Human Skin WIPs and Tips (Everyone feel free to post your own skin WIPS here too)

#221

Wow! Lots of great head images and techniques. I’m glad you restarted this Leigh. I used the same approach as you did also. I’m not working on a human now, but here’s a few I did last year before I joined CGTalk. I used a key and fill light w/bg radiosity 150% 3x9. Keep 'um coming.

#222

Hello this is my first real attempt at a decent face texture…looking for any help you pro’s can offer…It’s very appreciated!!!

Bump

Color

Thanks again!

#223

Hi There I was wondering how everybody except me seems to be able to get there pepoles face heads ears mouths hair eyes ect to be so realistic. Can Anybody Show me how. Because newteks support wont tell me how it is done because they are not for technique support!!! 4321@jefflilly.com

#224

hm… technique support! thats a fantastic idea.

#225

Please Dont Joke Around I am Very Serious I need to know how to do a realistic looking male. Also I need To Know how to do eyes for my person!

#226

whos kidding around. im seriouse too. i think thats a great idea.

#227

DADDYGOODY, you can’t really just be shown how to texture, it’s something that requires a lot of effort on your own part :wink:

#228

Okay What ever it is point me in that direction. I mean where did you learn to do it everybody starts some ware.

#229

It’s called practice practice practice…I don’t think Leigh achieved all of her blissful skills in texturing by reading a book and then she just painted a kick ass texture…it takes time and know how and learning from past mistakes and learning from trial and error…of course reading about the techs of it all is important too…but get yourself a tablet and open photoshop(or whatever program you’re comfortable with) and start painting…learn some color theory…and practice…that’s the most important…now get going:)

#230

I have photoshop and I am very good at using the program infact I am one of the first to make killer chrome styles. I can build almost anything in photoshop 7.0 but I cant figure out how to do a skin texture does anybody eles now how to. also I would like to know what a Bumb texture means. and one last thing can I use saslite in lightwave to do the hair that is under the skin like in some of the photos on this fourm.!!!:bounce:

#231

infact I am one of the first to make killer chrome styles

also I would like to know what a Bumb texture means

Bump texture is usually grayscale map wich ads a … oh… well… bumps over a surface wich is aplied to. You can see how it works in roomieunhappy’s images on this tread.

Suggestion: maybe you shold read some basic texturing tutorials before you start doing killer stuff. There some on newtek site, i think Leigh has few good ones over there:)

akademus

#232

I have been looking for a really long time but I have had no success finding any skin making tutorials for photoshop. Doesnt anybody have one for free that I could have!!!

#233

Leigh, Like your photoshop paint-work. I am just curious, where have you learnt this, maybe there are some great tutorials that I missed?:smiley:

#234

DADDYGOODY - Observation! Someone or some tutorial isn’t just going to show you how to make good skin. Take the time to get some reference photos of people’s faces and observe how light effects the shadows and highlights. Look at the imperfections, freckles, lines, everything. Observing real life will be the key to making good textures.

edit - (maybe a little too blunt at first)

There are good tutorials out there, don’t get me wrong, there’s also a lot of good information about how skin reacts to light, etc… (i don’t have any on me now, i can find them when I get home). But I think the key is observation, a tutorial can tell you a lot about how to do something but i don’t think that until you observe it will you be able to correctly reproduce it.

  • just my thoughts -
#235

DADDYGOODY I - since you do not know anything at all about texturing, I doubt that doing some skin painting tutorial is really going to teach you much. Simply following step by step instructions with very little explanation and understanding of what you are doing really teaches you very little.

My advice to you would be to do some research into texturing theory, and from then on PRACTISE. Once you have a good solid understanding of the fundamentals of texturing theory, then no surface, whether its skin, metal, wood, or whatever is a problem, since you can tackle anything. Trust me, it’s true.

Texturing is not just about knowing how to use Photoshop, it’s about knowing how different colours and details react to CG lighting inside 3D packages, and from there knowing how to create the necessary maps.

No offense, but making chrome in Photoshop and making chrome for a 3D environment are really rather different. Of course good painting skills within any painting package are great because you have a good mastery of creating details, but it’s going to get you nowhere if you don’t understand the fundamental theories behind the different attributes that make up a complete surface.

Creating human skin, just like any other surface, is not simply a matter of painting a couple of nice little colours and slapping it onto a model, as I am sure you have discovered. You need to dig a lot deeper than that, and I think the reason why you are not grasping this is because you do not quite realise everything that is involved in the process of creating textures for 3D models. The fact that you don’t even know what a bump map is means that you seriously need to pick up your LW manual and do some reading in the chapter 31.

CLAW - I learnt texturing over a period of a few years where I read as much on the subject that I could find, and then just sat and practised and practised and practised. I actually didn’t learn texturing from doing ANY tutorials - I learnt solely by reading technical articles, and becoming comfortable with texturing theory. This is why when I teach texturing, I always teach theory first. I truly believe that once you really know how everything works, then you can create absolutely anything you want to :slight_smile:

#236

Cheers to Leigh…the goddess of texturing…I’m sure i’ve read nearly as much about the subject as you and I tell you what I still find my texturing sub par…even though my characters don’t call for any extensive textures…you also forgot to mention that some people are just naturals at it and have an eye for it…it’s a fact no matter how knowledgable you are about something it still won’t compete with someone who has just raw talent…IMHO…but still I think knowing color theory and texture theory are very important…:thumbsup: :applause:

#237

I may be way off but here but Daddygoody, it sounds as if you have perhaps a limited understanding of basic art skills. Personally I belive the classic theories that apllies to painting is where you should start. It will teach you a lot about color and how real world objects interact with light.
As far as painting skin goes I like Ron Lemens tutorials on skin tones. You can find links to them on www.gfxartist.com.

Making skin textures for 3d is different But a good grasp of painting theory will help. I think Leighs point is a good one, there are no short cuts to this. It takes study and practice.

#238

This topic is really interesting! I think I am going to try making some photo-real skin my self actually.

As far as I know, the mix between a good color, bump, reflection map and a nice light-set makes the best result. Or am I wrong?

I tried to make some realistic heads some years ago, however they came out pretty plastic, and didn’t have that right touch to it that real photos have. So I am wondering, maybe a good start would be to actually study old paint and photo techniques, and then try to bring them into CG for best result?

I guess everything have to be perfect, materials, lightning and models to fool our eyes:curious:

#239

Originally posted by CLAW
[B]This topic is really interesting! I think I am going to try making some photo-real skin my self actually.

As far as I know, the mix between a good color, bump, reflection map and a nice light-set makes the best result. Or am I wrong?

I tried to make some realistic heads some years ago, however they came out pretty plastic, and didn’t have that right touch to it that real photos have. So I am wondering, maybe a good start would be to actually study old paint and photo techniques, and then try to bring them into CG for best result?

I guess everything have to be perfect, materials, lightning and models to fool our eyes:curious: [/B]

you can make up for allot with very careful lighting, however, to really make a reusable solution you will want to do some things with ramps and facing ratios that control specular, difuse and color based on light facing ratio and camera faceing ratio. (in lightwave. angles of incidence). this leaves basic reflected light temperatures from overcomplicating your light scene on a per character basis.

#240

I haven’t been able to update this guy in a couple of weeks due to “real work” but I want to share for a few reasons.

  1. I think it’s possible to paint the textures as opossed to using photos. I’m not sure what a skin painting tut will really do for you. Painting comes down to observing and applying. This thread helps in things like how a map is applied, which channel(s), lighting configs, etc. How to paint is a personal journey.
  2. It shows an attempt at getting the ear tranlucency right by using a weight map. I think the same has to be done at the tip of the nose.
    Damn, when I started writing I had a third, but now I forget. :shrug:

I did up the spec and start making hair, but I didn’t save any shots. The Ear isn’t really textured yet, either, beyond the translucency map. Eyelids bother me, too. Oh well…