Building Human Skin Textures

anikadanikad Posts: 1,919
edited December 1969 in New Users

Does anyone know how to build human skin textures without the use of photographs? Can anyone direct me to some good tutorials? Many thanks.

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Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,961
    edited November 2013

    Using what tools - Poser, DAZ Studio, Carrara, a 2D image editor? Without any photo resources at all, or just without a set of human skin resources?

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • anikadanikad Posts: 1,919
    edited December 1969

    Sorry I don't know how you would do it at all. I'm interested in the different ways it can be done. If I understand correctly - texturing for characters is primarily done using hires photographs of models? How do you make skin textures if you don't have photographs of models?

  • XoechZXoechZ Posts: 1,102
    edited December 1969

    Some artists simply paint the skin. As they would paint it on a canvas. Photographs are often used as a reference to get the right tone and value of the skin.

  • almahiedraalmahiedra Posts: 1,352
    edited December 1969

    I ask. A semiprocedural skin would be acceptable? I saw an interesting article on multilevel description of skins with statistical aproach, but ... people could be against to use something generated.

  • icprncssicprncss Posts: 3,694
    edited December 1969

    It depends. With a lot of work, you can create a very realistic looking set of textures using the Poser material room. The only thing I needed that I couldn't generate inside the materials room was the mask for the eyebrows.

    To paint a skin from the ground up is going to be incredibly time consuming and require an artist of considerable talent. Most artist I know that have the ability to paint that well are actually painting.

  • anikadanikad Posts: 1,919
    edited December 1969

    gilikshe said:
    I ask. A semiprocedural skin would be acceptable? I saw an interesting article on multilevel description of skins with statistical aproach, but ... people could be against to use something generated.

    Yes, it would be good to learn about this.

  • almahiedraalmahiedra Posts: 1,352
    edited December 1969

    anikad said:
    gilikshe said:
    I ask. A semiprocedural skin would be acceptable? I saw an interesting article on multilevel description of skins with statistical aproach, but ... people could be against to use something generated.

    Yes, it would be good to learn about this.

    I see for example these:
    http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/manik/pubs/varma07b.pdf
    http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/12/7/8691/pdf
    And I interested in this, possibly I can obtain it in my university
    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ima.20132/abstract

    Regardless articles are very "raw", the aproach is promising. Of course, it need the procedure to generate texture based on caracterization, and even need have skin samples to obtain caracteristics in key places for texture and color; but seamless, resolution and variety problems stop and it is not need "unwrap" an entire people.

  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited December 1969

    Sometimes information is also found over in the well hidden Nuts 'n Bolts thread. [have to be in the Commons to see it listed on the tree]

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/31369/ I started this one.

  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,803
    edited December 1969

    Anikad,

    Thanks for starting this thread. I was just thinking however that a thread like this will gain much more traction in the Commons, as I for one have almost never visited the New Users part of the forum. Let's see how it goes here and if not much action results I'll ask a mod to move it to the Commons.

    As I stated in the other thread, there are ways to make skin without resorting to expensive photo sessions. For the hobbyist market we are in, we should not be afraid to take risks and try new things.

    First, I want to point the readers to the artwork of Kelvin Okafor. All of the images below were drawn by hand with a pencil. Every single pore, every single crease of the skin, every shimmer of the eye was drawn in by hand.

    If he can do it, so can we.

    http://enpundit.com/hyperrealistic-drawings-by-kelvin-okafor/

    article-0-173EB626000005DC-662_472x934.jpg
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  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,803
    edited December 1969

    Sometimes information is also found over in the well hidden Nuts 'n Bolts thread. [have to be in the Commons to see it listed on the tree]

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/31369/ I started this one.

    Oh wow! I did not know about this thread. Fantastic stuff and I'd love to see what the results look like.

    I have been playing around with doing this myself. Here are a few images to demonstrate where I am currently in the process. I am using Carrara to paint in 3 dimensions. I work with several seamlessly tiling texture images that produce most of the activity on the skin surface. I have not gotten to the point of adding wrinkles yet, that and other imperfections are next once I'm happy with the basic skin surface structure. I am using PSP 12 to add in other effect layers. It is all quite fiddly but fun none the less.

    Feedback is appreciated. Thanks all for your time.

    Face_Map_1.jpg
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    Face_Map_2.jpg
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  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    TIP: To all the artist in this thread who can and will do Free textures or even textures to be sold at a future date.

    To me the one item I need more than a FULL new texture for my figures or even AGE for a full new Texture or character are those little things that make all skins different. Birthmarks, age spots, moles, small scars and other imperfections all human skins have. I would buy a product that allowed me to customize the textures in my content right now. So my characters made with, V6 Bree for example, did not look exactly like the Bree rendered by another user. Want a beauty mark on her chin? Add one. I can and sometimes do edit the textures I use, but I'm a if it is made type I'll use it before I do it myself.

    End of TIP/Product suggestion.

  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,803
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail said:
    TIP: To all the artist in this thread who can and will do Free textures or even textures to be sold at a future date.

    To me the one item I need more than a FULL new texture for my figures or even AGE for a full new Texture or character are those little things that make all skins different. Birthmarks, age spots, moles, small scars and other imperfections all human skins have. I would buy a product that allowed me to customize the textures in my content right now. So my characters made with, V6 Bree for example, did not look exactly like the Bree rendered by another user. Want a beauty mark on her chin? Add one. I can and sometimes do edit the textures I use, but I'm a if it is made type I'll use it before I do it myself.

    End of TIP/Product suggestion.

    Have you seen this yet?
    http://www.daz3d.com/skin-overlay-for-v4-and-m4-skin-sets

    With tools like this, a lot of the flaws are made easy to produce. Gotta Love Zev0!!!!!!!!

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited November 2013

    Yes and I own it, but it does not allow me to add JUST one age spot WHERE I want it. It will be the SAME on every render that other users use the product on. I love all Zev0 items. But I'm talking I can control where on my texture the blemish is needed. Think LIE overlays.

    EDIT: I even know HOW to make them. And have some I have done. I'm just offering a idea that another might like. And Hoping they do a full set for me to just use as I need. Instead of me stopping and making my own.

    EDIT 2, I'll stop taking the thread OFF Topic now. Sorry.

    Post edited by Jaderail on
  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,803
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail said:
    Yes and I own it, but it does not allow me to add JUST one age spot WHERE I want it. It will be the SAME on every render that other users use the product on. I love all Zev0 items. But I'm talking I can control where on my texture the blemish is needed. Think LIE overlays.

    EDIT: I even know HOW to make them. And have some I have done. I'm just offering a idea that another might like. And Hoping they do a full set for me to just use as I need. Instead of me stopping and making my own.

    I plan to take areas and create brushes that I can then use at will on any character I please not just the Uv's that are included. I assume this is okay because these items are merchant resources. One could even use clone brushes and the like to edit the layers to create spots where you want them and erase spot from the areas where you don't want them.

  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,803
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail said:
    Yes and I own it, but it does not allow me to add JUST one age spot WHERE I want it. It will be the SAME on every render that other users use the product on. I love all Zev0 items. But I'm talking I can control where on my texture the blemish is needed. Think LIE overlays.

    EDIT: I even know HOW to make them. And have some I have done. I'm just offering a idea that another might like. And Hoping they do a full set for me to just use as I need. Instead of me stopping and making my own.

    EDIT 2, I'll stop taking the thread OFF Topic now. Sorry.

    Okay, well have you seen this?

    APs Brushes: Skin Textures
    http://artatm.com/2013/01/photoshop-free-texture-brushes-resources/

    Scroll down the page a little and you will see the scar and imperfection brushes as well as other skin brushes well known and used for lots of stuff.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    LOL! My friend I'm thinking from INSIDE DAZ Studio like the Wound, and Tattoo products sold at this time.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Just found this for someone else.

    May be relevant here as well

    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/textures/misc-text10

  • icprncssicprncss Posts: 3,694
    edited December 1969

    Procedural skin textures can be done but there is one major issue to them. Because they are dependent upon the materials room or equivalent, they are render engine specific. Granted there are a couple of popular third party render engines and their support plugins. Lux and Octane being two of them. But that still entails at the very least a third party plugin to adapt the the shaders to render engine. Even with the plugin there is no guarantee the results will be the same.

    Rebelmommy's tutorial is good but it still uses human resource photos. She also suggests using other MR's. All MR's come with vendor restrictions and conditions. Taking an MR base, slapping some eyes from one MR set and lips from another really isn't kosher. Maybe it's "acceptable" but it's not "yours". If you've been at this any length of time, you start being able to recognize not only individual vendor's work but the MR's they use.

  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited December 1969

    Any photoshop brushes used really need to be big, not just small pixel size. Remember The average texture size is 4096x4096. Brushes -100 are more often then not far too small for what its intended to paint, and when scaled up are degraded. The other thing to keep in mind is the Readme of the brushes, frequently they are personal use ONLY with your standard no redistribution. Some have it noted that you MUST credit the maker in all works where the brushes were used.

  • anikadanikad Posts: 1,919
    edited December 1969

    icprncss said:
    It depends. With a lot of work, you can create a very realistic looking set of textures using the Poser material room. The only thing I needed that I couldn't generate inside the materials room was the mask for the eyebrows.

    Thanks, do you have any links to tutorials on texturing using the poser material room?

  • anikadanikad Posts: 1,919
    edited December 1969

    Stephanie Valetine has a series of tutorials on drawing realistic skin etc in photoshop
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1uaysIgEOs

    Eddie Russell has a tutorial on digital tutors (as it's paid I'm guessing any link will be removed) called Painting Realistic 3D Skin Textures in Photoshop: Hands.

    I also found this on creating realistic skin tones: http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/creative-lifestyle/how-create-realistic-skin-tones/

  • anikadanikad Posts: 1,919
    edited December 1969

    Sometimes information is also found over in the well hidden Nuts 'n Bolts thread. [have to be in the Commons to see it listed on the tree]

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/31369/ I started this one.

    Thanks for sharing.

  • KickAir 8PKickAir 8P Posts: 1,865
    edited November 2013

    icprncss said:
    Procedural skin textures can be done but there is one major issue to them. Because they are dependent upon the materials room or equivalent, they are render engine specific . . .

    Or you can use procedural texture software to create resources for making skin texture maps: Genetica can make human skin, extremely good skin, in seamless tiles, with matching effects maps like displacement. But a human body has several different types of skin in different places, so once you've made all of them, then you have to apply them all in the right places with realistic transitions between them. Doable, but difficult and time-consuming work requiring the development of several different skill sets.

    I wouldn't think it was worth it, except it can all be done on the computers we already have with relatively inexpensive software by people with the time to devote to it and the ability to develop the skills, as opposed to a couple thousand dollars in photographic equipment (most of it necessary to get the lighting right), a human body with the right characteristics wrapped around someone willing to go through a difficult and humiliating photoshoot, someone with the skills for this kind of photography, a space for it to happen in, and a timeframe where it can all be brought together. Compared to that . . . ?

    Post edited by KickAir 8P on
  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    Just found this for someone else.

    May be relevant here as well

    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/textures/misc-text10

    Those poor pages would be so much more helpful IF the pictures would show lol ...

  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,803
    edited December 1969

    icprncss said:
    Procedural skin textures can be done but there is one major issue to them. Because they are dependent upon the materials room or equivalent, they are render engine specific. Granted there are a couple of popular third party render engines and their support plugins. Lux and Octane being two of them. But that still entails at the very least a third party plugin to adapt the the shaders to render engine. Even with the plugin there is no guarantee the results will be the same.

    I'd say semi-procedural is the best route. I create procedural images that can tile seamlessly, and I produce them at large scales if needed 2048 and above sometimes, but usually I create multiple brushes which vary in scale. I then paint with these tiles and the result looks like I showed on the previous page.

    Rebelmommy's tutorial is good but it still uses human resource photos. She also suggests using other MR's. All MR's come with vendor restrictions and conditions. Taking an MR base, slapping some eyes from one MR set and lips from another really isn't kosher. Maybe it's "acceptable" but it's not "yours". If you've been at this any length of time, you start being able to recognize not only individual vendor's work but the MR's they use.

    Good to know. Thanks. I was assuming the same which is why I am building my own textures from scratch in every possible way.

  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,803
    edited December 1969

    icprncss said:
    Procedural skin textures can be done but there is one major issue to them. Because they are dependent upon the materials room or equivalent, they are render engine specific . . .

    Or you can use procedural texture software to create resources for making skin texture maps: Genetica can make human skin, extremely good skin, in seamless tiles, with matching effects maps like displacement. But a human body has several different types of skin in different places, so once you've made all of them, then you have to apply them all in the right places with realistic transitions between them. Doable, but difficult and time-consuming work requiring the development of several different skill sets.

    I wouldn't think it was worth it, except it can all be done on the computers we already have with relatively inexpensive software by people with the time to devote to it and the ability to develop the skills, as opposed to a couple thousand dollars in photographic equipment (most of it necessary to get the lighting right), a human body with the right characteristics wrapped around someone willing to go through a difficult and humiliating photoshoot, someone with the skills for this kind of photography, a space for it to happen in, and a timeframe where it can all be brought together. Compared to that . . . ?

    Genetica is where I've gotten several of my brush effects. agreed with this observation and suggestion.

  • Rashad CarterRashad Carter Posts: 1,803
    edited December 1969

    FYI, does anyone have any feedback for me regarding the samples I uploaded the other day from my current M5 project? I need as much feedback as possible, the more honest and brutal the better, I won't be offended because I want to produce something that truly looks great.

    1. So far I have been concentrating on a basic skin surface effect. What you see in the examples is of a seamlessly tiling texture I have used to paint uniformly over the model in Carrara. The effect is supposed to give the impression of some leatheriness and some subtle pores, not the major stretched enlarged pores of the under eye and forehead, those will come later once I'm happy with the basic skin effect.

    2. There is some very basic coloring, I could go much much farther with variation and indeed will, I uploaded these examples a little sooner than I'd planned because the thread came up when it did, but in future uploads there will be more coloring.

    So I am asking what do you guys think of it so far? What do you think of the forehead? Does the "skin" look plausible in the most basic sense? Are the bumps too deep, are the leather grain impressions too constrasty or not contrasty enough. Do you like the fact that the material never loses focus, from the tip of the nose to the top of the forehead there are no blurred out areas. Does this strike you as a good thing or bad?

    Thanks all for your feedback. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

  • KickAir 8PKickAir 8P Posts: 1,865
    edited December 1969

    So I am asking what do you guys think of it so far? What do you think of the forehead? Does the "skin" look plausible in the most basic sense? Are the bumps too deep, are the leather grain impressions too constrasty or not contrasty enough. Do you like the fact that the material never loses focus, from the tip of the nose to the top of the forehead there are no blurred out areas. Does this strike you as a good thing or bad?
    Very happy with the lack of blurring! Basic (prior to detail flaws being added) plausibility looks good to me. Bump may need a bit more depth, not sure -- I don't really have a good eye for this.

    .
    Procedural skin textures can be done but there is one major issue to them. Because they are dependent upon the materials room or equivalent, they are render engine specific . . .

    Or you can use procedural texture software to create resources for making skin texture maps: Genetica can make human skin, extremely good skin, in seamless tiles, with matching effects maps like displacement. But a human body has several different types of skin in different places, so once you've made all of them, then you have to apply them all in the right places with realistic transitions between them . . .

    Genetica is where I've gotten several of my brush effects. agreed with this observation and suggestion.
    I just put some prelim work up on their forum to get some advice -- can't say I'm very good with it, just playing around right now.

    Another helpful spot is the humanæ project -- not really intended for this, but the background color of each shot is extracted from an 11x11 pixel sample of a non-highlighted area of the portrayed´s face and all the photos are done with the same setup, so it can be a handy reference.
  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited December 1969

    ... edit ...
    Another helpful spot is the humanæ project -- not really intended for this, but the background color of each shot is extracted from an 11x11 pixel sample of a non-highlighted area of the portrayed´s face and all the photos are done with the same setup, so it can be a handy reference.

    Awesome! Thanks :-)

  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited December 1969

    FYI, does anyone have any feedback for me regarding the samples I uploaded the other day from my current M5 project? I need as much feedback as possible, the more honest and brutal the better, I won't be offended because I want to produce something that truly looks great.

    1. So far I have been concentrating on a basic skin surface effect. What you see in the examples is of a seamlessly tiling texture I have used to paint uniformly over the model in Carrara. The effect is supposed to give the impression of some leatheriness and some subtle pores, not the major stretched enlarged pores of the under eye and forehead, those will come later once I'm happy with the basic skin effect.

    2. There is some very basic coloring, I could go much much farther with variation and indeed will, I uploaded these examples a little sooner than I'd planned because the thread came up when it did, but in future uploads there will be more coloring.

    So I am asking what do you guys think of it so far? What do you think of the forehead? Does the "skin" look plausible in the most basic sense? Are the bumps too deep, are the leather grain impressions too constrasty or not contrasty enough. Do you like the fact that the material never loses focus, from the tip of the nose to the top of the forehead there are no blurred out areas. Does this strike you as a good thing or bad?

    Thanks all for your feedback. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

    To get more attention to a particular project, starting this as a WIP thread in the Commons might be a good idea.

    I like the lips, the skin ... but not the lower eyelashes and I'd make the irises to be more of a "winter" colour by putting a little black rim around 'em. Just my 2 cents worth, worth.

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