Darwins' Schtuff
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Ooh very nice! And we get to see two of them! WOOHOO!
Lol- well, hopefully! It'll depend on how things go. ;)
Loving Evan and love his ears lol.
Ok- so we'll start with Evan. :) I'll get his body morphs done today (was gone all day yesterday) and start on the process of his skin.
Ok- two body shots to show off Evan. Now, his morphs are separated from the base head/body (which need no additional morph packs) and the "full" version that require the Genesis 3 Body and Head morph packs. These are the "full" versions of both head and body morphs.
I'll post the two base pics of just the custom morphs of the head and body when they're done rendering. Then it's off to skin making.
Ok- here are the base body morphs made with MR's and Hexagon tweaking. As you can see, the chest area is fairly flat (I forgot to add that in) which is why I added the G3M body morphs..guess I coulda gone in and re-worked the chest, but I had planned on adding the G3M body morphs anyway for small details.
Ok- went back into Hex and gave the man some chest muscle definition on the base. So, here is him in another pose with the updated base morh:
and the full morph with the base and G3M body morphs:
Better! NOW onto skin.
Definitely better! Very nice! :D Looking good, DM!
Thank you! I'll post a few on the skin starting process then go and make Rory's body morphs-it's bothering me he hasn't any. lol
So, first step:
I am using a MR for the base, but will be working on photo resources over it to change it almost completely. I'll show the process for the face (it's the same for the rest of the maps, anyway) for the diffuse first.
1st step- the MR base with the G3M UV map over it so I don't forget where things are supposed to be in the process: These are down sized greatly in resolution due to the issue of giving others MR details without paying for them. Don't wanna mess with TOS.
So out of my photo resources, I have several poses/shots- I used the lasso tool to cut a portion of the cheek under the eye to just above the lip area on the full face shot and pasted it over the UV map. Using the puppet warp tool, I manuvered the edges to almost line up with the eye area and sized the piece entirely to generally fit the area where I pulled it from. Using the spot healing brush tool, I started to remove the lashes and the clone stamp tool with the brush at size 24 and 24% hardness started to work at expanding the area near the nose. I want to get the nose texture to the line where the cheek meets the nostril. After getting rid of the lashes, I'll use the puppet warp tool again to angle that area up closer to the eye line on the UV map by anchoring the entire piece around the perimeter of the cut and the middle so nothing else really moves except for the area at the eye line and slightly below it.
Using the 3/4 head shot, I used the lasso tool again to cut a portion of the nostril just above the curve of the hole to around where the flesh meets the cheek and up above where the nostril flesh meets the bridge and pasted it over the first skin layer. Using the clone brush, same settings, cloned a bit of the area where the skin had highlights from the camera from the cheek and on the nose where it wasn't so reddish. I also used the dodge tool at 15% Opacity to lighten the shaded area at the edge of the nostril to match the cheek and removed some of the redness with the clone tool at 25% from an area just above where the veins were. Then I started to have the cheek portion meet the nostril portion by blending both pieces with the clone tool-switching between 80%, 20% and 100% Opacity as I went.
after removing the lashes and using the warp tool to get the piece where I want it on the UV map:
Update on the nostril/bridge area using the process described:
Pieces were taken from the full face frontal and 3/4 photos since they were the same size and resolution when taken by the camera. I have an issue with the photo MR's, however, since the close ups of the upper, lower and profile views are closer and a different resolution than the full shots. Those will be a little more work to use.
Now, I know that the assist with this was for V4 Maps: this process is a little different if the idea was to use an already purchased base and tweak it for your use and not distributed. You can use filters, color layers, and other in-program tweaks to get a different look without purchasing merchant resource skins and photos.
Fascinating!
Ohh I like Evans shape. Great work.
Doing skin is a lot of work. Love to follow your process on how you make skins. Thank you for showing it.
It's something I'm not going to play with for a long time I think lol I'll just stick to clothing for now .
Thank you.
Now, I've lasso'd portions around the inner corner of eye, used the puppet warp, free transform (for size and rotation) and finally got this layer (under the eyelid and nostril/bridge pieces) where I wanted it. Used the dodge process to remove shadows, being careful not to over-do it, and clone to blend into the eye/nose region. Added the brow and did this process again, adding the cheek area to help blend the edges. Again with the upper lip region and the forehead section at the middle and over to the arch of the brow. Then I took a somewhat bland area with less detail and clone stamped that around the rest of the skull and ears, changing the point of reference here and there to mix up the texture and not have it so repeated. This will give us the skin base while I add more details at the brow, temple and ear and makes it easier to blend.
Now I have the skin that I've done so far on a white background with no base MR underneath. I'll copy this, paste it, and flip it horizontally and match the copy to the UV map. I'll fill in the holes, and then remove one brow to add the second (so they aren't exactly the same), and start adding differences in the skin to one side to again, not have it exactly the same on both sides.
Last update for a while.
I'll post the first test render with the MR skin on the body and the seam issues we now have. I may take the head textures and blend away the coloring from the add-on skin from the seam towards his face.
Prepare for baaaaad. lol
Seams. Burnt in highlights on the forehead that I didn't fix to show what they'd look like. Ears are toned differently (even if I used the same skin area on the face for the skull-it didn't match the area at the face where it connects) and the massive difference between the MR at the back of the head and the new texture on the face. Lots to fix.
*takes notes* One day, I'll attempt skin creation. One day :) Thanks for sharing!
No problem!
Updated face....I'll post more when I get further
Thank you so much Darwin for the tutorial on the basics!!!
I am so loving the skin tone right now almost looks like Johnny Depp when he played Edward Sissor Hands so light almost like snow white's skin smiles!!!
No problem! Remember if this is just for your use, it's much less intensive. As long as you match skin tones, most of it can be finagled to what you want it to be. You can get by without worrying about that head seam, either, since you'll be using hair on your characters. :)
This looks great! I haven't covered the lasso tool yet in my Gimp series for Saphirewild so I'll do something up tomorrow for that to make sure she knows what she is doing. It should work pretty much the same as it does in PS. The warp might be slightly different but I'm pretty sure that Gimp has that.
Thank you, KM! I do appreciate it
I've been flirting with the idea of trying this, so I'm happy I stumbled into your discussion, @darwinmishap. In an earlier post, you said
"I'll use the puppet warp tool again to angle that area up closer to the eye line on the UV map by anchoring the entire piece around the perimeter of the cut and the middle so nothing else really moves except for the area at the eye line and slightly below it."
I was wondering how you anchored it.
I was also wondering what you did to the last picture. I can stilll see a difference in the shade between the back of the head and the neck, but it's much better. Also the forehead and the ears appear to have more texture than before. Did you clone that in?
I know that Blacksmith has some videos about painting onto a model using reference phots. I've been meaning to try it too. But there never seems to be enough time in the day. But they always say you'll find time for the things you really want to do.
Thanks.
Thank you so much for the skin making tutorial. That's going to be a huge help! :D
A couple of questions - 1) Since you build up the skin texture with different patches of skin, how do you even out the skin tone so that it doesn't look patchy? and 2) Where do you get the high res skin photos? Do you hire a model and take the photos yourself or is there a website where you can get them?
You're very welcome!
As for the puppet warp and evening out the patchy/shadows on skin tones:
When you use the puppet warp tool you get a sort of triangular map over the piece you cut and paste like so-
using the mouse and clicking a few areas inside of the triangular grid, you select anchor points. These points are also used to manuever the pasted piece in the area where you want it. Caution: moving it too far at once causes warping of the piece and will ruin it.
Once you have it where I want it I simply click on another tool which brings up a pop up box asking if you accept to apply it, cancel, or don't apply it, or you can hit Enter and it will simply apply the changes.
For the patchiness:
The skin tones are difficult to tweak at times, but some of them can be evened out with a default soft brush at a medium size and hardness setting and a very low opacity. This brush was 166 size, 0 hardness and 17% exposure set to Midtone so it doesn't blow out the lighter portions of the coloring as bad. Be careful with this, because all it took was four clicks/swipes of the brush to even it out-it goes quick. I also play with the Brightness/Contrast, Vibrance, and Color Balance (although I didn't have to with this piece) in the Adjustments tab if I need too. The heavy shadows at the edges and curves I usually avoid and clone the skin into those areas, but with samples from nearby skin (not the same area) to blend and give a variety of tone.
I'll also use masks instead of the erase brush in case I mess up, I can re-paint on the mask with white instead of black and not destroy the piece I've put in the layers.
Oh-no, no hiring models. I can't afford that. This skin I'm using came from Rendo a long time ago and isn't available any more and isn't the best to use...which may have me go back to mixing MR skins to make my own version. Usually people use 3d.sk for Human Resource Skin photos-I plan to do a month memebership and see what I can find. (You pay for the membership to get credits and then pay per photo) You can also find some at Rendo, but from what I've seen, most resources (not all) have a lot of shadow/lighting issues. It'd be cheaper, definitely.
For the difference in the last render on skin tones:
Actually, I removed the added skin photo pieces off of the ear almost entirely by only leaving some around the seam, and started on the torso. However, the head area was difficult since the model had hair, and lots of it, so I cloned some of the skin from the back area as well as the head area (by copying and pasting a small area from the head to the torso and resizing it smaller to match the torso's resolution, or close to it) and blended the heck out of it. Then masked the head area on the head map and the seam area for the head/torso, head/neck and head/shoulder area where it meets the neck at the sides and back and removed some of the photo reference material by using the masks by using a brush close to the settings seen in the last demo screen shot. Then at the end, copied the MR for the body and put it at the top of the layer stack (same with the head stack) and lowering the opacity to 19% to help even things out overall. I think that may have added the extra details in the brow area as well; coupled the MR and the skin pieces together and viola-a little extra detail. As long as the two aren't too different overall, you won't get too muddled. If they are, then the textures are going to be confusing to the eye.
I use blacksmith for seams, and for projection mapping tattoos when I draw them once they've been scanned in, or I paint directly onto the model. I haven't gotten very good at using it for skin making, but I plan to make that attempt again. :)
Note: In this process I always make the face with no brows and keep the brows as another layer so I can add veins, make up, scars, ect. later. At times, I also mask the top MR "evening out" layer and remove the texture from the brows so they don't get blurry.
Wow... That looks really...intimidating lol. Its very interesting to watch though and I appreciate your sharing.
For what it's worth, the sets by Levius at Renderosity actually ARE repackaged 3d.sk items. I can't speak to the quality of them -- I've never tried one -- or if they're the full 3d.sk sets of the people photographed or anything like that. (Also, for the male reference photos, the word "nude" should frequently be taken to mean "wearing swimsuit or jockeys".) I also strongly hope that levius is the person running 3d.sk or some such, because otherwise, I can't imagine that the 3d.sk EULA allows that sort of repackaging.
That said, it also means that those reference photos from 3d.sk will have the same shadow and lighting issues.
Thanks for the detailed explanation, @darwinmishap. It was more that I hoped for.
I haven't used the puppetwarp tool much yet. I only recently learned about it. I figured it was probably in the latest version of Photoshop. But I was happy to find it in CS6.
Oh- I noticed. Also- not sure on the whole re-package and re-sale thing with their EULA, either. I haven't checked on that. The main issue with the one I have (I think it's one of Levius, actually-so those are going to get tossed aside and not used due to that EULA, anyway) is that the set was photographed sometime in 2003, so the techniques are older than the ones currently on the site; which have better lighting for the higher quality photos as well as being softer lit to help with the shadow issue. I do see that there are updated picture references in the store, but I won't use them due to that possible EULA issue and will be deleting the one set I purchased back in 2007 for that. (I don't want to risk it, and I haven't been able to really use it anyway).
There are full nude references on site, but I think you have to be a member to get access to them.....maybe? Dunno.
You're welcome @KevenH, hopefully I helped.
Thanks for taking the time to show us the tweaks and different things you have to do to skins Darwin!!!
I am learning so much from all this and once I get a firm grip on GIMP I am going to be giving this a go for sure, and yes it is for my private use untill I can get a good handle on making skins and such.