not near my aesthetic so I can't really give good feedback. >.< Sorry, sorry. :(

Nanobot

Hey ho. Where'd you go, bud?

The physical-based render engines are a little waxy with the SSS. As with Poser when we first got SSS, it's going to take a while to get skin down right, generally speaking.

Personally, I like those renders. Is there an intentional color cast on his face? Man, his tats look great!

The scarring doesn't bother me, I might could use it. I have a sci-fi figment with a big heaping scar through his eyebrow and eye and cheek. Lost his eye...then grew it back!

Raetjor

Grim, that looks amazing.i have yet to upgrade to Reality. Is it still ueber grainy?

Raetjor

GRIM said:
So do I. lol I have some of those, I think. I could look into that for a third contact option-definitely.

I agreed on the eyebrows as well. You can't see'em much, but I put them back and added some darkening color within them to accent the eye make up. AND thank you, Wayii- I never had uber gloss on my 'stick while out clubbing unless ....no...I never did. *grin* I won't put the 3D man in crap I wouldn't wear. ;)

So, I did a portrait of sorts (really cold lighting here). Working on another make up.

Absolutely love this, especially how pale you got him in this pic.

Raetjor

Putting together pictures for a small exhibition, myself, in and among prepping teaching.

Nanobot

Those are interesting, Raet. They're dangerously close to being Arty. ;)

GRIM

SORRY-been working a lot and trying to get things worked out on him and haven't checked the boards in a while.

Wayii said:
Bear in mind there's no disrespect meant to you in this but I have to say it.

So far, judging by all the renders popping up with DAZ's new render engine... well I'm not at all impressed with it. I had thought the waxy-skinned look of many Reality renders was bad but I see they've brought us something even less in my aesthetic.

Also, while technically I think the giant facial scar thing is coming along well... it's very much not near my aesthetic so I can't really give good feedback. >.< Sorry, sorry. :(

Nono, I value your opinion and it takes far worse to insult me. ;) I do realize that the scarring isn't for everyone, but I want something different. Everything looks the damn same out there, and by golly and gosh darned it I'mma doin' it my way. lol Although, at this point, his set is rather large. I may have to package the scarring with the older morphs as an older version of him and keep the stubble/make up as the goth side. Which will work well for me since I'm having issues on the damn scarring at the moment, so it may hurry this up in getting one side of him out at least.

As for the Studio IRay render; I dunno much about it at this point, but it is fun to piddle around with. I do see value in it, for there are some techniques I can use in this that I haven't figured out with Reality just yet...and it's always good (for me) to have a variety. Otherwise I get bored. I'm dangerous bored. ;)

*HUG* You are adored, Wayii. No worries. XD

Nanobot said:
Hey ho. Where'd you go, bud?

The physical-based render engines are a little waxy with the SSS. As with Poser when we first got SSS, it's going to take a while to get skin down right, generally speaking.

Personally, I like those renders. Is there an intentional color cast on his face? Man, his tats look great!

The scarring doesn't bother me, I might could use it. I have a sci-fi figment with a big heaping scar through his eyebrow and eye and cheek. Lost his eye...then grew it back!

Yanno- I think it's the SSS settings I tried to figure out on him in the Iray thing. It's not intentional, so much as I was trying to warm up his original skin tone when I first tried it out.

As you can see, I mucked his skin tone up BIG TIME. lol Still, it was fun trying. Grew back an eye? O.o That's TALENT. *Grin* I personally like adding scarring, if I can get it down right. Hell, I have numerous scars, and that just shows my life story-even the bad crap. I wanted him to have something of the same nature, not just with the tats. Which I really. Really. Like. So far. XD

Raetjor said:
Grim, that looks amazing.i have yet to upgrade to Reality. Is it still ueber grainy?

It depends on the lighting system you use (mesh lights, IBL, the Reality Sun light) as well as if you are rendering an indoor scene or outdoor- and again, it's all in the lighting. The surfaces can be tricky in learning how to set up the shaders and such, but there are presets to work with. If you upgrade, while experimenting, remember to render small versions of what you want to render with and start simply before going too far. If you do that (like I did) you'll get frustrated fast.

There are quite a few really good tutorials and tricks and tips out there between Youtube, RDNA and Rendo's forums, and if you really get stuck you can ask Paolo (I have a few times) for assistance. Again, be patient since his native language isn't English and that man's busier than a puppy with two pissers.

I happen to like Reality 4 (which I upgraded from 3 when it came out), especially for outdoor scenes. There are some really nice tricks to getting dramatic lighting on the indoor scenes as well.

Raetjor said:

GRIM said:
So do I. lol I have some of those, I think. I could look into that for a third contact option-definitely.

I agreed on the eyebrows as well. You can't see'em much, but I put them back and added some darkening color within them to accent the eye make up. AND thank you, Wayii- I never had uber gloss on my 'stick while out clubbing unless ....no...I never did. *grin* I won't put the 3D man in crap I wouldn't wear. ;)

So, I did a portrait of sorts (really cold lighting here). Working on another make up.

Absolutely love this, especially how pale you got him in this pic.

Thank you! All I really had to do use use Auto Tone in PS with a slight Contrast work and viola- there he is. XD

I do think Raet's pieces are arty- which is why I like them a great deal. So damn tired of people posting simple porn as art. Raet's have stories behind them, each and every one of them.

GRIM

Crap- the other render with the morph which I changed to 1. I dunno if I like it yet, but like I said, it can wait for the second, older and wiser version of him I guess? Aaaaaaaand....I didn't save it. *FACEPALM* That's what I get for rendering into 4 am in the damn morning. *SIGH* I'll re-render it. Lord.

Raetjor

Thanks guys, arty is what I was going for. Ironically, despite straight up porn really not being my thing when it comes to art, my installation will be in the local gay-owned sex shop, lol.

I gotta admit, i still find telling a story with just one character in the render quite challenging. While i get the pose righting the angle nailed down quickly enough , the art really comes with the lighting, as you know, that has always been challenging for me.

GRIM

Ok- a quick one. Ignore the BB light meter. XD

GRIM

I was actually playing with his shaders again. I was experimenting with using the bump nodes, adding the pores, wrinkles and stubble (eventually) via a basic bump map to add to the node, along with the displacement for veins. This is the bump node and diffuse only.

Raetjor

Pores and wrinkles look good, question: are you giving the eyebrows some displacement? Btw, good old Michael here looks an awful lot like a drag queen friend of mine, hehe. Must be the chiseled, high cheekbones and narrow chin.

GRIM

LOL- too funny, Reat. I haven't, yet. I want to finish the skin and freakin' settle on how I want the bump/displacements to work first before trying that. I did start, but haven't picked up on that again since I plunged into learning how to do this making inj dials from either morph brush work or putting his face into Silo to work the mesh. Which the facial disfigurement base is both, Poser and Silo work. The ears were simple morph brush tweaking from Poser...but at least I learned how to do that and actually save it for others to use as well. Finally.

GRIM

aaand, changing the angle had me realize during the render that I forgot to change the damn bump/displacement maps to his stubble/scar set. *sigh, again* re-rendering, and will re-post before passing out. XD

GRIM

Ok- fixed those. Still, you can see there's a lot to do. So, again, I may make that for an older, wiser version of Trystan instead of trying to package this up with the younger, goth version. *shrug*

Nanobot

Oh wow, those scars are BIG bumps.and yet the scars themselves are hard to see. Ah well, you said you were working it out.

Man, that skin still looks about 17. Has a beautiful mouth, too. Mmmm, tasteeeee.

GRIM

Yeah. Hence my decision to wait on those to be released.

lol- he's young, about 21 ish, so that could work? I worked hard on that mouth. >.> He's an OC, so there's a specific look I wanted for him-not just close to the model I used for'em. *grin*

I was testing the lighting again- used the meter to even it out and let it render last night. Time to start working on the cr2's to get them to 9 and make sure Poser didn't put James as a reference figure on them as it did on my V4. Fft.

Raetjor

I only just noticed the blue of the veins shining through...awesome.

Not wild about his hair do, I gotta admit. Doesn't look like it is completely strand based, or am I imagining it? Seems like it is transmitted largely.

GRIM

Thanks! It took a bit of tweaking to get them down to where they are a hint rather than slapped over the base skin texture. I do believe I finally settled on them at 23 % Opacity as a layer in Photoshop.

GRIM

and while working on those cr2's......I've fallen back to making tests of current light rigs I have in my three poser runtimes. *Snirk* I have several that are and have been popular- may as well see how he looks in the commercial products that are and have been out there for a while now since those are what usually the masses use. I tend to make my own light rigs, or use a combo of what's out there- but hey. Marketability. If people see that his skin looks ok in various types of rigs as well as IBL/IDL and such, why not?

Raetjor

Have a look in the Cyber Chicken thread. The guy with the rope is lid solely by IDL, took a bit of tweaking to get it right and switching the regular light on and off drove me bananas but I am very pleased with the outcome.

GRIM

very nice!

a simple render- in IDL/IBL-just raytraced shadows and a few adjustments to one of the Skin Lights from ....somewhere I got them.

Wayii

Okay, that last render there is fantastic.

With those facial scars.... aren't they supposed to be deeper? There's an actor with a facial scar sort of like that and his is... formidable looking in its depth. Is it just a question of maybe needing different displacement maps for Poser and DS?

Raetjor

Ok, I might be stupid, but what is that big balloon thing. You said it measures the light somehow...explain, Dar!

Nanobot

Raetjor said:
Ok, I might be stupid, but what is that big balloon thing. You said it measures the light somehow...explain, Dar!

Me tooo.

GRIM

Ahhh... XD

Bagginsbill has a light meter : https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/file-cabinet (3rd one down from the top) that when used in Poser can show you if your light source is too bright, not bright enough, uneven, etc. The middle of the disc is your diffuse lighting, and the outer rim is for spec lighting.

The black and white you see on the disc in the last one shows that the light rig I used is fair, but still a little dark. At least even with the spec and diffuse light parameters. Further up on the scarring morph render I posted with the rock background and the light meter you see it has a heavy red/yellow blotch at the top portion of the middle section (diffuse) and much of the outer ring (spec) is white. The spec settings are fine, but the diffuse is blowing out -hence the heavy red/yellow coloring.

Over at Rendo there are a few places that show it's use as well - a walk through sorta in lighting here http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?item_id=68661 uses it.

I've tried searching for the old threads at Rendo in how it exactly works, but I know as long as it's white (evenly for IDL at first, before I set more lights into the scene) and not red/yellow, my textures won't be blown out and craptastic.

GRIM

Wayii said:
Okay, that last render there is fantastic.

With those facial scars.... aren't they supposed to be deeper? There's an actor with a facial scar sort of like that and his is... formidable looking in its depth. Is it just a question of maybe needing different displacement maps for Poser and DS?

Yeah, they are. It's why I am going to wait on that one, I think, for a second older option. I've used medical photographs of actual victims along with Tommy Flannagan's scarring as a starting point. I've been leaning more toward the old scarring as Flannagan has rather than fresh- but the blasted thing isn't as deep as I want it on some points on his face. It's going to be uneven, of course, because when you get sliced like that it's not like you're going to stand still for it.

I think I need different maps on those completely- start from scratch on the bump and displacement. I haven't tried them in DS just yet, the other renders I showed you from the Iray render engine was his basic maps-no stubble or scars. I plan on trying them out, though. ;)

Nanobot

OK, I went and looked up Flanagan and his scars. Now I see what you're up to. Man, yeah, they need to be rougher and a bit tighter. I wanted to use the pinch brush in zbrush on e'm.

Actually...*blink* that's a thought. Once can get displacement and normal maps outta zbrush like nobody's business. Other utilities can convert normals to bump if necessary, for finer detail.

Oh, yay. Another zbrush project has inserted itself into my brain. >_<

Wayii

Nanobot said:

Oh, yay. Another zbrush project has inserted itself into my brain. >_<

Of course it has. LOL!

GRIM

I know, right? 'Tho I don't have Zbrush, so...I'm at an impasse. I gotta use what I have. lol

Raetjor

Ok, Mr Flannagan is strangely handsome. Those scars just seem to add especially with that musketeer beard combo. How does one in this day and age end up with a Chelsea smile like that, though? Does he have a history of gang violence?

Nanobot

Raetjor said:
Ok, Mr Flannagan is strangely handsome. Those scars just seem to add especially with that musketeer beard combo. How does one in this day and age end up with a Chelsea smile like that, though? Does he have a history of gang violence?

Never heard of him before Dar mentioned him. *shrug* Have to agree with you on his looks. It works for him. I think his whiskers make the scars a little less obtrusive--probably the point of them.

GRIM

He was essentially ambushed outside of a bar when he was in his early twenties I believe- they robbed him or tried to and he ended up with those as a result. XD I first caught glimpse of him from Bravehart, actually. Been wanting to try those scars for a dog's age, ever since.

And on a Zbrush note, I can't even find the older versions to purchase (if I save up the cash)...*Sigh*

GRIM

aaaaaaaaand...to note. It's called a Glasgow smile. It originated from Glasgow, Scotland (of course) as a type of torture. They'd slice the corners of the mouth and beat the victim about the face until the flesh split to the ears. The Chelsea (this one originating from Chelsea, London) smile the victims were tied up, their mouths cut and then if they were men they were kicked quite hard in the dangling bits, or a woman in the stomach, until the victim screamed enough to split their face open.

Same end, different techniques.

Wayii

That's pretty horrifying, actually.

GRIM

Yeah..humans, at times, suck. ....................and I'm to bed. NIGHT.

Wayii

Yeah, the things people do to one another can be pretty mindblowing. And good morning LOL!

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