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Why did my little niece cry when she saw Santa as a monster. Now I get the blame for her nightmare Lol :)
just unfortunate you were the one that made the Genesis male compatible skeleton or I would have used the M4 one as usual
I love it wendy merry Xmas ;)
cloth on JaguarElla
wow i really love yout videos, and how you really are good at "level design" i'm almost asking if you are not interested in work with me or make some levels for me i'm really terrible at level design.
another note, now which you learned how to deal with the unreal cloth system now you just need to fixe that "capsule issues, it's impossible to not notice the "invisible capsule in the loincloth, it's is due to the unreal "generate capsules" for "almost each bone" even "cloths" which have bones attach it can generate capsules too and that capsules if not proper adjusted can bugg/mess, then if you are not "using that bone" for any animation or joint oriented animations, you can actually delete that capsule in the middle of the loincloth, if it's not being used, if you need you can generate it again later, but if its not being used you can just "delete" that capsule, the cloth system still gona recognize the "legs capsules.
And for everyone about the tutorial for skin, that holiday seasons was being complicated for me and to be fair i also was a little "tired" and wanted some rest, then i'm still planning to do it as soon i'm in the mod, meantime here a updated version of my previous "Unreal pose" for retargeting.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CaGKymzYKZgMwPYlbPpzAShRr1caW1QV
i've decided to "reupload it" because i noticed which it have some issues specially in shoulder, which are more noticable when trying to use mixamo animations, then i go back to 0 and did again this time is a much more precise, specially in shoulders, because i noticed which unreal mannequin does have a little curved to behind shoulders and without it many animations ended having the character have his shoulders too curved to the front and leading some animations to look weird, now i've tested it and now things look much more fine, i will also update my previous link post to reflect the new pose.
I didn't design any levels
all free marketplace Infinity blade assets
did toss a few eztra DAZ models in some
I am just a premade content user in DAZ and other programs
I did try and resize the capsules and deleted the skirt ones, don't know where that is catching cannot see an obstacle
if you like you can post a image of your character "physic" asset then we can see what is the capsule doing it.
later, doing a DAZ iray animated render and thats going to take hours!
ok since i'm in the mood again let's get back to my "skin tutorial, this time i will focus only on the face:
let's "recap" the previous tutorial and add something i missed to say:
step 1 - export the character which you want to unreal:
it can be with or without the "base" skin you want, if you want add any "character material like michael or victoria or charlotte or whatever other character you want", go and add it inside daz then export it to unreal
step 2 - preparing all materials:
as i previous told when exporting a material from daz to unreal or any other "source" daz normally only export the "base color" or in case of the "hair it will export the "opacity texture" and in some cases a hair color when needed, but this is not exactly all the mats you really need, you need to find the directory in daz where it's storing "all the textures" then grab the normals and speculars and maybe the bumb to generate another normal in case you don't like the base normal from daz.
Now come a "new info which i forget to add, to have a "better skin" quality "more realistic you would need a "pore skin texture" here a exemple:
here a site where you can get some exemples to use in the "learn process"(not for sale), or you can try and google others sources or you can "do yourself" and create one", but is important to remember it need to be seamless tileset.
http://seamless-pixels.blogspot.com/p/human-skin-textures.html
here a exemple from this site
now after you create or find a proper "skin" pore you want to use go to the "normalmap online" and use it to generate a "normal map from this or any other way you know to generate normal maps, you can also optional generate a "ambient occlusion and specular to use in case you want it is optional.
now which we finally grab all the maps we really need time to move to the "terrible monster" called "UNREAL ENGINE 4"
Basic notions of material in unreal engine.
normally when you export a character or props to unreal it normally automatically will generate a "material" based on the "material daz exported to that mesh", even if this mesh don't have a texture like the base genesis 8 male or famela, if you export then o any other prop without a texture it will have a "basic gray" material anyway.
here a image showing both blank material and textured, the ones circled in blue are the bank and the ones marked with yellow are the textured:
now let's learn some basic notions about "material in unreal, (if you already have some basic notions in unreal material you can skip this step)
let's create a "Empty material in unreal to check how it's work.
1 - in the main window of unreal editor create a new folder or choose a fodler where you want to save the material, then open that folder( to create a new folder right click in mouse the choose the option new folder( the first one)
2 - now inside this new folder right click again in the tab and choose "material" it will create a "empty material then rename it for what you wan them double click on it to open
this is the "material menu options
the marked ones in the order:
1 - the "basic material setting and shader" - this is the "basic panel you use to proper setup material, in this panel you have( i will explain only the most common ones):, this panel as you get more "expert in this can be even removed and you can create your own material and shaders by using all maps and properties from the material properties
Base color - the texture base for the material - here is where you link the base texture you use
Metalic - as the name say here is where you configure how much "metalical is the object" where it's receiving all the effects related to being made of metal, like reflection, refraction and others, you can use either a "metalical texture" or number values or parameters, the best way is aways use a texture but in case you don't have one or don't want to generate one you can use values or parameters
Specular - the specular level it of a object normally a "non metalic one"
Roughness - the level of roughness of a surface which means how it can reflect light normally used for "wet effects and others" the low the value the strong is the reflection/wet effect, the value normaly goes from 0 to 1 where 0 means a type of mirror and 1 means a totally non reflect surface.
Emissive color - here is where you can add a "emissive effect like luminus eyes and things like that, here is where you add the texure you want to generate that effect.
opacity - used more to create hairs because it create a effect where you can chose what parts of the "texture will be visible in the surface, for exemple rag cloths or hairs and others, here you use the opacity texture which normaly is a "black and white" texture where "black" means invisible and white visible.
Opacity mask - basically the same as opacity, the diference is which you are going to use a "mask" which is used when you don't work on the full texture and only specific parts of that to be visible/invisible and also here is the option where you can be enabled to use others type of textures like normal map, where normally the Opacity option don't allow it.
Normal - is where you place the normal map - it's a much better version of the "bump map" because it's add the improved effect on surfaces to make a mesh looks more detailed than it's actually really is, here a exemple:
the real mesh is basically a smooth surface which means "less polygons" while the other side is exactly the same mesh with a normal map applied it give the effect as if that mesh is much more detailed and have much more polygons, that "improviments are illusions" created by the map which makes the surface looks much more complex than it's actually is.
World displacement and Tesselation - are more used for "terrain deformation or grass here exemple:
the image is actually just a plain area but the tesselattion effects make it's looks like a total irregular floor.
Ambiente Occlusion - to create the "self shadows, to make the mesh more realistic and produce shadows around itself.
Refraction - normally used to create "glass effects".
many of the options are "disabled" because of the current configuration of the material, the options i'm not talked about where the ones which i never used or tried to use yet then you need to learn for yourself, to enable some of the disabled options you need to change some configurations in the settings panel of the material.
2 - the preview panel- here is where you see in the real time the changes you make in the material, it will update self based on what you add in the material, you have some options like in daz to change how you want that preview to appear from the spehre to a square to a plane and others.
3 - it's the "settings and details panel - the setting appearing here will be based on what "panel you are clicking inside the material, for exemple as the previous images since i'm selected the "main material panel" then here is being displaying it's settings and details, enabling me to configure both material and shaders( unreal have some internal shaders configurations but you can also create your own shades here on the material panel)
4 - are the "unreal controls panel you will gonna use to set your materials, it comes with really a huge ammount of pre made controls to allow you go really wild and to be honest i probably know maybe 8% to 10% of all options here, but i will show you at last the "most basic and common used ones as we start to configure our skin.
witht his we end the "basic for the unreal material menu, all others options are pretty much self explanations and you only gonna really need to care over 1 or 2 like save and apply
now going back after have export all the needed materials to unreal it's time to dirty the hands:
We gonna start to add the "face material. for that we literally go open the "face material" then open the "face1 gray material, i'm usin a face without skin material as exemple but basically the same can go if you want to use a already applied base texture, all you need to do is just add the missing textures inside here.
as i've clicked in the "gray default texture in the detail/settings i get that texture settings now it's time to remove and delete it and add the right textures, for that leave the full windowed screen mode and put the window in a place you can acess then select the needed textures and drag it inside the material window.
(detail when taking the picture i've ended selecting the "face normal i generated from the normalmap online but i was supposed to use the michael facenm1001(not the normal2) then just select it and move to the material window.
it will look something like that:
or any way you want to position the textures.
now the first step is link to the material the textures, we gonna start placing the basic face ones:
now things gonna be fun i've added specular and ambient occlusion maps for pores but as i told it's totally optional for you and probably i will not use but to add then just follow the same logic as the "normal" explanation which is coming.
note which i've not added neither "metalical or roughness maps, because we gonna adjust it by using parameters, but if you really want and know how to work with substance paint or paintshop or any other program you can create that maps too, but to be fair you would only need do that for the roughness for the metalical the default value already good but we gonna make some changes.
ok now to create the parameters for roughness and metalical is pretty simple inside the panel right click then it will pop up a window to make you choose some options or type the name of the option you want, then you gonna type "scalarparameter" as you keep typing the editor will adapt the options until teh right one appear then click on it then it will generate the "parameter we need":
now select it and in the "settings/details panels you will see the details for that parameter then change it's name form param to "face Metallic"
then go to the default value and change from 0 to 0.3 or 0.2, slider min and max as the name says is the min and max value you can atribute to it if you want, for exemple if you put in the "max" let's say 4, then the max value you can adjust will be 4, but just leave that options, now with the "face metallic selected do a ctrl+w to duplicate it, then a copy of it will be created, then rename the copy from "face metallic to face roughness, then change the value from 0.2 or 0.3 to 0.8 (since ours bodys are not 100% full dry and can have some wet effect then a value close to 1 is good number..
Now link the parameters to they consecutive options in the material here's a image:
now when you look at the preview you can see which the material already start to look different from the beginning, but let's keep improving, now to add the "pores" the trick is:
first right click in the panel to open the box with the options to search and look for "TextureCoordernate" and choose it, then it will create a "red" window with the name texcoord(0), this is what will you use the "size of the pores when adding to the texture:
now you gonna hold the "M" buttom from the keyboard and left click in the panel that will create a new little window called multiply:
tha option allow you adjust the size of the texture based on a parameter which you will create after that, then create another scalarparameter then call it size( or whatever you want to call)
now before we can start to play link everything we gonna create another control which is called "lerp" then to do that just hold the "L" key from the keyboard them in the panel left click then the lerp will be created
lerp is used to "blend" 2 textures and if possible a alpha in a single texture when you need, now let's link everything:
first link the textcoord to the multiply A link then link the "size" to the multiply B
then link the multiply to the "pore normal map".
now before you can link the pore map to the "normal" we must "break the face normal" link to the normal, to do that just move mouser over the receving pin of the material in the normal and holding alt buttom click on it, it will break the link between the face normal and the material normal, now you gonna link the "face normal to the "lerp" A then you will link the pore normal to the "lerp" B then you will link the "lerp" to the normal in the material
now your final material will be looking something like that:
now to finish it, it's time to configure the current size of the pores, if you pay attention to the preview you will notice which the "pores" maps are not really present in the preview.... why???? i did something wrong????
no, the thing is which yout "size param" at the moment is at 0 which means no pores being applied, then it's time to adjust it, then in the pores case since it a big image if you use number between 0 and 1 you gonna see a really weird face appearing like that:
lol you really don't want that, now to proper adjust it use "2 digits numbers" i means 10++, like 20 or something like that, use a value where you feel which you can spot then if in a very close zoom but don't look too unrealistic or too big, it's just with you now in some cazes based on the "size of the pores texture" if it's normally already small then you can work with single digits, just adjust the number until you feel it's good enough.
now one last thin in order to make more easy for you control the parameters of you material here a tip:
USING MASTER MATERIAL AND INSTANCE MATERIALS:
ok now which we finished the "material" save it then go to the material and select it, then right click and choose "create material instance"
now apply that material instance created to the face, to do that open the face mesh then go back to the main menu with the face mesh menu open and keep the "face1_inst" selected then open the asset details and look in the material list look for where it's saying face1
then with the "face instance selected in the other menu click in the arrow after the name close to the search icon it will replace the face1 material with the face1_inst material or if you want you can just drag the face1_inst inside here in the face material
now double click in the face sphere material in the mesh menu or you can double click on it in the main menu by double clicking in the face1_inst, it will open a new window
in this windows you can change any thing from this material, without have to touch the original material, now in the scalar parameters value mark the options you want to change then they will become selectable then now you can adjust at your will.
ok the part about eyes, hair and lip(mouth is not that big deal and pretty simple) i will leave for others parts, because this already become a too big post then to make things "small" i will make it in parts, the next one to come will be lips which is more simple than this one, then i will make the eyes then finally the hair.
then have a "later happy new year" and srry for the big delays, the nexts parts will try to add as i get some time and "be in a good mood" and desire to do, i'm hoping to finish it before 20 or 15 of january at worst case otherwise i'm pretty sure before then end of the month i will finish it.
ok guys before i leave to sleepe here the "third part" of the tutorial, now it's time for the "lips", well its pretty easy and simple, basically will be almost the same as the "start of the face skin, the difference here is which we not gonna use the "pores" map, we only need the "base texture, normal, specular and AO(in case you don't have a roughness), if you have a roughness then it could be good too.
basically you will follow all the steps to import inside unreal and will go to the "lips" material inside unreal and open it, then you will move/drag all the needed maps inside the material editor.
PS: one important step which i also forget to say is when inside the material editor, you will click in the material panel then in the details/configurations you will look for a 2 sides optiona then you will check this box, this allow the mesh be saw by "the 2 sides" otherwise it only will be visible for "one side" and invisible to the other, normally this option is to help "reduce render" by not allowing the "inside visible" but i prefer it visible than invisible because in case the player find ways to "look inside the char he will see a texture not a invisible stuff, all the mats aways come with that option "off"(unchecked) then you must check it specially if that mesh can be really visible in it's both sides in game without any hack or cheat.
now going back to the "lips", after you drag all the maps you will link all the maps to they related links it don't need any "special extra" into then unless you want to add some "extra" i can teach it another time how to add tattos, body hair and stuffs like that, this is not a "huge mystery just nee some "work".
now after that you link all maps time to create your "metalic and roughness parameters in case you don't have any of that maps, then like the previous post create the parameters, the metalic can be 0.2 or 0.1 the real trick os on the roughness he is the one which "controll" the gloss" in the lips, roughness is where you control the gloss effect in the mats, then since our lips are normally a "little wet and never totally dry, you must adjust to a value you feel is good enought to not look totally dry neither super wet unless you are using lipstick then you must adjust the "lipstick gloss and you can add the lipstick in a separated way in the same way you can add body hair whi i can make a tutorial in future if the peoples are really liking my tutorials and want it, then for the gloss well i can't say a specific value and it gonna be for you to adjust but aways the value must be between 0 and 1, if i'm not wrong in my last work i've used 0.3 or 0.4, just do as you plesure. remember the small the number the more "bright it gonna look" and the high the less.
"Another important note, for the "normal map, i do feel which the "normal map from the "daz character is too "weak and simple" then you need to generate a "new normal map" more strong then go to the normal map online site or any tool you use to create a normal map and make one more "strong" in case of the normalmaponline site use values between 1.5 and 2.0, something like 1.5, 1.75, 1.90 and 2.0 or just 1.5, 1.75 and 2.0 and test all the 3 and see the ones which make the lips look better for you.
Why i'm not using the "pores" on lips, well that is a little easy to answer if you look at your lip you can notice which the skin of the lips is different from the skin of the general skin, while in general skin we have "pores and "veins, in the lips we have a different type of "pores which are more like "crack" and lines than just small circle pores all around the lips then you have to use a different sort of texture well you can create a "lip normal map if you really want and need" but i feel which using the improved normal map from the base figure can be enough for the trick, otherwise go look for a lip texture map in the same way you get the skin pore map then follow the same step as previous post and you get your "lips" with a more "realistic look! if you really want to aimming for it.
any doubts, suggestion and critics is wellcome.
ps: i'm still not that much experienced to go accepting request but as i''m improving i will start to try to see if i can accept some "easy" and little basic requests, in many cases i can try to look for some good tutorials to bring here to help in some "request cases" in case i feel is more easy to point to that tutorial since in many cases a lot of my skills come from then and also from the game school i had made.
Well this time i will not using any pciture because i feel which just looking at the pictures from the skin would be enough to follow the same logic since is basically the same thing.
well the my next time i'm thinking which i will do the 'hair stuffs leaving the eyes for the last.
for the mouth inside with the teeths just follow the same "steps from here, base map, normal map, specular and AO then adjust the values for roughness and metalic then since is mouth and our mouth and teeths are normally more "wet" then you can use more "small values of roughness like around 0.1 to 0.4 well with that you get the mouth only missing the eyes and hair, but hair for sure will be the next with eyes being the finish one.
Another note while this tutorial is supposed to be for "skin" it also can be used for any other material just following the basic rules of having the needed maps, everything will be fine you can go for cloths, any metal, leather well anything.
Another thing while in daz the "normal map" is not really important and normally is pretty weak, for unreal and others "game based enginers" normal map is the most important one, he is responsible for all the details which normally in daz are made using "mesh" which means "high poly count" for work in unreal many of that details will be done by the normal map, because unreal and many others programs unlike daz are heavy geared toward the use of normal maps, then is aways have in mind which the normal map here will be your best friend and aways gonna need a lot of love and attention, more than even the base texture, because he again will be responsible for everything, from scratchs, to scars, to draw details veins(yeah if you want to add "veins" you will do that using normal maps and texture) age lines and many others things they will be aways throught normal map, he is really super valued outside daz, even others characters editors programs like CC character creator from realilusion are heavy based on normal maps.
Thank you so much for this invaluable tutorial, Ellessarr! What a service to the community! I will try this out in the next couple of days. Thank you!
thanks, i hope you like it and can have fun
now going back it's time for the "fourth part", now it's time for the "hair(yeah i know which i was supposed to go to eyes but honestly i feel like more in the mood for hair but don't worry if the post not get too big and i'm still in the mood i will try to add the eyes too, they are pretty fast and simple as the "mouth" the only real trick is the "shiny" stuff).
ok let's start first we need to choos a hair in my case i'm using the genesis 8 default hair the process is the same for any other hair, in some really rare cases some daz hairs don't have a "base color" instead they use the daz shaders to generate the color then in this case you must make a "extra step" but nothing something to go crazy i will try to cover it too..
now export the hair to unreal as aways, it will gonna create multiple hair materials? one for the scalp and others for parts of the hair:
the ones marked in yellow are the texture and the ones circled in blue are the materials, i've already did some of the hairs mats then i will do one of the missing ones just do the same for the one which i will be using here for all the parts.
here is how ilooks a hair material and shader from daz inside unreal and in general
we have only the base texture/color and the opacity, as i've previous explained the opacity works as way to make visible only what you want inside the mehs surface, it's normally used for hairs and for torn clothes effects, instead of "modeling each "torn" just paint the torn then create the opacity and throw in the surface then the "magic" will happen",
now you will notice which the material/shader have many options disabled unlike in the skin, this is because the shader in this material shader setting is different as we see, instead of opaque in the blender mode it's was changed to "translucent which means the transparence the basic hair shader use, while overal this can already look good inside unreal still not "perfect we need to enhance it, for that we need to bring the "missing maps in this case the "normal map, the AO and Specular maps.
A important note for a really more perfect and realistic hair we also would need a "scatter map" which is the map to make every strand gain more volume and look more "unique to generate it is a little more complext and i recommend you to go to youtube and look for tutorials for realistic hairs materials it will help you find much better tutorials than this one, this is just for "basic" and a little advanced level users for peoples looking ashtoning results i'm pretty sure this is not the best one.
now before we can start to link the hairs we need to change some setting of the hair material to one which is much better for what we need, inside the material options panel select the material/shader settings then go the details settings and follow that steps:
1 - in the "shading model change from default lit to hair (click on the name default lit it will open a box for you to choose others options choose hair;
you will notice which the panel for hair will automatically change and where was the "metalic" now it's scatter and where was norma now we have tangent, not too much to worry on there.
2 - check mark the "two sides" option as i told in previous option aways make sure to mark that option in almost any material you are working it's very important make sure the material will be visible for any side or angle.
3 - scroll down in th panel until the translucence setting full appear then look for the Lighting mode and change that from volumetrical nondirectional or any other option to surface translucense volume, it will enable all the disabled options.
now let's go linking the maps, as aways link everything to they related leaving only the normal without it, well just link the normal map to the tangent it will work.
it will look like that:
now since hair have some light would be good add some paramenters for roughness to add some shiny to hair it will be up to you after that save all and you hair is ready, then just follow the same procedure for all the others materials for your hair and you will have your hair ready
here my result:
now with this we are only missing the eyes.
here a important note and fix:
when i was talking about the "roughness" i've ended messing a little, when i was talking about "increase" to make more shine" is more like the opposite, to make something look more "wet" you decrease" the value not increased, the bigger the value the more "clean and solid the mesh look then small the more "shine" and wet it will look, but still 0 means no effects then when using values aways go from 0.1 to 1 if you want a full clean solid use 1 if want a very wet then 0.1.
I do hope will not take too much time for me to finish it, if everything go well then pretty much i must be doing the eyes or tomorrow or before the next week coming.
as aways any question, comment or critic will be very wellcome also maybe some suggestions.
Nice tutorials! One thing on Master Materials.
In your master material if you right click on each Texture Sample and "Convert to Parameter" it will change it to a Texture Parameter 2d node.
Now when you create a material instance from this master material you can change the "Texture Parameter Values" to use a different texture.
This way that one Master Material can be used to create material instances for arm, leg, face and torso textures.
https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/Rendering/Materials/HowTo/Instancing/index.html
Note: I just realized they are called Parent Materials
it's all interesting indeed and hopefully helpful to many
but I actually go the opposite way of simplifying everything skipping extra maps
reducing map size
hiding hidden body parts etc
in all my softwares including DAZ studio
still for those going for photorealism very handy information
my figures have only a diffuse map and opacity if needed and it's often scaled down heaps too
and then there is Decimator but with Genesis 3&8 not needed it, they are pretty low poly already
I found the collision capsule I missed on my skirt BTW, I had deleted it but somehow it created a new one
well to be fair that tutorials are only if you are looking for a more detailed work" or if you are really making a game or animation for others peoples play or watch and want a really good product" but if you just want to "mess around and have fun" with unreal and daz then it don't need to be really needed and it's not just for "photorealism" but also to have "more detailed characters" you can go full cartoon or anime style and still nee some or most of the steps, they are more if you want go "more serious" or is trying to "learn" then they can be a "start" point specially to learn how to make your own shaders, materials or effects".
well i'm planning to later or tomorrow add a extra tutorial for hair which i ended forgeting to explain which can be usefull for others things too like tattoos and others things, i'm still getting in the mood, then after that i will do the eye and i will try to add some extra random tutorials, i'm thinking in about the 'animtion" part but i'm still having some issue with mixamo animations(they seeying to not proper work when trying to retarget to another character which is not a mixamo character).
Another problem which i'm find myself stumbling is about daz rigging which seens a little "broken" to be usable inside daz, because of the "extra bone it's have for hip it's causing some issues for me with some physics simulations, specially for ragdoll effect.
Would love a tutorial for eye materials. I see some people detatching the daz eyes and putting in new ones in 3dsmax or Maya and I'm thinking life is far too short for all that nonsense. Otherwise my current material, with the eye moisture opacity at 0, looks pretty terrible and lifeless.
Yea, I'm not doing hair too well either...
well the hair maybe if you follow the tutorial you can improve it, for the eyes here one of my attempts, remember these characters don't have eyelashs, it's still not the best optmized i'm still finishing things before i can the tutorial to make sure i don't forget anything
another thing i found out about "daz eyes" is which is more like the "eye you are using, some eyes from some artits works better than others outside daz, for exemple this charater:
https://www.daz3d.com/brunhild-for-genesis-8-female
i find out which her "eyes work much better outside daz than others eyes which i've tested, then it's more like the eye you are using.
Those eyes already look far better than mine. The environment reflection is something I'm missing (I only have specular reflection, which is just... wrong!).
With respect to hair I REALLY want dynamic hair, so the Daz model is eventually going to have to go. Unfortunately this is more problematic as I'm not a hair stylist and am going to have to spend two years learning how to do it with xgen in Maya.
yeah this was a trick which i've used to create this effect and find a better solution to the eye moisture than just turn it invisible.
here my last work and probably what i will use to teach later:
those where using the brunhilda eyes which i feel are better than the michael 8 eyes but any eye can work with that.
also i'm bad with light then i can't for sure make a good light for the images.
here my final result from that face with all mats(excluding mouth and teeths because obvious reasons).
ok let's do this here the "eyes material tutorial with the hair extra.
let's start with the main dish being the "eyes"
ok we already learned about all the texture maps and materials then it is pretty straight and simple no doubts:
ok we know which the "eyes in DAZ are divided in 6 parts/pieces we have:
1 - eyesockets: which means the "small piece of skin in the bords of the eyes
2 - pupils: which means the tiny "circle" in the center of our eyes
3 - iris: the circle in the midle of the eye around the pupils normally making the "eye color"
4 - sclera: the white with some "red veins forming the big area of our eye
5 - eye mosture - supposed to means the "transparent and reflective part around of our eye
6 - cornea - basically the same as eye mosture but is a protector for our middle area of eye while the mostuire is for the "outside part
normally for the eye mosture and cornea we try to just turn then in invisible my using th opacity but honestly i have a better use for then let's start:
ok now e need to grab the eyes texture, choose a eye from a character or maybe from a eye product which you like and add it to the character or just go to they source folder and grap all the "basic materials, you will be taking the eye color which normally you will recognize by the color, then get the "sclera defuse" which normally have only one version then grab too the normal maps if they have, if they don't have a normal then go generate one normal map, also as aways generate one "specular and one AO(Ambient occlusion) you have to generate those maps for for both eye color and sclera map, after that also if the eye have a "almost full white map" with 2 small black circles around the top grab it too you will use it as a "opacity map".
Now which you have all maps export it to unreal to the folder you are working and let's start to add all the maps for they needed mats firs let's start from the eyesocket, for him just use the "regular skin map texture for face which you already have, if you want you can use just the base color but if you really want a complex thing you can go and add normal(only the base), AO and specular and configure roughness otherwise just add the face skin texture.
now for the next one we go for the pupils, for then you can go just with that:
add the sclera map and add a roughness param and use a value around 0.3 or 04. what you feel better then in the shading model change to eye in blend mode you can optional change it to masked it will enable the o use of opacity mask if needed also don't forget to mark two sided as aways in almost every material is important to mark it.
then save and go for the next one which will be iris then do that:
add the base color, specular, normal and AO then add a roughness value like the previous pupils set a value you like, don't forget to set two sided and shading model to eye and maybe masked, now let's move to the next one:
which is sclera, here's the sclera:
here's is where you gonna use the "opacity i asked you to export too, now follow the same procedure, change the blend mode to masked it will enable the opacity then change the shading to eye then mark two sided then just link all the things and add your own roughness.
now finally for the 2 speciall ones the eye mosture and cornea, basicall both will use the same logic here:
you will turn then into "glasses" it will given then the "reflective effect you want, here a video tutorial about how to make "glass material in unreal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9GXeIWjDLM&t=0
just follow this tutorial and make your own final configurations then after that the only thing you need to change in the material will be the shading to eye and to be two sided if you not already did then all the others will be just the "glass" then have fun.
now let's jump to the dessert the 'extra hair tutorial".
this tutorial is to cover some rare cases where the hair you are using don't have a "base color" and use the daz shader as the way to generate the color, some "style and anime hair are like that" maybe others as well, but this tutorial can be used for many others things because it's on him which we will learn to use the second or maybe third most important map to work for effects which is the "ALPHA map"
now let's cover a little what is a "ALPHA MAP".
ALPHA MAP: in unreal alpha map works a little like the opacity map but in a sort of opposite way???? let's explain: we use opacity map to "hidden" stufs we don't want to appear in the final material/texture it's very important for hairs and others effects like rips in cloths, the opacity in unreal and daz and many others tools works by only allowing what is painted in white in the texture to be visible while anything in "black will be invisible, while in the alpha map we instead of "ignore the "black" we are going to "use it, which means in order to use the alpha we paint in "black what we want to be used" and paint in white what we want to be "ignored" and leave in the way, we do that to not only hairs but tattos and others things we also do that when we want to "paint things in different color but we want to make sure only what we marked gonna be changed.
Then as i told in some cases where the hai which was imported to unreal don't come with a "color" and come with the basic gray or maybe a base white color in some rare cases, you will be using both opacity and alpha maps to be able to "proper paint the hair in the way you want:
"how to create a "alpha map" you have 2 ways: one is getting the base color texture and bringuing it to the photoshop or any other program you use to "paint" and making it "white and black like a opacity map, making all the hair "natural color go white and all the remains parts of the texture goes "black" something like a opacity map here a exemple from this hair:
https://www.daz3d.com/d4m-faith-hair-medium-res-for-genesis-3-female-s
here it's only base color
it's use this "blank hair as base color then you use the shaders to change the colors, then we can get this map and use it generate the alpha in some rare cases you can ending find a hair without a base color then in this case you will be using the "opacity" to generate the hair alpha, well with that map you will "invert" the color making all was white turn in black and all black turning in white making all the hair strends "black".
Another thing which i forge tot add, alpha maps can be created in 2 ways: as a standart texture following all the steps and generating the texture map as any other map or it can be used as a "rgb" channel it's more for peoples which know more about photo and color scheme, you can add the "alpha map" to be a color scheme channel in the rgb you will add the map here if you have a texture and the alpha was generated from that texture, then add it to the texture as a layer but for that you must make the texture be a 32 bit resolution because only 32 bit can support the "extra alpha channel" (remember when i told about the "tga" and 32 bits that is one of the reasons, don't worry if by adding that map to the texture it will change a little the color, inside the unreal he gonna ignore that "change" and read the texture normal, the only difference is which you can grab the "alpha" from the main texture from the alpha pin if you need to reduce the number of textures.
now which we created our "alpha map now it's time to export everything to unreal, and now as aways it gonna be a little annoying work since all daz hairs have more than one single material zone, then o each material you must do this:
let's try to explain the "lerp and multiply all the others are "basic" just follow the previous hair texture the only difference is which you will be adding the "alpha hair".
now to control the "hair colors" we gonna create a "color wheel" like in some games where you have a "color wheel" yeah that is the "first step for a character customization, use this "color wheel, ok to create the color whell which i forget to mark but is the parameter named "colorhair", ok now inside the material panel you gonna press the "3" buttom and with it pressed you gonna left click in the panel it will generate a "color scheme" which if you click inside it in the black area it will open a "color wheel" but it only can acessed inside the material panel, and is not good then to improve it we need to change it to a paramenter then one click that square again just to have it selected then right click and choose "convert to a parameter" like all the times you did it before, now it will be converted to a parameter color scheme which now you can use/acess "outside" the material.
Now you gonna press "M" to create a multiply and press "L" to create a 'lerp" then you gonna link the white base color to the "A" in the multiply(like in the picture) then link the parameter color to the B, then you will be linking the "Multiply to the A pin in the Lerp", and the alpha will be linked the "surprise" alpha in the alpha channel in the lerp, now you can free controll the hair color as you wish
in one the rare cases the hair don't come with the base color and it generate the 'base color(the grey basic) all you have to do is convert that base color to a parameter and then link it to the lerp which means in this case you don't need the multiply, you only use it iif you have a texture base color and want to change the color, with the alpha it will "ignore the original color" and will use any color you want in the color wheel, this also can be used for tattos if you want configure tattos colors, follow the same, the only difference is which for tattos you not gonna be using any opacity map and you gonna be lerping 2 texture plus the alpha instead of just texture A and alpha, A will be the skin and the. B will be the tattoo and the alpha will be to control the color of the tattos which in this case you have to use the multiply for the tatto texture(not for the skin) and link the colo wheel and the tatto to the multiply and throw to the lerp with the alpha of the tattoo.
here's the final product for this hair
Then with that i finish all my promissed tutorials and hope it could be helped a lot of peoples here, for now i will take a rest and help with any question and as i told as i feel more confident and interested i can add some more "random tutorials.
Thanks for all the attention and good community and also all the help i'm getting here not only for unreal but with my "poly count" and others issues, then i wanted to repair all that help giving my own help in the field which i'm currently working which also have daz on it and i really feel like daz can be really very good inside unreal ofcourse you aways need to have some "extra work" to make things proper work" but overal it's really feels good in the end.
that was my contribution for now, peace and have fun to everyone and again a happy new year (later) and good renders and animations or games inside or outiside daz or unreal or any other place you want to work.
Which eye material are you using? I don't have most of those maps (Hinkley's). Base V7 doesn't either. Are 3Delight base female eyes? I imagine once the material is set up I can drop in whichever iris I like.
i've used brunhilda from genesis 8
https://www.daz3d.com/brunhild-for-genesis-8-female
the texture's she don't have like normal, specular and AO i generated using this site:
http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/
just drop the "base color" for both eye and sclera and it will generate all the 3 maps, for normal map it will come with default 2.5 strenght reduce it to between 1.5 to 1.80, cuz i feel the 2.5 is too strong. then the remains map grab in the character folder, but whenever i need normal, Ambient Occlusion and specular i use that site to generate then.
but for sure each eye from daz come with those 3 maps: the base color(the ones with the "color of the eyes" one for the sclera(the white part with red in some areas) and a sort of opacity ( a map almost full wihite).
you just must take that 3 maps and generate the others 3 and adjust the roughness.
in any case link the "eyes are u using if in case a eye material product link the product if in case of a character link the character.
i'm still deciding about my next tutorial it's between add "HD" effects from daz hd characters and morphs and add tattoos/body hairs", both are not too complicated maybe the one most chore would be the hd one because would need some "extra programs" like substance paint or xnormals to bake normals.
the HD one i'm definitely interested in
well ok my next tutorial will be about how to "fake export the "HD details" from hd characters to unreal, but to be clear and already give a tip, it not gonna be a "real export" for the HD details but a "normal map" stuff which will make the character appear to have all that "HD" details. it will be don by using bake normal which will means "pass all the details (if possible) from the hd model to the "regular model" as i showed in one of my tutorials when i was explaining the normal map function, it will be what will give the "details" to the character, this can be done for basically anything from age details, to muscle details, to even "pores" anything all you need to have is a high poly model and the "regular model which will receive all that "effects" from the normal map.
That is why i told which outside DAZ, Normal map" is you bes friend forever, or soulmate specially today even many 3d sculptors are using more and more normal and retopology for they models, instead of just make a really high poly model, many are making the high poly model then go to retopology to reduce the poly count then bake the high poly model into a "normal map" and use it on the low poly model, it in general can pass almost the same effect and detail level you need for you model.
for the tutorial i will be using the "HD orc" from daz
https://www.daz3d.com/orc-hd-for-genesis-8-male, i will rest a little now and if i feel good and in the mood i will try to post it later night if not i wil be doing it until the end of the next week if not problems appear.
well ok here the tutorial about "how to be able to use the "HD" stuffs outside DAZ, this will allow you to bring to the mesh "almost every hd" effect which means high poly mesh to a low poly mesh without actually change the mesh,
well as i told in the previous post, you really can't export high poly stuffs(unless they base is high poly then you can) or to be clear you can't export fbx files outside daz with more than the "base" resolution, but you can do what any outside daz artists do which is the "bake normal" process, which is basically get the high poly mesh and add all it's details to a low poly mesh throught the "normal map" remember normal map is you soulmate!!!, it's have the power to store that info without really make any real change to the mesh it will create a "illusion" which make the mesh looks much more detailed and high poly than it was and only a really, really close look like(like puting the camera direct in touch of the mesh which you would really start to notice the "illusions" otherwise even for render it's a perfect illusion, even in daz many "outfits and even characters" use normal maps for that "details" which will appear in the render as if they where real, the ony issue is which really the normal is a lot low valued inside daz since most of the artists here prefer to just "go high" but to be fair no issue is they right to do whatever they want and how they want really no problem on that, but for a work outside daz it can be really troublesome.
Going back, normally the process to make the bake normal would also need to make a "retopology" which means get a high mesh and make a low poly copy of it then the normal wil be added on that copy, but since somehow daz already do that for us(since the high resolution" is just a smooth version of the low), then we just need to make the "bake", now let's start:
i'm using the "orc face" only because due to a weird issue inside substance paint i was unable to bake the full body then only the face lips and ears got the normal baked then since i'm not in the mood to loose a lot of time trying to make it work then i will use just the face which will be enough if you are using substance paint then if you get stuck in the same issue as me try to find a work around and if possible i would love to see it otherwise if everything work fine then do the work.
here the "face" in it's base resolution
we gonna export it as fbx (in your case you full model)
then now we gonna dial it to it's high mesh value in my case will be high resolution and subdivision level 3
then now to "export this level of resolution" we gonna change the file format, instead of export it as fbx we gonna export it as obj, then when it ask you to choose the name and file type choose obj and save, it will remove the joints and only export the mesh, which is not a problem since we only neeed the mesh not the rigging to bake.
now to bake i will not give a tutorial go to youtube and look for "baking normal tutorials, with substance paint or xnormals" or any other program which can make the bake but i will make a sumary which that program will have a "bake option" and on that option in based on what program you are using it can either ask you to only add the high meshe if you already open the low(substance case) or add both low and high in they right places, then it will make all the info details from the high poly be burned in the "low poly" uv map creating a "normal map" with that effects.
then now the process is pretty simple open unreal and expor all the maps you want and need as aways:, base color, normal(you can use both regular normal map from the product and the ones you baked), specular, if needed metalic and roughness and ambient occlusion, then inside daz you gonna go to the material you want add the "normal":
here a image:
face on his base form without any normal:
face with it's "baked normal:
it's magic!!!!! lol, if you like you can add the other "normal map made from the base color then combining both baked and base color normal map you get this result:
when combning normal some effects from one of the normals can be overlayed by the other map like in the lips then it's up to you.
here the "face full"
here the face with only the baked normal:
and finally but not "last" here the material configuration, (is the same for lips and ears if needed)
don't worry i will explain that crazyness.
ok all that multiples i've add was to "control all the maps" with tha paramters you can "control the strengt" of the maps like a "morph" if you dial to 0 then it means disabled dial to 1 means full enable, don't forget to create a instace of each material and use that instance then inside the instance enable the "dial" then you can now control how much "visible the base color can be or how much the normal map will be visible, if you want you can also dial to 0 the original base color and use the "grey" buttom to add a random color from the color wheel, if you don't like that and want things simple just remove all the scalar parameters and multiply from where you want then attach the texture direct to the "add"( add work's like the lerp option but is more like a "limited version, where you can only merge maps, lerp is more if you want to work with alpha maps as i explained in previous posts), to use "ADD" you must click and hold the key A then click in the screen, then like the lerp link the maps you want to merge to make a single one.
any question feedback, and good comment or even criticism is welcome aslong it is civilized and constructive, no offenses and things like that.
peace and have fun.
ps: here a link for the xnormal program, it's a free program to bake normals, it's already had sometime since the last time i used it because now i'm using substance paint then i don't full remember how to use it but as i told it's "FREE" and you can find some tutorials about how to use it in the net and youtube.
ps2: i would love to see some images or videos from peoples using daz characters inside unreal following or not my tutorials, i really would love to see others peoples works.
https://xnormal.net/
Those are some pretty amazing results on a very detailed character. Great job!
thanks, with that i feel which is left some few more things to make a tutorial" to findo all the "export" stuff then when i made that stuff the next step will be how to work with the 'final result" in this case the character inside unreal, how to place the character in the world, (well you can basically just place it as a "object" if is just to render a static image without animation) and make the scene adding all the stuffs well which is really not my "good" i'm really bad at level design and still learning, but still a important process, then comes the "post process light" which is adjust the light and effects to make the render is even more amazing which is also another of my "bad stuffs" then that is something i can't proper teach at last not for now, specially because my focus is game not render then that part of rendering images inside unreal would be good for someone already experienced with it than me, the only thing i can teach tutorial would be about the "game stuffs" and maybe a little about animations( movies or scenamtic stuffs) which i'm proper learning now but again not for now and too soon, but for game i can later make some tutorial about the "create character blueprint, animation sequence and others stuffs and a little about setting the AI and some others stuffs, but for now i can't do that because i'm a little busy and need go back focus on my project.
I gonna still get some free time to finish what is needed which in this case will be about add tattos or "hair bodys"(hair bodys from textures not from dforce hair or fibermesh, they must work pretty much like the regular hair way to add) and also add the "gloom effect" to eyes or tattos or anyplace you want to make it "bright", then with that the only remain issue would be the ragdoll effect which as i told in previous post the daz current rig is somehow messed when trying to add the ragdoll in unreal because of the "extra bone" for the "hip" this bone make the mesh bug when using the ragdoll, then making hard to add it for now, i first must learn how to fix it before i can talk about that.
going back to the "normal results" my opnion again based on what i'm seeying currently today in 3d market not just for game but in general, this is being something really used more and more, because baking can give you basically the same results as a "high poly" model, this is why i keep feeling weird by seeying here most of the artists still focusing in "max polygons" when you can have almost the same result just using the "retopology and bake process" even from a 'close shot" still hard to notice which that details are "a illusion", well i don't know how normal maps work inside unreal and how much impact they have but for sure outside daz normal maps are "very strong and used" to the point of only few are still using 'bump map" since normal map have the same function' but much better for all the sources i keep watching this, many artists are moving more and more to use retopology and bake into they characters not only for game but fo "optimization" in general, by not having to deal with too many polygons, i've already showed a really amazing 3d artist which make models for game and 3d in general and when you look at his models is hard to believe which they where "soo low poly count" compared with daz and even for a close shot is hard to notice the stuffs, but in the end ofcourse is a artist choice the way he works and what he feels give the best results for him/her but it's show which going "high or low polycount don't means too much when by having the proper skills and knowledge you can achieve the "same final results", what is matter is your own skills and confidence at the end.
again thanks for the feedback and as i told now i'm just want to see peoples renders and videos and see if all my tutorials helped everyone in improve they works and see that improviments.
wow now i finally could understand why the bake process not was proper working in substance painter and i was only able to bake the "face" of the orc".
it's due to how the "mesh uv is placed in DAZ:
substance only can bake what is inside the "first tile"(the tile of the face), any UV outside the first one will not be baked since for substance it will be like he not in there(even if he is actually in there), anyone know a way to fix it inside substance paint??
i've found a "work around" you must open the "base mesh you want to bake the high mesh with blender or maya then move the uv mesh which is "outside the first tile boundary" back inside, then save it as a obj or fbx or whatever you want then open in substance and bake again, it wil make things proper work.
collapse UV tiles on export