Loading...
> >

How to add a suntan to an existing skin texture

Blind OwlBlind Owl Posts: 504
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

The character in the story I'm working on is of Scandinavian descent, with fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. I had a heck of a time finding a set of skin textures and shaders pale enough to suit.

At some point in the story I'd like to send her on a vacation to, say, Costa Rica, and have her come home with a golden bronze tan. Swapping out her skin textures for a darker set simply won't do because it changes her entire appearance: her face doesn't look at all like the one I spent hours shaping and tweaking. Some body textures also have features I don't want, e.g. built-in painted on pubic hair.

I know about Skin Builder. I own it and have spent some time playing with it, but (like other sets of replacement textures) it alters my character's appearance into unrecognizability.

So I'm wondering if there's a relatively easy & straightforward way to darken her skin without changing her face by too much. Either that or a product (preferably on sale wink) that will do it for me with a couple of mouse clicks.

Comments

  • EcVh0EcVh0 Posts: 535

    What does your texture color tone looks like? If it is paleish then you could try swapping between my pale skin shader and normal/olive skin shader (need to replace the map with your after) :)

    if you are not sure, you can send me the torso part of your texture and I can do a before after render and post here so you can have a look to see if this is what you want ;)

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,870

    Wet and tanned skin

    Tan lines

  • Blind OwlBlind Owl Posts: 504
    edited July 2017
    EcVh0 said:

    What does your texture color tone looks like? If it is paleish then you could try swapping between my pale skin shader and normal/olive skin shader (need to replace the map with your after) :)

    if you are not sure, you can send me the torso part of your texture and I can do a before after render and post here so you can have a look to see if this is what you want ;)

    That's very generous of you! I'm not sure how to send you the torso part, so I'm attaching two quickie renders by way of examples: 'A' is my 40-something Nordic character in what I consider her default colours. Example 'B' is what happens when I reapply her base texture (FWSA's Nancy) without additional shaders. Apart from the painted-on eyebrows—which I remove with ZevO's handy-dandy tool and replace with fibre eyebrows—the overall tone is darker, but  you can see how her face is altered. They hadly look like the same character, though the only thing I changed was the skin.

    Example 'A'.png
    861 x 813 - 802K
    Example 'B'.png
    861 x 813 - 836K
    Post edited by Blind Owl on
  • fastbike1fastbike1 Posts: 4,078
    edited July 2017

    @Blind Owl "but  you can see how her face is altered. They hadly look like the same character, though the only thing I changed was the skin."

    The makeup is significantly different between your two images. Makeup is associated with a given skin shader unless you use an LIE set.

    Post edited by fastbike1 on
  • Blind OwlBlind Owl Posts: 504
    fastbike1 said:

    @Blind Owl "but  you can see how her face is altered. They hadly look like the same character, though the only thing I changed was the skin."

    The makeup is significantly different between your two images. Makeup is assocaited with a given skin shader unless you use an LIE set.

    I know it looks that way, but the pale-skinned character is also wearing makeup. The main difference, besides removing the eyebrows, is applying JM's Human Shaders over the Nancy skin and makeup (using the 'Ctrl' key option and telling it to ignore). I haven't experimented with the LIE—I don't know anything about it—but maybe it's time I did.

    If I knew that the Wet and Tanned Skin shaders would only darken the skin without significantly changing the characters' appearance, that might be the way to go. Or I could just send her to Norway on her holiday. wink

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,870
    edited July 2017

     

    Wet and Tanned Skin would also affect the makeup, because the face makeup is part of the same face texture JPEG as the face skin in your example.

    Post edited by barbult on
  • Blind OwlBlind Owl Posts: 504

    Well, in that case she'll simply have to stay out of the tropical sun, or invest in lots and lots of sunscreen. It took me a long time to get this character looking this close to the way I pictured her, and every change I've tried turns her into someone else.

    Thanks for the helpful comments and suggestions! yes

  • fastbike1fastbike1 Posts: 4,078
    edited July 2017

    Here's another thing you can try. Select your character then click the Surfaces tab and select Skin. Alter the SSS Reflectance Tint to get the tone you want.

    Here are three renders of Arabella 7 with three different SS Reflectance values.

    First is 217 133 114

    Second is 182 175 157

    Third is 155 149 134

    Note that makeup and features are not altered

     

     

    Arabella trans color change.png
    750 x 1125 - 686K
    Arabella trans color 182 175 157.png
    750 x 1125 - 691K
    Arabella trans color 155 149 134.png
    750 x 1125 - 708K
    Post edited by fastbike1 on
  • Blind OwlBlind Owl Posts: 504
    fastbike1 said:

    Here's another thing you can try. Select your character then click the Surfaces tab and select Skin. Alter the SSS Reflectance Tint to get the tone you want.

    Here are three renders of Arabella 7 with three different SS Reflectnace values.

    First is 217 133 114

    Second is 182 175 157

    Third is 155 149 134

    Note that makeup and features are not altered

     

     

    That looks like a very promising method! Cheap, too, which is always a bonus. I'm off to experiment, now that I have half a clue where to start.

    Thanks for taking the time to render and post those pics, I really appreciate it.

  • fastbike1fastbike1 Posts: 4,078
    edited July 2017

    @Blind Owl  "Thanks for taking the time to render and post those pics, I really appreciate it."

    Happy to help. I understand the frustration when you want something that seems simple but isn't.

    If you want a bit of oiliness on the skin you can try the following. It's a bit fiddly and a couple of updates old. I don't know if the recent Iray changes will affect the results.

    Change Top Coat Wieght to ~0.5

    Top Coat Roughness to something less than Top Coat Weight

    Top Coat Layering Mode: Reflectivity, try a value around 0.5. Season to taste

    Here's the third render from my previous post w/ TCW 0.5, TCR 0.4, Reflectivity 0.65

    There are several products that offer a lot of lfexibility, but this is free.

     

    Arabella TCW ,5 TCR .4 Reflect .65.png
    750 x 1125 - 710K
    Post edited by fastbike1 on
  • Blind OwlBlind Owl Posts: 504

    You have my gratitude, and my character's. Just when she thought she was headed for Greenland on her summer vacation, fate stepped in... laugh

  • EcVh0EcVh0 Posts: 535
    Blind Owl said:
    fastbike1 said:

    @Blind Owl "but  you can see how her face is altered. They hadly look like the same character, though the only thing I changed was the skin."

    The makeup is significantly different between your two images. Makeup is assocaited with a given skin shader unless you use an LIE set.

    I know it looks that way, but the pale-skinned character is also wearing makeup. The main difference, besides removing the eyebrows, is applying JM's Human Shaders over the Nancy skin and makeup (using the 'Ctrl' key option and telling it to ignore). I haven't experimented with the LIE—I don't know anything about it—but maybe it's time I did.

    If I knew that the Wet and Tanned Skin shaders would only darken the skin without significantly changing the characters' appearance, that might be the way to go. Or I could just send her to Norway on her holiday. wink

    (Apologies for the late reply)

    Ahh, I can see what you mean here now, basically the only difference is you added JM's shader over your base skin to make her pale? My bet is he got his own skin texture on top that's probably why you are getting different texture result :P

  • EcVh0EcVh0 Posts: 535
    fastbike1 said:

    Here's another thing you can try. Select your character then click the Surfaces tab and select Skin. Alter the SSS Reflectance Tint to get the tone you want.

    Here are three renders of Arabella 7 with three different SS Reflectance values.

    First is 217 133 114

    Second is 182 175 157

    Third is 155 149 134

    Note that makeup and features are not altered

     

     

    That's one way to do it, tho can you post the light setting as well? Doesn't seem to be a simple one light test to me :)

  • EcVh0EcVh0 Posts: 535
    Blind Owl said:
    fastbike1 said:

    Here's another thing you can try. Select your character then click the Surfaces tab and select Skin. Alter the SSS Reflectance Tint to get the tone you want.

    Here are three renders of Arabella 7 with three different SS Reflectnace values.

    First is 217 133 114

    Second is 182 175 157

    Third is 155 149 134

    Note that makeup and features are not altered

     

     

    That looks like a very promising method! Cheap, too, which is always a bonus. I'm off to experiment, now that I have half a clue where to start.

    Thanks for taking the time to render and post those pics, I really appreciate it.

    The other way you can try, is to edit it in photoshop, turning it pale yourself by vibrance, then save it as a copy so you can use it later on other characters as well wink, the SSS tint might be a good solution but it's basically a hit and miss -> you are not supposed to get pale skin with dark texture, not in real life hahaha!

     

  • Blind OwlBlind Owl Posts: 504
    edited July 2017
    EcVh0 said:
    Blind Owl said:
    fastbike1 said:

    Here's another thing you can try. Select your character then click the Surfaces tab and select Skin. Alter the SSS Reflectance Tint to get the tone you want.

    Here are three renders of Arabella 7 with three different SS Reflectnace values.

    First is 217 133 114

    Second is 182 175 157

    Third is 155 149 134

    Note that makeup and features are not altered

     

     

    That looks like a very promising method! Cheap, too, which is always a bonus. I'm off to experiment, now that I have half a clue where to start.

    Thanks for taking the time to render and post those pics, I really appreciate it.

    The other way you can try, is to edit it in photoshop, turning it pale yourself by vibrance, then save it as a copy so you can use it later on other characters as well wink, the SSS tint might be a good solution but it's basically a hit and miss -> you are not supposed to get pale skin with dark texture, not in real life hahaha!

     

    I could if I owned Photoshop sad. As it is I have to muddle along with Paint Shop ProX1, GIMP, and Paint.net, which pale (sorry; couldn't resist) by comparison.

    But the method Fastbike suggested should be fine for my modest needs & abilities, as my first crude stab at tanning my character shows. No attempt at fine-tuning or adding gloss (yet), just proof of the basic concept: she's recognizably the same as her lighter-skinned counterpart. And where she's headed, tan lines aren't a concern hehe.

    What a helpful bunch. Thanks, all!

    Example C.png
    861 x 813 - 451K
    Post edited by Blind Owl on
  • fastbike1fastbike1 Posts: 4,078

    @ EcVh0 "That's one way to do it, tho can you post the light setting as well? Doesn't seem to be a simple one light test to me :)"

    @ Blind Owl was looking for solutions. There wasn't any "test".

    The lighting was HDR Light 06R from https://www.daz3d.com/pro-studio-hdr-lighting-system . Seems like a "simple one light" to me.

Sign In or Register to comment.