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Greetings. Been away from this forum a while. I put together a scene recently I thought would be appreciated here. She turned out so terminally cute, I just had to share. I call her Sanice, which is a combination of Sanura and Caprice. The model is Laura 3 with the Caprice full body and head morph and the Sanura V3 texture. She's wearing Laura's bikini from Faerie Dreams, retextured as a denim outfit. Neftis' Beautiful Black Hair, naturally. Just to show there's still life in the Gen 3 characters. :lol:
Slimer, what background did you use? Was it a 2d photo or did you use a set?
McRen had a question about M3/V3 Egyptians that never got answered. LJWM had a post where apparently he/she deleted the content.
Others have been reporting some sorts of issues, but I haven't experienced them myself.
I'm a female. I deleted my post because I figured out what I think was wrong with the render.
The girl in Slimer's render is nice but something's not quite right with the lighting for me. That's the same with the little warrior for the Birthday card above and many dark skin renders I've seen. I won't explain in detail now but even dark skin must have a translucency and bump texture. It's much harder with dark skin because too many things can go wrong, dry/ashy looking, skin that looks orange, unnatural and unattractive skin patch tones. This is not the same for pale or "white" skin tones and the different tones need different lighting techniques than everything else around it. I'm not sure if that's because the creator of the texture didn't realize this or lighting skills are lacking. Either way, darker skin tones can look great but they need extra attention.
I haven't found one 3d light training course that teaches this. I've worked hundreds of hours on lighting dark skin tones to get it where I feel comfortable. Some dark skin textures are really bad and no lighting and adjustments help. Others are much better and only need skilled lighting to get them to look like skin. For me I've spent more money and time on skin textures and lighting then I care to think about to get dark skin to look like...well skin. It's difficult because you have to take into account the background lighting as well but it can be done. For me I've had to teach myself by trial and error. I've considered posting a tutorial on it but I'm not sure if anyone else realizes the problem.
I personally would be interested in what advice you have on working with dark skins.
Slimer, what background did you use? Was it a 2d photo or did you use a set?
It's 2D. It's one of my own photos. I did a different render a while back using pwcatch to make shadows on the bridge railing and ground, but it was a bit tedious. This would be quite a set if it was a model!
I'm a female. I deleted my post because I figured out what I think was wrong with the render.
The girl in Slimer's render is nice but something's not quite right with the lighting for me. That's the same with the little warrior for the Birthday card above and many dark skin renders I've seen. I won't explain in detail now but even dark skin must have a translucency and bump texture. It's much harder with dark skin because too many things can go wrong, dry/ashy looking, skin that looks orange, unnatural and unattractive skin patch tones. This is not the same for pale or "white" skin tones and the different tones need different lighting techniques than everything else around it. I'm not sure if that's because the creator of the texture didn't realize this or lighting skills are lacking. Either way, darker skin tones can look great but they need extra attention.
I haven't found one 3d light training course that teaches this. I've worked hundreds of hours on lighting dark skin tones to get it where I feel comfortable. Some dark skin textures are really bad and no lighting and adjustments help. Others are much better and only need skilled lighting to get them to look like skin. For me I've spent more money and time on skin textures and lighting then I care to think about to get dark skin to look like...well skin. It's difficult because you have to take into account the background lighting as well but it can be done. For me I've had to teach myself by trial and error. I've considered posting a tutorial on it but I'm not sure if anyone else realizes the problem.
It's probably lighting skills that are lacking. :red: Remember also, this is a V3 skin texture. They were not up to the standard of the V4 Elite textures like Marie. What I usually try for with dark skin is some specular shine that's not too glossy, not too bright. Dark skin should have a silkyness to it, IMO. I would certainly appreciate a tutorial, if you have the time. I'm using DS3, and no Uber lights, or IBL. I think it's possible to achieve what you are talking about, but I agree, it takes time and persistence.
With fair skin, what I try to avoid is models that come out waxy looking. I don't like that look at all.
Hi Slimer, Actually it's not a bad render. In fact it's much better than I've seen in most. As for textures, I've purchased Elite textures as well as downloaded a few free ones and I have to say that I've find several elite textures that are so bad I wouldn't have given them away and you can light them all day long and never get a decent render. Then I've been able to get several free ones and I love them to death. My first rule is this: If the creator can't light it right on the product page, how in world am I going to. If the creator doesn't know that dark skin humans have different tones on their palms and the soles of their feet I don't want it at any price. The care and detail in the texture is likely not there enough for me. I write novels and my publisher was kind enough to let me design my own covers after submitting several renders. I have to make each render as professional and attractive as I possibly can. All my characters are beautiful people so I'm much more picky than most I'm sure.
I even purchased Reality and all the training videos. I also contacted the developer for Reality and with all that Reality was a complete waste of time and lots of money. The dark skin textures never came out right even with the developer's help. I don't use Uber lights or IBL I have never taken the time to teach myself well enough to fix the mess they make of my dark skin textures. I purchased a lighting program from Dreamlight that includes Uber and IBL training and I'll see if that is a waste of money as well. Anyway, I'm currently working hard on a new render for a cover that is working out well. I'm leaning towards writing that tutorial because dark skins can look beautiful in renders too and it shouldn't take 50 renders to get it right.
I certainly agree about the waxiness of white or pale skin tones. Most of my renders include both white or pale morphs as well as dark skinned morphs. For me the white or pale skinned morphs fair much better with the background lighting. Maybe it's just me but I do much better with them with standard lighting techniques than with the darker skin tones. But when they are in the same render I seem to have to work extra hard to get them both to look well.
This render is one that I trained myself on. I've posted this one before but what I wanted to show here is her face tones, her belly tones and her eyes. Her skin looks healthy, has translucency, the belly muscles are clearly visible and her dark tones are not ashy. The tones for her are very close to what I always look for in dark skin tones. Even in darker lighting, dark skin tones should be rich and not ashy looking. Her knees and forearms are still rich even in the dark. Not only is she beautiful, the lighting makes sure anyone who sees it will agree with me. It took a lot of renders just to get to this point because I had to make sure all the background lighting and the male looked great before I could even start on her. But after about 10 more adjustments (her forearms and shoulders in this render should be lighter where the light is coming from) I finally got it where I wasn't embarrassed to show it.
It's 2D. It's one of my own photos. I did a different render a while back using pwcatch to make shadows on the bridge railing and ground, but it was a bit tedious. This would be quite a set if it was a model!
I really like it. Please let me know if you ever make it available for others to use.
It's 2D. It's one of my own photos. I did a different render a while back using pwcatch to make shadows on the bridge railing and ground, but it was a bit tedious. This would be quite a set if it was a model!
I really like it. Please let me know if you ever make it available for others to use.
I've thought about that, but I'm a little reluctant to do it. If I ever do release some background photos, they will be in my ShareCG Gallery. This one's from a hotel in Solvang, Ca. (Just playing tourist, LOL)There's another I took at Scripps Park, La Jolla, that I turned into a Cyclorama background. Here's a render with my dial-spun gal Simone with the Marie texture, titled Pinup at the Park:
NB: The render above uses the Marie Elite texture with the Human Surface Shader (HSS), but not with the default Marie settings. The Marie texture is very rich and detailed, but I had to tweak the settings a lot to get it to look the way I wanted. Here's another "skin test" if you will. When I first started rendering with Grace, I thought her skin was way too red for my liking. After a lot of fiddling, I like her better. What I did here was mix and match some of the Marie settings with the Grace texture. This is basically the Grace diffuse and bump, with the Marie specular maps, and the HSS. In the HSS settings, basically all I'm using is diffuse, specular, bump, and velvet. I like the way the skin has a little shine, but doesn't look glossy or waxy.
I also think subsurface scattering (SSS) needs to be used very judiciously with dark textures, or you end up with what I call "Lava mouth", LOL.
The issue with the palms and soles is well known. I do appreciate it when the PA shows them in the promo renders. I will hesitate to buy a dark texture unless they do.
I am by no means whatsoever an expert and I'm struggling to get it "right" myself. So I'll have to rethink that tutorial but its not just the texture of the skin that's important but where, how and how much lighting around it falls on the skin. To get the morph to look like they are actually in the scene and not standing in front of it, the background has to be lit first then the light from the background has to fall in specific ways onto the morph, then you have to add lighting to highlight the right areas on the morph itself. Lighting doesn't only create shadows, lighting creates shading and highlights to the skin as well. On darker skin morphs lighting creates the details that give the skin the "layers" of color that's needed to look like real skin. Even with Elite human surface shades this doesn't always come out right. It could be that I just don't know how to make some of them work but I've found on some textures the technique I use works and others it doesn't work.
On the render I posted the background is a 2d photo and the structure is a very simple prop. Lighting the "background" required a strong orange distant light that falls on the prop as well as on the skin and clothing of the morphs. Thus the morphs and the area around them have an "outline" of orange shading that "pulls" them into the scene. The orange coloring comes from the planet behind them that's really just a 2d photo. In addition the orange lighting gives the skin the translucency needed. Even with pale skin textures there should be red and pink tones and shades and with dark skin there should be golden and red shades. If not the skin looks "dead" with baby oil rubbed over the top of it. Sometimes the lighting on dark skin is too strong and washes out the color (which is a problem I had with the render I posted) and sometimes the lighting has blue and grey diffuse coloring that creates that ashy look. Intensity of the light effects pale skin textures much differently than it does darker skin tones and with both skin textures in a render the combination can really create a difficult task for the artist.
Again, I'm not an expert and I'm sure those who are would be much better at this than me. But I haven't seen anyone training on this and I would love to get some help with the issues I've discovered and struggled with.
But here's where darker skin tones have the major problem. In human beings darker skin still has even darker shadows in specific areas depending on where the light is coming from. These skin tones also have lighter highlights in specific areas depending on where the light is coming from. Without the right lighting on darker skin textures that creates the needed shadows and highlights even HSS or SSS skin will not look like skin in a render.
Morris and Virtual_world are currently on flash sale. They both have some darker skinned characters.
http://www.daz3d.com/virtual_world
http://www.daz3d.com/morris?limit=60&p=1
FYI, Phoenix1966 has reopened her Renderosity store, which means that Honorine Camerounian Elegance, Ateba African Elegance for M4, and Laveau Bayou Elegance are available again. (For other ethnicities, there are also Mariko, Ayashe American Elegance, Leiko, Xian Redux, and I think Camila is supposed to be Hispanic, but that's entirely unclear.)
Also, the Rayne update for G2F, by Male-M3dia, should be added to that list entry.
Trying out some purchases in recent flash sales (and some freebie clothes from Wilmap).
The first pic is Chablis for Genesis, character is my own morph-dialling.
The other two are using the Chablis texture on G2F (via Map Transfer) - again the character is the result of morph-dialling, this time a mix of Neomi and some of RAMWolff's freebie morphs for G2F.
Rendo's clearance sale has a lot of black and ethnic skins for V4 primarily. All items reduced to $3.50 until 31st I believe.
Title: A Seaside Encounter
i just logged in to comment on the above render:
nice render. i see the subtle details of the muscles and the highlights on the skin. The lighting is nice and realistic. I like the waves on the water too.
ok, I gotta run. Bye
i dont know if this is allowed, but i morphed gen 1 male into an african character but have not textured it yet. I also made hair and a beard.
I will begin texturing tomorrow
Slowly trying to update some stuff with the first post.
This looks really good, I'll look forward to seeing how he turns out once textured.
I think I've finally gotten everything updated...which obviously means I've probably forgotten something. Still, things have been somewhat quiet on the vendor side of things.
nice to see that this thread is still active. i was wondering what happened to it.
i don't meant to start an argument but I'm not sure if the first render is allowed on the forum. Acceptable Ways of Handling Nudity by Richard Haseltine.
Here is my render of teen Laura with a dark skin. i would've spent more time on the scene but it is almost my bedtime.
bye
Since it's non-textured and there's no genitals I'm pretty sure it's okay, especially since it hasn't been taken down yet.
Oh, and I might as well post some art. Really only fiddling with something rather than being a full image but I might as well. Need more art here anyway.
Hope this qualifies :)
Gorgeous render Kalypso. Love everything about it. Where can I find that dress, hair, character etc.? Thanks.
Thank you anikad :) Not sure if I can post links to products here but you'll find all the relevant credits on the gallery page for this image.
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2475826
Hope this qualifies :)
Of course. Keep forgetting to favorite you over on Rendo (which I've now done).
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I've begun work on People of Earth: Faces of Africa morphs for Generation 2. I would like your opinion on how to organize the presets. In the Faces of Asia set (here in my DAZ store) I organized them by country, but Africa has more countries than Asia, and different physical appearances are seldom local to one nation (Libyans look a bit different but the San are across multiple countries, etc.). I'm thinking of setting up the preset folders for regions instead - so North, East, West, South and Central Africans. How does that sound?
And SickleYield just released the Genesis2 version of Die Trying Morphs.
http://www.sharecg.com/v/72792/gallery/21/DAZ-Studio/DieTryings-182-Morphs-for-Genesis-2-Female