Rendering black drow skin in DS?

Comments

• Czexana Posts: 167

  July 2012 edited December 1969

  Looking at the product images the skin appears quite glossy, so you'll need strong specular lighting I think.

  One thing you could try is to add some velvet, using the UberSurface or HSS - that might bring out the edges better. Just rember to copy the surface settings, apply the base shader then paste the settings back in (I can't remember who on the old forum first mentioned that, but it's worth repeating!) then apply the velvet to taste.
• Jaderail Posts: 0

  July 2012 edited December 1969

  Drows are more blueish than black see.

  

  

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• NeilV_1 Posts: 442

  July 2012 edited December 1969

  I have to agree with Jaderail

  set your Glossiness to around 65 %
  I would put the specular colour to a light grey say 192.192.192 at around 25 to 35 % depending on your lights

  myself I would add a a tough of blue to the ambient channel 0.64.128 at 10% (this one is a personal option again you may need to play with the hue of blue depending on the lights)

  if it comes with a bump map you need to adjust so that you can see the bump ( I tend to do this without the diffuse map applied to make seeing this easer)

  for lighting model use metallic or plastic depending on the type of effect you are after don't use skin as this adds a pink tone to the surface that you will have to compensate for.

  as suggested above you can also add uber surface for more advance settings as well this image below use Uber surface and as you can see the skin is more blue than black ( This is shadow kin for M5)

  

  

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• Fisty Posts: 3,416

  July 2012 edited December 1969

  Agree with the previous post with the exception of metallic lighting model.. since the skin is black (not grey, black), metallic lighting model will effectively make it matte. Plastic is probably your best bet. that's if you want to use regular surfaces.

  To get best results use uber surface (my library/shader presets/omni freaker/uber surface or there abouts, hold down control key and double click apply uber surface base - when the little box pops up chose all surface and ignore)

  Turn bump back on, you'll need to adjust the strength later. Turn specular 1 on if it's off, try color white or light blue, strength about 15%, Glossiness about 8, and sharpness 0. Go down to velvet and turn it on, color white, strength to taste - try like 40% to start, adjust falloff to taste, smaller numbers make more effect. (that will defign the edges of the figure for you)
• thinmick_3ecd3939f1 Posts: 0

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  @Fisty: Your UberSurface instructions worked fantastically with Dokk Alfar for M4. I'm terribly pleased that I can now render drow in dark places... you know, like the places one usually finds drow... (Because oh, look, black skin in the dark! That's not a lighting nightmare... ... anymore!)

  

  

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• Fisty Posts: 3,416

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  woot woot! =)
• riftwitch Posts: 1,404

  August 2012 edited December 1969

  ThinMick said:

  @Fisty: Your UberSurface instructions worked fantastically with Dokk Alfar for M4. I'm terribly pleased that I can now render drow in dark places... you know, like the places one usually finds drow... (Because oh, look, black skin in the dark! That's not a lighting nightmare... ... anymore!)

  That's great! I can believe I'm looking at someone with black skin; not blue-gray, dark purple, or any of the other colors I've seen in artwork, but black. Like the gamebooks and novels describe them. I'll have to give Fisty's tips a try the next time I'm doing a dark elf render.