Creating Unique Characters from Reference Images Using Morph Sliders
SixDs
Posts: 2,384
I have started this thread as an adjunct to this thread:
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/308551/customized-character-tutorials/p1
in order to avoid adding a somewhat lengthy number of posts to it and potentially distracting from that thread's utility. This thread, however, does have some relevance to that subject, and by cross-linking between them, hopefully anyone interested in the subject will have ready access.
Due to the length of the subject, or at least my treatment of it, I will be putting up three main posts describing each of what I hope are logical steps in the process. I will be attempting to describe how to use reference photographs or images as inspiration to create unique 3D characters using only morph sliders contained in packages readily available for most 3D figures. The process and methodolgy are my own, and there may be others who can offer further advice or tips, which are certainly welcome.
Please bear with me while I assemble the three components, soon to follow.
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Part 1:
Obtaining and Preparing the Photo References
You can, of course, create characters of your own by simply loading a figure of your choice and randomly tweaking morph dials. However, another alternative is to take inspiration from real life by using real people as references. I use the word inspiration deliberately, to suggest that that such references may be best used without becoming obsessed with recreating a virtual doppleganger of the subject. You may wish to do that, but I warn that that can be a frustrating undertaking, with getting, say, 80% of the way there being relatively easy, but the rest of the way becoming increasingly difficult and time-consuming. That has been my experience, and I have encountered others who can attest to that as well. Under most circumstances. I personally am content to create a unique and interesting character that reflects some of the source attributes without necessarily attempting to make a perfect copy.
At this point I am compelled to state the obvious. In obtaining and using photographic references, one should, naturally, respect copyrights. While there is a vast wealth of resources available on the internet, most of that is protected by some sort of copyright. There are sources, however, that make available resources that may be used, subject to such terms and conditions as may apply, either for a fee or free of charge. It is the responsibility of the prospective user to ensure that they are in compliance with the applicable laws in using material obtained from the internet and elsewhere. As the saying goes, "Ignorance of the law is no defense". At the same time, laws in most competent jurisdictions are based upon the principle of the presumption of innocence, so we will be proceeding under the assumption that any materials used have been legally obtained and any rights to use them have also been obtained. Lastly, when it comes to the use of reference materials, including those for which rights have been conferred and may be used legally for reference purposes, that portray real individuals, celebrities, public figures or otherwise, one must understand and respect that individuals retain the rights to their likenesses, and any use to which they might be put. Once again, it is up to the individual to ensure that they are in compliance with applicable law. 'Nuff said.
So, what do you need? Well since the photographs are going to be used purely for reference purposes, we need not worry too much about resolution or lighting and such, as long as the basic features are clearly represented. We are not going to be using the photos themselves in any other way. We are interested in the relative positions and proportions of the features to one another, and their individual shapes or characteristics. I'll use a face as an example since it is, in my opinion, the area of the character that is most noticeable and contains the most detail. Comparatively, I personally find bodies to be relatively easy and simple to create. So for facial references, the minimum that I would suggest is two images: one full face, straight on; and one profile. Others can be useful as well, such as a quarter profile that illustrates the position,size and shape of the cheekbones, cheeks, and forehead, but aren't essential. The perfect references are not always available, of course, so sometimes we must make do with what we have. For an example I am going to be using some free reference photos of a model obtained from Pixabay. They are licenced as free for commercial use, with no attribution required (but, to be nice, I'll mention that they have been made available through the generosity of member himanshugunarathna, anyway). Here, at greatly reduced resolution, are the images that we'll be using:
Now you will notice that the "profile" view isn't a complete profile. Such is life. I think that enough information is provided by the image however, that we can make do with that. We'll see. Not all characters need to be as stunningly beautiful as the one we'll be using, of course, but the process will be the same.
So, to begin, we open DAZ Studio and load a base figure. I'll load Genesis 8 Female, just because (actually I have lots of morph sliders to work with there). For now, at least, I'm not concerned about textures or lighting, so we'll leave the G8F default textures and the default lighting (which is actually better for globally illuminating our figure as we work, in my opinion). I added the G8F Basic Wear bra and panties purely for the DAZ TOS here.
Now, how do we use those photographs as references? The best way that I have found is to place them in our scene, by using them as "textures" on the surfaces of plane primatives. Doing so allows us to move them around, scale them, rotate them, toggle visibility, etc. But, some preparation is in order beforehand. The first thing that we're going to do is rotate the images in an image editing program, in an attempt to ensure that the subject is oriented vertically. If we look at the first image (frontal view) you can see that the head is slightly tilted to the viewers left. We need to rotate the picture slightly clockwise to correct this. The second image ("profile" view), is significantly angled to the viewers right, so we need to rotate that on counterclockwise. Next, we need to crop the images. We really don't need the entire, original photos, just the head and neck. So rotate, crop, then save the results. Here are our modified images:
Before proceeding to place them into our scene, there are one two more things we can do with our images. Firstly, although not essental, I usually try to match the images so they are showing the subject at approximately the same scale. This can also reveal any distortion that may exist (it happens). The eyes, nose, mouth etc should be in the same positions relative to each image, scaling one or the other up or down as required. Try not to introduce any distortion of your own in doing so. Save any changes. Secondly, we need to note the aspect ratios of each of our photographs, as we will be needing to duplicate those aspect ratios with the plane primitives we'll be placing the images on in Studio, to avoid distortion.
To get the aspect ratios of our images, we can obtain the relevant information from within our image editing program, or simply right-click on the image and select Properties from the resultant popup menu. Select the Details tab in the resulting dialogue and you will see the Width and Height displayed in pixels. The units are irrelevant. We need to divide the width by the height to get our aspect ratio. In our examples, the width/height calculations yield results of 1398/2197 = 0.6363etc. for the first image, and 1644/2197 = 0.7483etc. for the second image.
Now we can create our planes in DAZ Studio. In DAZ Studio that is Create > New Primitive... > choose Plane and set the Size to .5 metres for starters. Accept. Now, select the new plane (plane, unless you have given it a name) in the Scene, then open the Parameters tab. Under X Scale enter 63.6 (thats the aspect ratio for our first image, that we calculated earlier). While we're at it, we will rotate the plane 90 degrees on the X-axis (X Rotate) to make our plane vertical. Now we are ready for our image. With the plane still selected, open the Surfaces tab, click on the plane there to highlight it, then click on the little triangle next to the Diffuse colour slider. We choose Browse and go to the location where our edited first image is located, select it and click on Open. Our image should now appear on our plane in the viewport. We can now Y Translate the plane in the Parameters tab up to the head of our figure to get it out of the way for now. We now repeat this procedure for our second image: Create > New Primitive... > choose Plane, Accept. It should now be shown under the Scene tab as plane 2. Select it and open the Parameters tab. This time, however, we must enter 74.8 on the X Scale to reflect the different aspect ratio for this image, as calculated earleir. Also, because we want this image oriented differently than the first, we first Y Rotate the plane 90 degrees, then Z Rotate it -90 degrees to make it vertical. Under the surfaces tab we once again select plane 2, click on the little triangle under the Diffuse channel, browse to our second image, select and Open it. Back under the Parameters tab we can once again Y translate plane 2 up near our figure's head. The two planes should now be intersecting in a T formation.
Almost done. The next steps involve aligning and sizing our images to fit our figure's head. Here it is best to use the Front camera view to adjust the first image, and either the Left or Right camera views to adjust the second image. When scaling the images, we must ensure that the universal scale slider under the Parameters tab is used only - adjusting any of the X, Y or Z scales individually will mess up our aspect ratio and distort the images. If the images have been scaled to match in our image editing program as described earlier, then they should both require about the same degree of scaling to match the head. Then they can be moved up or down to position them approximately.
Now, we save our scene for now (I'll call it Test Character 1). We will now have it more or less set up to create our new morph, which we can explore later. Enough for one post. :)
Part 2:
Working with the Photo References
OK, then. When we left off last time we had more-or-less set up our scene file in preparation for morphing our base Genesis 8 Female figure into some facsimile of our reference subject. Now we can begin to push some sliders around, right? Wrong. The first order of business now is to have a closer look at our subject in those reference photos, either within DAZ Studio or in an image editing program. The choice of whether to document what you find by creating a text document or simply writing it all down old school, or making mental notations (hoping you won't forget and overlook something important), is up to you. So, what are we looking for? Details, lots and lots of details. Some may be obvious, others more subtle. They will all be important. Try not to get distracted by colour - we are looking at shape!
So lets have a look, starting with the overall shape of the face, straight on. The first thing worth noting is that our reference photo was taken looking slightly down at the model from above (or the model herself has her head tilted slightly downwards). That means the features will be slightly foreshortened, and we need to keep that in mind as we work. Correcting the photo itself is possible, but tricky without a clear idea of how much correction is needed, so we'll just go with what we have. Now, what are the defining features of the subject's face? Well, she has a relatively narrow, very slightly pointed chin. The jawline slopes upwards and back to the corner in a clearly defined manner. The lower face is narrower than the upper face, sloping vertically upwards and outwards smoothly to the cheekbones in a very moderate way, then slightly inward above the brows. The cheekbones are not particularly pronounced in this view.
While still looking at the subject from the front, we should also take note of some of the more specific features of the face. The mouth is relatively narrow compared to the overall width of the face. The upper lip is relatively thin compared to the lower lip, which is quite pronounced. That upper lip has three smaller details that are important to notice: the "V" or notch between the tips of the lip is somewhat narrow in width, and quite vertically proniounced; the corners of the mouth seem to be turned upwards slightly; and the upper edges of the lip curve slightly downwards from the tips outwards to the corners. The lower lip is distincly larger or thicker than the upper, and is somewhat flattened at the bottom, so it does tend to go down from one corner, then laterally, then back up to the other corner. There is also a distinct vertical "furrow" or depression in the middle of the lower lip.
Next, moving upwards, the Philtrum (that "furrow" lying above the upper lip and running up to the base of the nose), is relatively narrow, but distinct. The nose itself is somewhat long relative to the overall face, and triangular in shape, with the nostril wings not appearing to be distincly defined, blending fairly smoothly upwards to join the nose ridge. The tip of the nose seems also to be angled somewhat downwards, with the septum (that portion under the nose separating the nostrils) being apparently pronounced as well. We can check the latter when we move on to our profile view. The nostrils themselves appear to be somewhat flattened laterally across the base of the nose. The nose is somewhat widened at the bottom, although the narrow mouth may be contributing to this appearance to a degree.The nose ridge is somewhat rounded laterally, but distinct and narrows a little as it rises to join the bridge between the eyes. The nose appears to also be slightly squewed to the individuals right.
The cheeks are slightly hollow above the jawline, but are quite defined below the cheekbones, with both the nasolabial fold and the distinct cheek crease descend in a gentle curve from there to either side of the mouth.
The eyes are somewhat slanted inwards, and the left eye appears to be very slightly lower than right.
The eyebrows are fairly thick, arched towards the outside, and fairly low in the middle.
Now lets have a look at our "profile" shot. Here, of course, we don't really have a true profile, so we must take that into account and do a little interpolation and extrapolation where required. Nevertheless, it will provide some useful information that we can work with. For starters, the lower face seems to protrude slightly outwards compared to the upper. The chin seems to line up more-or-less with the depth of the lips. the chin crease is relatively smooth, with a gradual angle outwards to the bottom lip. The lower lip seems to extend outwards just slightly more than the upper, and there is a distinctive curve to the philtrum up to join the septum. The nose itself is somewhat rounded and has only a slightly convex profile up the ridge to the bridge. The bridge itself is moderately deep and occurs at about the same level as the eyes. The brow is slightly protruding.
So, after all that, we should have a reasonable good idea of what we we need to watch out for or work with in proceeding with our character creation. Positioning the brows, eyes, nose and mouth relative to each other and the overall face, both laterally and vertically, is important in addition to adjusting their shapes and dimensions.
Part 3:
Working with the Morph Sliders
"Okay, okay, can we pul-lease get on with actually working on this character!?" Yeah, sure.
For this part I am going to tell you what I did in some sort of more-or-less logical, step-by-step fashion, but I am compelled to add that a lot of this was iterative. By that I mean that there was a whole lot of trial-and-error, and revisitation of some features along the way. In other words, it was not always straight ahead progress. I will mention, once again, that initially I work mostly in the front and side views, and only in the perspective view when I need to have a look at my progress from multiple angles. Also, you may not have all the same morphs for G8F that I do, so you may not see some of the sliders I mention. The morph packages that I do have for G8F include:
DieTrying's182 Morphs (free) http://www.sharecg.com/v/88550/favorite/21/DAZ-Studio/DieTrying-Morphs-for-G8-FFixed
Genesis 8 Female Head Morphs (purchased) https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-female-head-morphs
200 Plus Head and Face Morphs for Genesis 8 Female (purchased) https://www.daz3d.com/200-plus-head-and-face-morphs-for-genesis-8-female-s
RareStone's Face Morphs Collection for Genesis 8 Female (purchased) https://www.daz3d.com/rarestone-s-face-morphs-collection-for-genesis-8-female
Head Asymmetry Morphs for G8F, V8 (free) https://www.deviantart.com/writeblock/art/MyLibrary-688428800
SY 200 Free Morphs Genesis 8 (free) https://www.deviantart.com/sickleyield/art/SY-200-Free-Morphs-Genesis-8-756465264 or https://sharecg.com/v/91888/view/21/DAZ-Studio/SY-200-Morphs-for-Genesis-8-Head-and-Body
You will also notice, here and there, despite my own warnings against it, the use of a few select Pose morphs (which you won't see if you are working in the Shaping tab). My bad.
The Chin and Jaw:
RS Jaw and Chin Shape 01 73.1%
Chin Width 83.5%
Chin Pointed -14.9%
RS Chin Depth 59.9%
Chin Cleft 30.2%
Chin Valley Depth 5.3%
Chin Valley Height 13.8%
Jaw Corner Angle -56.7%
Jaw Corner Height 8.2%
Which gives us this:
Hmmm. Not looking too much like her yet. But plenty more adjustments to make!
The Mouth and Lips:
Mouth height -10.1%
Mouth lower to front -18.4%
Mouth upper to front -32.5%
Mouth Corner Up-Down 13.4%
Lips small Y top 9.9%
Lip Depth Lower 24.6%
Lip Depth Upper 50%
Lip Lower Size 92.7%
Lip Top Peak 100%
Lip Upper Curves 96.3%
Lip Lower Center Height 19.4%
Lip Upper Peaks Distance 47.0%
Lips Center Vertical 1 34.0%
Lips Center Vertical 2 -46.3%
RS Lips Upper Tip Creased 35.4%
SY 200 Lip Lower Arch 21.6%
SY 200 Lip Lower Center 54.9%
SY 200 Lip Lower Cleft 20.2%
Which now gives us this:
Better? Well, we got a ways to go yet.
The Cheeks:
Cheeks Depth 23.3%
Cheeks Define 30.6%
Cheeks Lower Depth -9.5%
Cheeks Nasolabial Fold Arc 100%
Cheek Crease 40.8%
Which now gives us this:
Not that much different, yet.
The Nose:
Nose flat 63.4%
Nose height 5.5%
Nose ridge deep 15.7%
Nose ridge round 49.0%
Nose round 143.4%
Nose tip up 82.6%
Nose Bridge Depth -23.9%
Nose Bridge Height 4.7%
Nose Bridge Slope -22.4%
Nose Bridge Width 28.4%
Nose Bump 12.7%
Nose Flesh Size 38.1%
Nose Ridge Width 100%
Nose Septum Depth -29.1%
Nose Septum Height 39.4%
Nose Septum Width -28.5%
Nose Skew -27.6%
Nose Tip Depth -43.3%
Nose Tip Height -32.1%
Nose Tip Width -77.6%
Nose Width -29.1%
Nose Curve In 19.8%
Nose Style Angular A 100%
Nose Depth -11.2%
Nose Wing Height -100%
RS Nose Septum Curve In -2.3%
RS NoseTip Rounded 45.1%
Nostrils flat 79.9%
Nostrils turn up -120.6%
Nostrils wide 37.1%
Nostril Wing Height -26.9%
Nostril Wing Width -20.9%
Nostrils Front Height 25.4%
Whew, which now gives us:
Starting to look like ... someone?
The Eyes: (The windows to the back of your head, if you are a 3D figure)
Eyes big 45.4%
Eyes depth 35.5%
Eyes height 8.7%
Eyes height with eyebrow 1.5%
Eyes slanted to inner 30.4%
Eyelids Lower Up-Down -3.8%
Eyes Squint-Widen -25.6%
Eyes Iris Size 11.9%
Eye-Left Vertical Up Down -3.0%
And so, we now have:
Now we seem to be getting ... somewhere.
The Brow and Eyebrows:
Eyebrows inner up 1.5%
Eyebrows up -33.2%
Brow Depth 59.1%
Brows Distance -66.4%
Brows Middle Height -30.6%
Brows Outer Height 34.3%
RS Brows Angles 45.1%
Brow Up-Down 5.1%
and finally,
Overall Face:
Face wide 24.0%
Face Angle -14.8%
Face Lower Depth 32.9%
Which gives us:
Now, I know what you're thinking. No, seriously, I know what you're thinking! But never mind that, back to our character. It doesn't really look all that much like our reference, you say. Well no, but thats because, after having her face pushed and poked, pulled and prodded, shes looking a little peaked. Thus far we have been focusing on the mesh - it is the shape that we have been interested in recreating. Obviously to complete the illusion (or not) we're going to need to apply an appropriate texture/material to that mesh to really see how well we've done. Some fine tuning of the eyebrows will need to be done once we have chosen and applied a texture.
Stay tuned ...
You have been very patient. Those of you who have managed to hang in here, anyway. So, I applied a texture to our morphed character and tweaked it a bit, then added a hair, some clothes for modesty, some proper lights and then rendered the results. So here, for your consideration is the more-or-less finished result of our labours. Now this is not your Iraymyrayallthewayhooray render. No, this is, in the words of Ned Flanders, a "3dDeedelylight" render. So not photoreal, whatever that actually means. Not a perfect success, perhaps, but an interesting enough character to add to the content library nontheless, no? Anyway, that is probably how I'll leave it. All she needs is a name - Andrea, I'm considering.
A couple of tricks:
1. Reference photos are best to discolored. And it is better to work also in the modes "without color" (Solid Shaded/Wire Shaded). This allows you to focus on the details of the geometry, without distortion brought by color (makeup, lighting, etc.). "War Paint" to do the latter, when the geometry is ready.
2. Leave one head and neck visible, hide the rest.
Good tips, GETSX. Thanks for popping in!
Then some more tips.
Seen videos on YouTube, where quite ordinary girls, painting their face with mascara and lipstick, in a couple of tens of minutes turn into elven princesses? Yeah, it's good magic optical illusion. With most reference photos, the exact same story. And the negative (in this case) effect of makeup and light and shade will need to be minimized.
Thank you once again for offering your insights, GETSX (and revealing your alter ego, RKane_1
). The link to your tutorial is also appreciated.
In addition to not wanting to clutter up the other thread and potentially detract from dracorn's original intent in starting it, which was a series of tutorials related to the creation of custom characters, there was a second reason why I chose to create a kind of fork. I didn't really wish to present a tutorial or "how to" on the subject I have been describing, thus the deliberate avoidance of presenting it as such. In my mind a tutorial needs to a carefully organized, chronological description of steps, beginning to end, and, despite there being some elements of that that have inevitably crept into my discussion, that was not fundamentally my intent. Rather, I was most interested in demonstrating what one can do with some of the tools available in the hopes that it might encourage users to play a little "outside the box" of ready-made content. I was reticent about getting too technical or pedantic about the subject for fear of scaring off some users, rather than encouraging them to experiment. For most users, this stuff should be at least as much fun, as it is work, in my opinion.
Having said that, I certainly would agree that a disciplined, systematic approach is the way to go to achieve consistent results, and I would assume that such an approach would be the ultimate evolution of the processes used by individuals getting hooked on character creation.