What are the best Skin Shaders for Genesis 9?

Comments

• Cybersox Posts: 9,578

  January 24

  Epic82 said:

  I haven't done much 3D rendering in over a year. But I'm slowly getting back into it. I'd like to use a few Genesis 9 figures, like Olympia 9, even though I'm not as interested in Genesis 9 as I was, and still am, with Genesis 8. Are there any good skin shaders I can use on Genesis 9 figures to make the skin more realistic? I've used N.G.S. Anagenessis 2 - Revolution on my figures for years. But which shaders do you think are the best for Genesis 9?

  Frankly, I haven't been impressed with any of the ones I've tried, and there's been nothing I've seen that offers improvements on the level of what you get with NGSA2 or Altern8.  That said, I will admit that I've never been really sold on PBR skins in general, as to my eye they have a tendency to get very waxy/plastic-y and appear unaturally even in coloration, hence one of the many reasons I've gone back to using G3 and G8 as my primary figures. (other reasons include the horrible bending and posing issues, the over-reliance on hd morphs to do everything, the fact that it doesn't work with a lot of my regular tools and add-ons, a completely underwhelming base figure, and a much higher price point across the board on everything.)     
• Silas3D Posts: 809

  January 25 edited January 25

  The key problem with a lot of Genesis 8.1/9 skins out-of-the-box is that the combination of dual lobe roughness and the newer detail normal map strength is set too high, causing the skin to appear quite ashen/desaturated and lacking moisture. When I'm at my PC later I'll post a before and after example :)

  Post edited by Silas3D on January 25
• Cybersox Posts: 9,578

  January 25

  Silas3D said:

  The key problem with a lot of Genesis 8.1/9 skins out-of-the-box is that the combination of dual lobe roughness and the newer detail normal map strength is set too high, causing the skin to appear quite ashen/desaturated and lacking moisture. When I'm at my PC later I'll post a before and after example :)

  But that rather just reinforces my point, doesn't it?  I mean, if the professional PAs frequently can't get it right and DAZ is taking incorrectly done product and passing it on through without question, that makes depending on PBR skins a bit of an unreliable pot shoot.  I know some people like tweaking with the settings for hours on end and trying to get everything "just so" in renders, but the main reason I buy commercially made assets is that I have limited time and I prefer to focus the time I have available on composition, lighting, rendering and postwork.       
• Silas3D Posts: 809

  January 25

  @Cybersox I understand where you're coming from - as a PA myself it's very difficult sometimes to know exactly how to approach something because the community can be so split on what they prefer and perception of what is right or wrong.

  Even what we're talking about here is highly subjective, as everyone has their own idea of what makes a good looking skin.

  That's without even discussing environmental factors like lighting, which plays a critical role in making something look good.
• Silas3D Posts: 809

  January 26 edited January 26

  As promised here's a before and after. Olympia 9 HD in default position, using default HDRI as lighting (rotation value of 120).

  What was changed:

  • 0.1 reduction to 'Dual Lobe Specular Roughness Mult'
  • 0.5 reduction to 'Normal Map'
  • 0.2 reduction to 'Detail Weight'

  This is just to illustrate that with minimal changes quite a difference can be made, but there are other factors at play that will determine changes required - eg distance from camera and type of lighting (hdri vs mesh lights spotlights vs both).
  
  Depending on the scenario, small tweaks or changes will always need to be made to get the best result.

  

  

  

  

  Olympia1.png

  800 x 800 - 899K

  

  

  Olympia2.png

  800 x 800 - 896K

  Post edited by Silas3D on January 26