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Heeeere's Gia!!
I did make some adjustments, like setting gamma on the maps, 2.2 for diffuse and 1 for spec and bump and I think she looks like she did in the promos.
CHEERS!
PS (She looks even better when you clean your monitor, LOL!)
I don't know, there is nothing else in the scene, but, I'm sure the cups are picking up a reflection of her torso.
CHEERS!Sounds correct. Mapped reflection with no reflection map. it will be bright where the lights are, and darker where the lights are not. No environment map needed.
https://youtu.be/msw2KyQBlug
That's what happened last time. I got to 2:23 of that vid, and didn't follow it any further. I was not able to find the hair preset mentioned. I found a few other threads asking, and no answers given. So I just let it play out as I cleaned dishes or something away from the computer. Nothing more frustrating then trying to follow along with a tutorial, when you can't even get the stuff there using, lol.
..egad, with the right hair and leather armour, she'd make a good ringer for Xena.
..egad, with the right hair and leather armor, she'd make a good ringer for Xena.lol, and an endless supply of hot pockets, lol.
I know these look like computers, but there not, rofl.
This is some really good information. I thought about scaling to -100 to flip it inside out, but hesitated for some reason.
I'm thinking that maybe an HDRI can be flipped before converting to tdlmake with a .tiff extension?
I can open an HDRI in after effects, but I'm not sure of I can modify it and save/render back to an HDRI.
I'm going to try this tomorrow morning.
This really is some great information.
You are definitely onto something, it looks like you hit right on it. The 180 degree rotation seems to be spot on.
I'm not sure what you mean about the shaders on the sphere though, when I select sphere in the surfaces tab, I'm not seeing any shader info.
I'm running a series of tests right now, my computer is still rendering the 2nd round of images. This is fascinating stuff.
Testing HDRI Environments Maps in UE2
In trying to make sense of UE2, I've been running a series of tests/experiments using a simple scene in UE2.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT UE2:
- UE2 flips images horizontally when loaded into the Environment sphere, causing reflections to be incorrectly mirrored when reflected off objects in the scene.
- It is possible that the WORLD CENTER is incorrect.
- It seems as if the source of light does not properly align with the image on the map.
- It is speculated that Reflections are not falling correctly on objects in the scene.
To try to get to the bottom of all this, I set up a new scene using UE2 as the only light source.
For consistent Testing purposes, I have my parameters set to:
- Occlusion w/Directional Shadows
- Intensity, Color, Saturation, and Ambient all at 100%
- RayTraced On, Fantom Off
I am using an HDRI of the Walk of Fame and Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd.
The HDRI was converted using OmniFreakers HDRI > TIFF plug-in.
The new .Tiff (now containing tdl information) was loaded into UE2, along with the matching .jpgs
I loaded the new Iray Material Ball into the scene, leaving it at it's world center opening coordinates.
I created a new camera, also leaving it at it's world center x,z coordinates, but I did raise it's Y to position it INSIDE of the material ball. I did this in order to get a POV of what the Material Ball should be reflecting. (see attached diagram)
IMPORTANT: I quickly noticed that the Material Ball and new Camera were pointing AWAY from what should be the Center of the image on the Sphere. When I opened the .TIFF and HDRI for viewing in After Effects, the Chinese Theater is directly in the FRONT CENTER of the scene.
When I loaded the SAME EXACT .TIFF in UE2, the Chinese theater is in the rear. To fix this, I had to spin the Environment Sphere 180 DEGREES.
I than used DzFires Real Metals chrome preset on the INNER MATERIAL BALL, and used the GUNMETAL preset on the remainder of the material ball.
RENDERED IMAGES -
When looking through the POV CAMERA inside of the Material Ball, we see the Chinese Theater and Lion Statue. This should be reflected on the material ball.
I Rendered an image from another camera pointed at the Material Ball.
The Reflections seem to be falling onto the Material Ball Correctly, However, there is a very strange dark ring framing the reflection. I'm not sure if this is an incorrect shadow.
The Next 2 rendered images show us where the source of light is on the image map, and also how the shadows should be falling.
I turned on the Checkered Plane and rendered another image - The Shadows seem to be falling incorrectly.
I'm currently rendering out a second set of images where I have flipped the Environment Sphere by scaling to -100x, and -100z.
More to follow......
Rendered Images showing direction of light source and shadows.
The Environment Sphere has now been flipped by scaling X to -100.
The writing outside of the Theater and on the streets is now correct.
Image 1 is the POV camera from inside the Material Ball, showing what the ball should be reflecting.
Image 2 indicates the Material Ball appears to be correctly reflecting the environment.
Images 3 & 4 show us that the Shadows now appear to be falling correctly.
The final Image, I re-scaled X back to 100, and Scaled Z to -100, which also flips the image.
Interestingly enough, the shadows are incorrect.
The results so far seem to indicate that horizontally flipping the image by scaling X to -100 will enable UE2 to cast reflections and shadows onto a scene correctly. This needs to be repeated with another HDRI to analyze it further.
..egad, with the right hair and leather armour, she'd make a good ringer for Xena.
Yeah, now you mention it, there is a touch of the Lawless one about her, cool!
CHEERS!
Interesting. Is Omnifreaker still active? 4.7 always says that UberSurface2 needs recompiling, but, it seems nobody has got around to this one as it's not bundled with DS like his others are.
CHEERS!
EDIT:
Raised this with Support, let's see what happens.....
The difference you're seeing is probably due to the use of specular only lights. The overblown specular is a dead giveaway. People use specular only lights because they want to mimic that rim lighting look or add highlights and the shader used do not have fresnel attenuation for specular. It's really just as bad as having lights that do not cast shadows (or have shadows intensities lowered). Real world lights don't behave like that.
With Photo Studko Kit 2 MAT presets, think about lights as you do with a physically based renderer. Always have lights cast both diffuse/specular and cast 100% shadows. In those setup, UE2 is pretty much being used as a 'left over' indirect light so its intensity should just be barely enough to light up dark areas (but keep shadows a bit darker).
Since the underlying concepts are different, MATs and lights that are built using different schemes will never be compatible with each other.
I see,
One thing with your MATs, on some textures, where the eyebrows on the original texture are dark, your MATs always made them look a bit orange. However, the problem is fixed when you put a colour map in the Subsurface Colour. Check below. If you are planning an update for this package, I'd suggest adding maps to that channel in all the MATs, just to be safe.
CHEERS!
That's pretty much unavoidable with SSS. The only way to somewhat minimize that effect is to use a customized SSS control map. Using the diffuse map means you'll lose that SSS glow (or at least you need to compensate for the loss).
Making SSS control maps is easy. Just bring the diffuse texture into in image editor, desaturate it (or turn it into greyscale) and do a filter until the skin areas are white (or close to white) but keep the eyebrows (and other facial hair) dark.
Of course, all of these workarounds can be avoided altogether if texture sets come with no baked in eyebrows or facial hair. :)
I strongly think that should've been done in the first place. We can always use a geometry shell with just a tad of positive offset like the eyebrow poly of the old Gen4 figures.
I do get what you're saying, but, I think the MAT's look much more lifelike with the colour map plugged in. I guess it's a matter of taste. One thing I noticed is that, if I leave the maps off the ears, but put them on on the rest I think the effect looks quite lifelike as the skin is thin there and you do get that glow there. I noticed that when I looked in the mirror. As G2 has separate zones for the ears and nostrils, they could be left without the maps and you'd get a good effect there too.
Have a look at the render..
CHEERS!
The nostrils should never have SSS. If you do, you'll get that glowing nostrils problem. If you're going to use the diffuse maps, they need to be used on all visible surfaces. If you leave out the ears, but have the surrounding areas use control maps, you'll get some glaring transitions along the seams.
Look closely at your render. Notice the ear looks too 'pronounced' compared to the surrounding area. What you want is a backscatter glow on parts of the lobe, not the entire ear lobe.
I know what you mean about the nostrils, but, that really depends on the lighting,, you don't notice it with your lights. I was looking at photos and at people on TV and their ears do tend to stand out like they do in the render and I don't notice anything amiss with the seams there either. I'll see what the other textures look like and take it from there.
Here's Phil with all maps set up
CHEERS!
I did the same with Nevio and the effect is barely noticeable. Next up Bjorn....
CHEERS!
And now, Bjorn,
I'm really happy with the MATS now, and on textures that have them, I can add hair and facial hair and still have it look right. I wouldn't have done any of it without you though so thanks for all your help and for PSK2.
CHEERS!
Nevio with hair,
I don't think I could have got it looking as good as that with the MATs as they were. What you lack with glow you gain with versatility.
CHEERS!
Oh, there's something I keep forgetting to do about the eyes, by default the cornea is flat, I usually set the bulge for it to 40% and decrease the iris size to -0.10. I tend to find this looks natural and I always used to include this trick when I was making characters for ShareCG.
I've done this with Bjorn, see what you think...
CHEERS!
Interesting. Is Omnifreaker still active? 4.7 always says that UberSurface2 needs recompiling, but, it seems nobody has got around to this one as it's not bundled with DS like his others are.
CHEERS!
EDIT:
Raised this with Support, let's see what happens.....
Cool, I didn't even think of contacting support with this, it will be interesting to see what they say.
I'm not sure what's going on with omnifreaker, he hasn't updated his Uber website in a long time, and the last update didn't pertain to uber, it was about an iPhone app.
The nostrils should never have SSS. If you do, you'll get that glowing nostrils problem. If you're going to use the diffuse maps, they need to be used on all visible surfaces. If you leave out the ears, but have the surrounding areas use control maps, you'll get some glaring transitions along the seams.
Look closely at your render. Notice the ear looks too 'pronounced' compared to the surrounding area. What you want is a backscatter glow on parts of the lobe, not the entire ear lobe.
Your skin renders look amazing. Way better than I'm capable of making.
I have to agree with Wowie about the ears though. Our eyes like to go straight to the brightest, most pronounced part of an image when looking at one, and I find myself looking at the ears first, and them the rest of the image. Usually in portraits, we want the subjects eyes to pull us in.
That said, your eyes look amazing and very alive.
Remember this...
Skin is not high specular, high gloss, ultra oiley.
Almost all artists have this weakness of making their characters look like they fell into a pool of oil.
If you want "realistic" skin, look at your arm. Look in the mirror.
...exactly.
I feel I came closest with my scene of the two girls at the bus stop that I rendered in Iray. I used SSS skin shaders on both, then applied the Iray G2 skin shader holding down the CTRL key and selecting "none" instead of the default "replace". This still preserved the values of the original SSS shaders giving me natural looking skin without a wet/oily look.
That's pretty much unavoidable with SSS. The only way to somewhat minimize that effect is to use a customized SSS control map. Using the diffuse map means you'll lose that SSS glow (or at least you need to compensate for the loss).
Making SSS control maps is easy. Just bring the diffuse texture into in image editor, desaturate it (or turn it into greyscale) and do a filter until the skin areas are white (or close to white) but keep the eyebrows (and other facial hair) dark.
Of course, all of these workarounds can be avoided altogether if texture sets come with no baked in eyebrows or facial hair. :)
I strongly think that should've been done in the first place. We can always use a geometry shell with just a tad of positive offset like the eyebrow poly of the old Gen4 figures.
What FILTER? Please? I'm weak in PhotoShop but I really want to know how to do this.
What FILTER? Please? I'm weak in PhotoShop but I really want to know how to do this.
It's not a filter, it's in the Image menu under Adjustments.
CHEERS!
It's only on Phillip that it's noticeable and that's because he had mapless specular. You don't notice it in any of the others. Maybe you won't see it if I adjust the specular values. The eyes are thanks to Spyo:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/6376/P75
CHEERS!
I get what you're both saying and it's what I've been trying to do, it's an uphill struggle, but I'm getting there........slowly........
CHEERS!
No word as yet, we shall see what emerges....
CHEERS!
Ok, had another play. I turned down the specular from 100% to 50% and the glossiness up to 27.5% and 20% for the lips. See what you reckon:
CHEERS!