Why Is Gen 7 So Tanned/Blotchy?
RCDeschene
Posts: 2,816
Okay, this has been noticed this since V7's release and even commented on before, but I want it to have it's own discussion so I can thoroughly understand it myself...
Why do all the Gen 7 girls so far look like they just hopped out of a tanning booth? Is it really just lighting or are all the default skins really that post-beach-vacation-looking?
Also, is the Genesis 3 Female Merchant Resource kit supposed to be so blotchy? Granted, my suspicions are that it's deliberate for characters of a more Irish/ginger complexion, but can such details be washed out for a smoother preference (like FWArt's characters, for example)?
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Comments
I suspect it is the lighting, an HDR image to be exact that tends to tint the skin in a certain way and it seems they are using the same lighting setup for all the promos since both Eva and Karen look more tanned than they are supposed to be I think.
(Beth and V7 are supposed to have some tan I believe).
An hdr image can make a HUGE difference when it tints the skin.
If you use the right one, you can get a complete snow white V7 even though her skin is supposed to be tanned/latina type.
It could also have to do with the surface settings. I believe none of the characters released thus far are set up to be physically based.
In my testing, the tan effect is caused by the combination of:
1. Photometric-only or photometric+HDR-only lighting. Mesh lights produce a lighter effect compared to photometrics.
2. High translucency and SSS color together. This strongly projects the color of those two channels through the diffuse. If you look at the V7 skin's actual diffuse maps in their .jpg form you will see they're not that tan.
Paler characters can be achieved from the same skins by desaturating the translucency and SSS channel colors down from that super-rich red or orange, and by using mesh lights instead of (or combined with) photometrics. If you want something really pale, and you've got a really good translucency map (but it needs to BE really good, basically white/gray with colored veins, NOT the diffuse put into another channel), you can also set the translucency type to scatter and transmit instead of scatter only.
Yeah, good translucency maps are... hard to find.
Of course fuseling and I just released a product with those maps. V7's translucency maps actually work fine for this, though; it's just a matter of turning down the really strong color in those channels. Remember that SSS and translucency color are synergistic with each other - if you desaturate translucency to soft peach and it's still coming through really tan, check your SSS color.
Well, I'm still in Genesis 2, but your Beautiful Skin bundle for G2 is on my wishlist. (But I have a bunch of other things to buy... from you and Zev0 and Mec4d first. Oy)
This is one of my favourite HDRs; with it set to 0.8 in environment intensity, I get very good results for outdoor, just using that.
And while default gen 3 female is tanned, Vicky is not; many of the other releases also have little tan.
BTW, I'm loving the Beautiful Skin that was released yesterday; it adds loads of options with a couple of clicks, although for close up changing the skins might make sense.
I agree that the original skins of the characters do not look all that great. I was particularly disappointed in Victoria 7's skin, but I'm also not really that keen on Beth's skin. The skins seem to be overly brown and spray-tanned orangy, and look less natural than I would like.
I think it is a combo of iray render, plus lighting.
Is that really relevant to the discussion?
Ouch!
It does seem relevant to me, since the subject of the skin product was introduced to this thread by none other than you, SY. Just sayin'...
Hey SickleYield, I just picked up Beautiful Skin Iray Genesis 3 Female and boy the shaders are amazing. Even somewhat quenched my thirst for darker skins for G3. I just clicked one preset and beautiful skin. My only issue is that the skin is tinted uniformly meaning no differenciation in the nipple aerole areas. I'm sure ther is more tweaking needed there, is there a tutorial on this product? So far great product renders beautifully
ok saw the tutorial for the Beautiful Skin Iray for Genesis 2 and got a better effect. It also helped that I turned the character's nipples on, duh
Not sure why my comment would be off topic, but I don't have your skin product and wasn't referring to it. I am merely agreeing that the new figures look tanning booth tan most likely because of lighting and render engine.
Thanks, I didn't get that from your comment, and I apologize for the misunderstanding.
I love your work! You make great stuff. :-) no worries.
I think the placement of my comment led to the misunderstanding.
Well I misunderstood, too, so its good that you clarified. Either way, it seemed relevent to me, though. Glad to hear you were not down on the new SY product.
I will try to clarify my post. It is hard to post long text on iPhone as you can see. I have clarified.