Step-by-Step: Using the new PBR Skin on Genesis 8

cgidesign

PBR in general:

It means "physically based rendering". The idea is to simulate real world light and surface behaviour in 3D.

More about it here (it is free):

https://substance3d.adobe.com/tutorials/courses/the-pbr-guide-part-1

"PBR Skin" and "Uber Skin":

A renderer (e.g. Iray in DS) needs instructions how to do this real world simulation (e.g. how bright is the light, how rough is the skin, how translucent is the cloth).

Those instructions are put together in "shaders". In DS those shader values can be set in the "Surfaces".

PBR Skin and Uber Skin are both exmaples of shaders. Both are pbr shaders (meaning both follow the rules of pbr rendering in general) but DAZ decided to call one "PBR Skin" which leads to some confusion.

HD addon:

As far as I know there are no "HD addon skin" products but "HD addon" ones. They cover two parts of real world simulation.

• how detailed the shape of an object is
• how detailed the textures used in the shaders are

Shape of object:

Basically a HD addon makes the shape of the object more detailed (e.g. more folds, wrinkles in the face, maybe defined rib bones on the body etc.). But what an HD addon delivers depends on the PA who created it. For more about the concept search the web for "subdivision modeling" or "sub-d modeling".

Textures used in the shaders:

Shaders use "textures" (also called "maps") to control some of the shader values. E.g. there is a texture to control the base color of the skin. But there are other textures which often are called "control textures". Those do not drive the color but the surface appearence. Quite often people talk about "skin details" and mean the small pores and wrinkles human skin has. Those details can be controlled by so called "bump-", "height-" or "normal-maps". Those maps tell the renderer how to simulate the fine skin details.

If the PA decides to do so, a HD addon can contain those special control maps and they might be made in very detailed quality. The base figures you buy might not include those maps or in a less detailed quality.

Skin resources:

There are a few products in the store which are not a HD addon (they do not offer anyting about the shape detail of a figure) but they include very detailed textures. Those ones can be used to replace the textures that came with the figure you bought and might even include more detailed maps than the what a HD addon includes.

One way to find those products is to search for "skin resource" in the DAZ store - or ask in the forum to get suggestions.

 

 

MelissaGT

cgidesign said:

What is causing those strange shadows around the nose and chin? It looks somehow wrong to me (a bit like ambient occlusion is added into the lighting mix). But beside of that the skin look great.

That odd shadow is the one of the reasons I don't care for the new Iray PBR Skin Shader and still prefer the Uber Shader. 

lemips

I have been trying to figure out those dark edge shadows as well. I discovered just now that turning on Specular Occlusion seems to get rid of them, but I'm having a hard time determining what else that setting is doing to the specular.
Does anyone know precisely what Specular Occlusion does?

 

Here are a couple test renders of V9 with a few tweaks to the shader and the same HDRI (thats for sharing that btw, excellent light!) with SO off then on. You can see it fixes the odd shadows but also affects the rest of the shader's specular a LOT.
Another note, turning Specular Occlusion Grazing up causes the edge shadows to return...

 

(Btw forgive me if this was already covered, only skimmed this thread.)

 

 

leo04

Is there anyway to generat a set of UVmap srufaces of the character once I have used the PBRShader and have what I want using the Ultimate PBRSkin Manager?

Ones I can open and modify using a paint program? Example a image map that would let me add a beauty mark on her cheek for instance?

 

leo04

Is there any way that I can save the skin uv maps after using the Ultimate PBRSkin Manager?  I want to do something like give the face a beauty mark, or embelish the makeup.

Thanks.

Richard Haseltine

The textures created by LIE are in the DS temp fiolder (see Edit>Preferences) in .png format, so you could make a copy of those.

Masterstroke

MelissaGT said:

Genesis_Appleseed said:

melissastjames said:

ALLIEKATBLUE said:

melissastjames said:

Here is a side-by-side comparison of a franken-skin I put together (mostly Babina 8)(I only updated the head, so please ignore any funk in the neck on the right) - 

And here is the HDRI I used in case anybody wants to replicate the lighting - https://hdrihaven.com/hdri/?h=studio_small_03

Do you have any of the SSS channels enabled? This is very lovely

Yes, both are using a translucency value of .9. SSS settings are somewhat tweaked but similar to what you would see on a base G8 figure, which is also the same as V8.1 I build out custom sss maps that have actual "meat"...which is the big factor in the look. Just using a lightened copy of the diffuse map doesn't do it...not sure why Daz hasn't caught on to that yet. Skin is translucent, so you should be able to see what's under it.

Hi! Highly realistic! What texture did you use for Base color and Translucency Color?

It is a custom skin mashup that I blended together in Photoshop. I then rebuilt the SSS map off of the customized color map. 

Here is a better example of her - 

Link to the series in the gallery - https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/user/5217291553734656#gallery=newest&page=1&image=1140541

 

Great render. ;-)
I tried to get some skin details like pores, but everytime I add those details, the skin looks dry like pottery. 
How to have the valleys of the pores look more moist? 

tomate622104

aldoraeno said:

It took me a while to figure out what I was missing here, so hopefully this will help other people avoid some of the same confusion.

 

Prerequisites

• The latest Daz Studio 4.15
• The latest package update for Genesis 8 Male/Female Starter Essentials

 

Applying to a Genesis 8 character

1. Load your Genesis 8 character.  It doesn't have to be on an 8.1 figure base, a regular Genesis 8 is fine.

2. In the Surfaces pane, select the surfaces you want the shader for, most likely your character's Skin and Lips.

3. In the Smart Content or Content Library pane, find and load the "Daz Iray PBRSkin" shader.  (Your character probably now looks like a pale white ghost in Iray.)

4. Type "Enable" into the search box a the top of the Surfaces pane.  You'll see a long list of On/Off buttons, with only Diffuse Enable turned on.

5. Turn on Translucency Enable. (You should now have a darker but transparent-looking ghost character in Iray.)

6. At the bottom of the list, turn on Transmission Enable and SSS Enable (these buttons didn't exist before step 5). This should make your character finally appear corporeal.

7. Turn on any other shader features your original skin material used:

   • Most Iray skin uses Bump and Dual Lobe Specular.

   • Some unusual skin materials or makeup may use Top Coat, Metallic Flakes, and/or Metallicity.

 

At this point, your character when rendered in Iray should have skin fairly similar to what you had before applying the PBR Skin shader.  Hopefully it looks better in some ways. It might be shinier, lighter, darker, etc.  Clear the search box and tweak any settings to adjust for whatever you're looking for.

Note: If your character is way too shiny after turning on Dual Lobe Specular Enable, you may want to also turn on Specular Occlusion Enable and greatly reduce the Grazing and/or Facing values under it to get a more subtle sheen.  An occlusion mask texture is not required for this.

how do i undo this ? it ruined my characters skin and  even if i search all the things i just enabled it doesnt show them to me also nothing under eneble or disable

Richard Haseltine

tomate622104 said:

aldoraeno said:

It took me a while to figure out what I was missing here, so hopefully this will help other people avoid some of the same confusion.

 

Prerequisites

• The latest Daz Studio 4.15
• The latest package update for Genesis 8 Male/Female Starter Essentials

 

Applying to a Genesis 8 character

1. Load your Genesis 8 character.  It doesn't have to be on an 8.1 figure base, a regular Genesis 8 is fine.

2. In the Surfaces pane, select the surfaces you want the shader for, most likely your character's Skin and Lips.

3. In the Smart Content or Content Library pane, find and load the "Daz Iray PBRSkin" shader.  (Your character probably now looks like a pale white ghost in Iray.)

4. Type "Enable" into the search box a the top of the Surfaces pane.  You'll see a long list of On/Off buttons, with only Diffuse Enable turned on.

5. Turn on Translucency Enable. (You should now have a darker but transparent-looking ghost character in Iray.)

6. At the bottom of the list, turn on Transmission Enable and SSS Enable (these buttons didn't exist before step 5). This should make your character finally appear corporeal.

7. Turn on any other shader features your original skin material used:

   • Most Iray skin uses Bump and Dual Lobe Specular.

   • Some unusual skin materials or makeup may use Top Coat, Metallic Flakes, and/or Metallicity.

 

At this point, your character when rendered in Iray should have skin fairly similar to what you had before applying the PBR Skin shader.  Hopefully it looks better in some ways. It might be shinier, lighter, darker, etc.  Clear the search box and tweak any settings to adjust for whatever you're looking for.

Note: If your character is way too shiny after turning on Dual Lobe Specular Enable, you may want to also turn on Specular Occlusion Enable and greatly reduce the Grazing and/or Facing values under it to get a more subtle sheen.  An occlusion mask texture is not required for this.

how do i undo this ? it ruined my characters skin and  even if i search all the things i just enabled it doesnt show them to me also nothing under eneble or disable

Materials made for the iray Uber Base will not always work nicely with the PBR Skin sahder - it is always possible this is an example.

COMIXIANT