I hope this is the right topic to post in but I need help with one of my characters because I’m not sure if she looks quite right. I’ve tried looking at various reference photos (since I don’t get out enough to make real life observations and I live in a Mayberry-like town) but I still feel clueless. I just want to know if she looks somewhat natural or “too fake”. I can’t remember what base skin texture I used for her or if it’s one of mine (I’m not on my work PC right now so I can’t check) and I probably need to work more on the skin material shaders since darker skin reacts differently to light… I’m guessing.
Preview of the character is attached. If you need a better/clearer/whatever type image just let me know and I’ll post one. This just happens to be the only image of her I have on this computer. She’s supposed to be of a mixed African and Indian (as in India) descent. Her name is Mina Avanti and she’s a character from my graphic novel. I need to make sure she’s looking right before I finalize my novel illustrations for publishing.
I hope this is the right topic to post in but I need help with one of my characters because I’m not sure if she looks quite right. I’ve tried looking at various reference photos (since I don’t get out enough to make real life observations and I live in a Mayberry-like town) but I still feel clueless. I just want to know if she looks somewhat natural or “too fake”. I can’t remember what base skin texture I used for her or if it’s one of mine (I’m not on my work PC right now so I can’t check) and I probably need to work more on the skin material shaders since darker skin reacts differently to light… I’m guessing.
Preview of the character is attached. If you need a better/clearer/whatever type image just let me know and I’ll post one. This just happens to be the only image of her I have on this computer. She’s supposed to be of a mixed African and Indian (as in India) descent. Her name is Mina Avanti and she’s a character from my graphic novel. I need to make sure she’s looking right before I finalize my novel illustrations for publishing.
I thank you for any and all help and opinions!
She looks quite nice, but I would expect someone of mixed African and Indian heritage to have darker skin, with black wavy hair. My recommended mix of features would be a nose that’s narrower than a typical African nose, and lips that are a bit thicker than typical Indian lips. Skin tones and facial features in India cover a pretty wide range, but they’re seldom that fair, IMO. I do like those mysterious eyes.
Finally got on my work PC. Here’s a better closeup of Mina with clear lights and zero postwork.
@Slimer_J_Spud
I agree, I always thought her skin was a little too light but I wasn’t sure. I’ll try to darken it… I have no idea why I gave her such light hair! I’ll change it to a dark or black texture. The hairstyle I have to keep because it’s so practical (this novel has a lot of action and this hair doesn’t need to be moved/morphed too much!) I may see what she looks like with darker eyes too… I think I accidentally used the main character’s blue eyes preset on Mina! Now that I posted a better close up, what do you think of her facial structure now?
I think you got the facial structure just fine. Darker hair, brown or black eyes.. and darken her skin a little, doesn’t have to be a lot to be convincing. She’s also kinda red, but it might be the light or the shader. Try shifting it a bit to the yellow side but not so much she looks sallow. There’s a fine line between too red, sallow, ashy, and perfect.. it’s harder to find that perfect spot in 3D the darker the skin gets.
I really like her makeup and eye shape.
@LizzieP, I do like that facial structure. Depending on what skin texture you are using, the “diffuse tan” approach could be used to darken her a little. Select all the skin surfaces and dial in a light grey into the Diffuse channel. As Fisty described, you can tweak a little away from pure grey to make changes in tone, but this will go bad quickly if you go too far. The other thing to watch out for, as pointed out here many times, is the palms and soles. Where the diffuse tan really breaks down is on the palms and soles. Too much darkening, and the palms and soles look awful. The model will look “spray-painted” if you go too far. At that point, it’s better to either find another texture set, or “pre-work” the existing texture, darkening it everywhere but the palms and soles.
The mouth looks like you used the lip curvature dials. Very cute! Is this a Genesis or a V4 gal? I used the lip curvature in a similar way on a V4 pinup girl a while back. She’s supposed to be half Portuguese, half Brazilian. I used the Marie Elite texture with some changes to the surface settings. I use Marie a lot… http://slimerjspud.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4t3bi0
@Fisty
She does look a bit too red, almost like she got one of my sunburns! LOL It looks like it’s more of a texture problem than a shader problem since the shader I built doesn’t add much color, it’s very neutral. I’ll see what I can come up with in darkening the skin, hair, and eyes too.
@Slimer_J_Spud
I’m looking at the texture and it’s something I cobbled together from existing textures (personal use only, of course!) with the base being something by Surreality. I never use anything “out of the box”, I’ve always got to tinker with things! I’ll rework the texture to make it darker and less red which is actually easier for me than messing with that shader I built.
I made the face morph myself, I think. I do believe that for the lips I used a combination of the morphs from Colm’s Luscious Lips set from RDNA which are quite awesome. I probably used his Enigmatic Eyes morphs too. Oh, it’s V4 all the way. I’m in Poser Pro 2012 and have yet to try that Genesis to Poser tutorial I downloaded a few weeks ago because I haven’t had the time.
Pretty render! I almost used the Marie Elite texture as my base for Mina but I can’t remember now why I didn’t. I tried a bunch of different textures for the base before settling on the one I’m using.
Okay, attached is an updated preview of Mina. Better? Worse? So-so?
OK, so I posted this in the wrong place earlier so I’ll try again
Evan Hair Review
So I broke down and bought the Evan Hair at Daz. It was a bit pricey so I thought I’d add a quick review for those who might be looking at it. Great prop! It has fits for pretty much every G4 character plus Genisis. It also has plenty of adjustments the hair line (front back and side) as well as length all the way around. You can even adjust the widow’s peak in the front. Morphs for movements (front, back and to the side) to all parts of the hair. It also has poses to make it invisible as it can be a bit of a resource hog. I’m still working on my rendering skills but my test turned out well with nice texture for braid/dreads. All in all a good value and probably some of the cheapest extensions your likely to find wink
Here’s a quick render using some of the goodies I picked up recently:
SKin is Yannek’s M4 Elite Texture: Rob (Gen4 sale)
Hair is Neftis3D’s Beautiful Black Hair (Neftis promo sale)
Beard is Mec4D’s Unshaven Beard for Genesis (Gen5 sale)
(Figure is Genesis mix of Basic Male/M4/M5 plus some M4 Elite Ethnic Faces morphs transferred by GenX)
Lighting is fairly basic - just a distant light and a couple of spotlights - I’m still not so good on lighting.
Any comments/suggestions welcome!
Having another play with some recently-acquired booty:
V4 Elite Texture: Marie
Beautiful Black Hair
Shaders from Mariaeh and Fisty’s Gemologica (on the necklace from the Eleia outfit and freebie earrings) and Fisty’s Sparkles for Studio (on the background plane)
Depending on what skin texture you are using, the “diffuse tan” approach could be used to darken her a little. Select all the skin surfaces and dial in a light grey into the Diffuse channel. As Fisty described, you can tweak a little away from pure grey to make changes in tone, but this will go bad quickly if you go too far. The other thing to watch out for, as pointed out here many times, is the palms and soles. Where the diffuse tan really breaks down is on the palms and soles. Too much darkening, and the palms and soles look awful. The model will look “spray-painted” if you go too far. At that point, it’s better to either find another texture set, or “pre-work” the existing texture, darkening it everywhere but the palms and soles.
