(Released!) Vellus Horizon Shader System USER GUIDE IN COMMENTS
Those Things
Posts: 1,113
ETA: Here it is! Iray Vellus Horizon Shader System for Genesis 8 Female | 3D Models and 3D Software by Daz 3D
ETA: And here's a link to a quick start guide, for those who were asking for more guidance: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/4b/24904dd2a900c5b0fe4db69498d5ba.jpg
Hello beautiful people! I've long felt that one of the missing ingredients of realism in Daz figures was the lack of a vellus hair system that behaved optically the way real vellus hair does, creating what I have recently learned is called the "Vellus Horizon". So instead of creating another particle hair system, I decided to approach the problem from a different angle. One that would allow for selective control and coverage on the entire figure (not just the face), one that would be achieve that edge-blurring and light-bending optical quality that real vellus hair does, and drastically increase realism as a result, and one that would be kind to system resources.
Well, after much tweaking and fiddling in my laboratory, I've created a system of five displacing shaders that are applied to a geoshell and controlled through hand-painted alpha masks. I'm still doing some final tweaking and testing, but here is a side-by-side comparison with and without. I think the results speak for themselves, but I'll let you be the judge. Notice the corner of the jaw, and how it is handling the light glancing over the surface.
With the shaders applied:
The normal figure, without the shaders:
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Comments
Here's another angle...
With:
Without:
Wow. Looks quite promising. One can see the effect especially with the contours or the chin area (with the first images). Is it heavy on render times?
No, quite light, actually. Especially since geoshells allow for such fine control, with a vast collection of on/off switches for the various specific anatomical areas. And the shaders themselves apply to the Face, Ears, Torso, Arms, and Legs material zones, so you need only apply what you need for your specific render.
Sorry, but I do not see much difference.
I like your products very much, Those Things, so probably will get it,
if you make more promo pictures and I will be more convinced.
That's by design! The effect is mean to be subtle, as it is subtle in real life, and not something glaringly obvious. You don't so much notice it, as notice its absence, if that makes sense. Where it really makes a difference, is where light rakes across the surface of skin. On actual human skin, that light gets broken up and diffused by the vellus hair or "peach fuzz", but on Daz models (who have no vellus hair) that light behaves as if it is hitting a perfectly smooth surface.
With:
Without:
Very exciting! Looking forward to seeing this progress!
Yep, I'm in!
I love the way you've done this! I have so many characters that came with fibermesh vellus hair, and even a vellus hair product itself, and each of them has two major flaws. 1) The hairs are too sparse, so they look more like hairs than fuzz. And 2) They're just too bloody long. Most of them have morphs to shorten them, but even doing so it makes them glaringly obvious.
This, however, looks like it strikes the sweet spot. Lots of tiny hairs that look like a fuzz, and they're short and barely noticeable! That side-on pic in particular shows how much you've nailed this! Looks super realistic - another 'can't wait for' product!
Yes, that's it exactly! I also have some fibermesh vellus hair products (I'm guessing we probably have a similar collection) and my complaint was that they looked like stubble instead of peach fuzz. And they didn't break up the light correctly.
Another with and without:
With:
Is it just for the face or the whole body.
The entire body.
Looks awesome. Great idea!
If I blacken out the figure's materials, you can really see the distribution pattern of the fuzz:
Thank you!
instant buy for me then!
It's a very subtle effect, but that's the point ... unless you are Cousin It ;)
Here's an x-ray view of the current distribution. I have a few more tweaks to make to the alpha maps, but this follows the vellus hair distribution pattern of a "normal" female body.
Actually, the lighting in that view isn't really showing the abdomen well, the alpha map looks like this:
That is very neat! Will definitely buy
Yep been waiting awhile for something like this instant buy .
It's so perfectly subtle!
One of those things (get it!?!? haha) that you don't really notice that it's even there, but you'll moreso notice when it's not.
Looks very cool. This is the kind of thing I'd want as a one-click thing I can add to the Scripts menu, so it would be easy to access. OTOH, will there be variations for different ethnic groups? Some are fuzzier than others.
This looks excellent! It is indeed such a subtle thing but so important when you are going for realism in a render. I have played with other solutions, too, but I never found one that really achieves a realistic effect. The images you have shared show that you might very well have pulled it off!
Will this be G8 Female only?
Tim
amazing.
these are a couple of worlds more realistic than any of the fibermesh vellus hairs i've experimented with. which is pretty much all of them.
dang! these look great.
speaking of fibermesh hair...while you're riding the texture train? i'd love to see some good low-impact shaders designed specifically for fibermesh hair. i switch back and forth between using and tweaking strand-based hair shaders, transmapped hair shaders, and whatever the item's included shaders are. but i haven't found an approach that gives me consistent realistic results across the full color spectrum, or in different kinds of lighting.
:)
j
What a clever and (in retrospect) obvious idea. The best ideas always seem obvious once someone has thought of them. Brilliant.
Regards,
Richard
This looks great! Instabuy when it hits the store.
Very interested in this! If it includes maps and settings for G8M and looks good on dark-skinned characters, it'll be an instabuy; if it's another enhancement exclusively for G8F then I'll have to pass.
I really hope it will include materials for both or that there would at least been a G8M version coming if this one is G8F only, as it looks fantastic, seems so much easier to deal with than fibermesh hair, and G8M desperately needs more options for realism.
I, on the other hand would prefer the initial product be for female characters only. Male and female body hair is pretty different, and there would be little crossover. I'd rather pay just for the female version of things, and let the PA decide if there's enough of a market for the male version.
I agree. There's enough of a difference that just putting the female one on a male isn't going to work as well as it could. It'd probably be decent, and better than nothing, but I too think that to do it right, there'd have to be a separate male and female version.