Layered image/texture project help
I have been dabbling with Daz off and on for quite a while, I know enough to be dangerous with it, still getting used to the newer interface of 4.6 since I stopped using Daz almost a year ago so some things have changed.
So onto a question, I have been interested in trying my hand at textures, uv etc, so I have set myself a project, I have a character in mind whose skin is lightly covered in sigils, Enochian to be exact, angelic script. Faintly drawn over almost every inch of skin, with a soft glow which increases with stress/exertion, drawn may be a bad term, almost branded but it would be under the skins surface.
Now, I know with Genesis 2 and or it may just be Daz itself you can use a layered image editor for texture adding and editing. Would this be the way to go? This is the point where my knowledge begins to go into muddy territory. I presume I am going to be using something akin to photoshop/gimp for most of this work, and for the glow possibly SSS to spread it under the skin a little. I would prefer as little post work as possible, and as little external work with Gimp or photoshop as possible because honestly I cannot seem to get the hang of them at all, them and I have a very bad relationship, but if it has to be done, it has to be done.
So, a link, a point in the right direction, even telling me to try something simpler to start would be a lot of help.
Thank you.
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I'd use a geometry shell rather than the layered image editor. Use a transparency map in the shape of the sigils and then you can use a glowing shader on the surface to make the sigils stand out. Alternatively, turn the sigil into an Uber Area light to give them a REAL glow.
The main benefits to using geometry shells are that they're not restricted by the UV set used by your main figure (so V6, V5 and V4 textures can all be used with just the one set of sigil textures) and they can have a different shader type to your figure. This means, as previously mentioned, it can be made to glow by turning it into an area light or using the awesome pwEffect shaders.
Here's a very quick example I threw together.
Ok, that would be perfect :) now, just a nod in the right direction to where I need to go to figure out how to do it on my own would be perfect, I know enough bits and pieces to get the basic concept but not enough to know where to start.
Even if it's "Noob, its a basic, X program concept" lol...Edit and it is lol, ok lots of work to do to get up to speed, really am a noob here lol
Just getting the concepts really of uv maps, transparencies etc. Well, have to start somewhere and a project with a goal is the best way.
Heading to google to begin my own research as well.
I assume that can be done as finely as you wish as well, no? In my head the lines are almost fine felt tip thin light blackish with the glow making them more visible.
A geometry shell is basically a copy of the original mesh but expanded outwards. Under the Parameters you can change the offset to bring the shell closer to the original mesh. You can use this for all kinds of useful effects, such as your sigils. To create one you can either click on the icon shown below or find it under the Create menu. Ensure you have your figure selected when you create it.
The geometry shell shares the same surfaces as the original mesh, so if you want only parts of it to be visible you will need to set the opacity of the hidden parts to zero. Note that they will still be calculated in the final render, so it will have a small impact on render times, but it's more noticeable when you're using a transparency map.
The opacity map is a simple black and white image where the black parts are invisible and the white parts are fully visible (opaque). Shades of grey in an opacity map give varying degrees of transparency depending on how dark or light it is. Using Photoshop you can draw your sigils using a white brush on a new layer. Use the skin map as a template on another layer to position them. Then delete the skin layer and keep the sigils you've drawn. Create a new layer, fill it in with black and push it to the back to give a white-on-black image and then save it as a JPG, PNG or similar.
You can then apply this opacity map to the geometry shell in the appropriate place to give the final effect.
Ahh ok, I have about a 70% comprehension of what you explained, but I will be able to figure it out from here with trial and error, thank you so much :). It will require me to go back and fight once more with gimp or photoshop who I exiled onto an external long ago to rot... lol
Ok, this is what I have done so far with your advice, it will be refined much farther, done smaller etc. Took your advice, loving the PWeffects. Still trying to figure out how to get a satisfactory "glow" and trying to figure out how to turn the shell into an uber light but haven't put much effort into the research. Any suggestions on refinements or pointers would be appreciated.
I'll give a quick example of the glows here so you can spot the difference. The one on the left is using pwEffects. You'll notice it has a nicer pattern, but doesn't cast its light anywhere else. The one on the right is the UberAreaLight which, as the name suggests, means it's treated as a light source, allowing it to cast light onto other objects. In this case, Super Sadie and the floor are both illuminated by the kryptonite.
Ahh ok. The fading in and out is the desired effect of the sigils, just noticeable not prominent, realtime they would seem to be shimmering and fading in and out. So the folding into the mesh is working as intended :).
Now sort of thinking out loud, is it then possible to combine both pweffect and uber? Turn the geo shell into an uber light with the effect shader as a mask? I am assuming not or you would have shown that as an example.. So next question, would it then be possible to use a third shell, offset underneath the shell with the sigils, turned into an uber light, and use it with the glow I was looking for and it would then in turn bleed through the opacity of the sigils of the shell with the pweffect opacity mask in place?
Think I will go figure out how to turn a geo shell into an uber light and do that. see if it works :) might turn whatever scene I do into a marathon render though, but can always turn the extra shell into a do not render.
A single object can certainly have multiple shells, but be careful not to try adding a geometry shell to an existing geometry shell as it will crash Daz Studio. Each layer can then have its own special effects :)
Actually you can Mask your text on the First Geo-Shell, so only the Text is visible and then use the Uber Area light on it. Only the Visible in render part of the Geo-shell will glow or be shown in the render. You should only use Uber Area on the Surface of the Geo-Shell that the Text is on, not on the full mesh.
Thank you both, I have enough info and through digging through dozens of searches I have more info to have me stumbling along at breakneck speed only slamming into a few walls now. Able to kind of make the shell a base uber light...sort of, no luck getting light out of it yet lol but I will get it figured out, probably a finetuning of what to select etc. managed to get a shell inside a shell and turn the inside shell into my aforementioned kind of uber light but ran into the same issues. Once I get things tuned I will post what I have managed to do. I would like to get a combo of the pweffects and a light glowing through, that is my best of both worlds goal.
I am going to add, loving the helpfulness and tone of the forums here.
Not sure if you spotted this yet Tutorial Uber Area Lighting: The Basics if you have any questions feel free to ask about Area Lighting in that thread. :)
I had and I will once I read to the end, thank you, I have read several of your tutorials actually, they have given me a nice headstart or maybe a help back up from a long absence, probably both. :)
Well, I had moved over into Szarks thread on uber area lighting where we discovered using it on something as complex as a geo mesh runs into a hornets nest of problems and without increasing samples insanely high (1024) it behaved in extremely odd ways due to the interactions of the poly count and the smoothing (Paraphrasing it was a bit above my head, it is all in the last couple pages in the uber area lighting tutorial thread) and due to the fact the effect I am doing would be across the surface of an entire shell I do not want to render for six days, so uber area lighting is out for the light emitting idea.
The following images were made using a linear point light inside the figure, a trans map on the torso of the sigils text color grey, background white. Then applied in the translucency channel. Applied an opacity map in the ambient channel and turned it on for the torso as well, color set to the blue. Turned the point light color blue, lowered the intensity and falloff.
I am still looking to try and incorporate the pweffect in some way, to make the sigils a more ghost like faded look. I am going to go back and play around with that now because I may be able to do that with this set up.
Edit: I am not sure if this is still new user help, a WIP, both...I will leave it up to the mods to sort it out. :)
You could try going to a lighter grey on the translucency map...or play around with it.
This is an example of what I meant, not perfect, this is using a geo shell and pweffect since applying it to the torso directly just makes it disappear lol. And in doing this I have had a bit of a brainstorm. I can get an approximation of this exactly like this by combining what I did above, with the shell and just switching off the visibility of the script on the torso and leaving the transparency intact to allow the light to pass through, but then I lose the sss and the light spread you would get if the sigils were actually under the skin.
It seems I can get one thing and lose another.
I can get what I got in the above posts, but not what I show in this post, I can get what I have in this post with the light emitting, but then not the subsurface scatter in the skin you would actually get with something like this. Either way, I am learning more in this project than I had just muddling along keeping to myself all my time prior, glad I stepped out of lurking.
Edit: Hmm, not as clear in the post as it is on my end, it is supposed to be parts of the text faded, other are brighter glowing, some almost gone altogether. I have a feeling I am just going to have to bite the bullet and get to know gimp better and do this on the map in pre-work or on the final image in post. Though post would be a lot of fiddling work.
I'll play around with an idea in GIMP a little later and post an image...