human skin

[Tiia]

hi,

I need to render a realistic hand, but this is as far as I get with the skin texture.
http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u...rrent=hand.jpg

I got a specular map(?) and skin coloured map, but not sure where to apply these.

Help, anyone?

[frip51]

Re: human skin

Tiia,
make a new material with the skin coloured map used in the diffuse slot while the specular map goes into the reflexion slot.
A specular map defines parts of the texture as more shiny than others. For instance, on your hand the fingernails would reflect way more than the skin.

Apply the material without any texture channels, since these human models usually have correct UV-mapping.

Cheers,
Matt

[Tiia]

Re: human skin

Thank you for the help Matt!
Fingers crossed that will sort the whole thing!

Tiia

[Tiia]

Re: human skin

hi,
sorry to post about this again, but I think I still need a bit of help.

If someone could give me a quick pointer about the texture on the skin, if I try to apply a bump map nothing shows at all - and Im trying to edit the nails separately but don't seem to be able to. Basically its rubbery and we need to get it more lifelike, without adding too much to the rendering time.

Hoping someone can help me a bit?

Thanks!
x

[frip51]

Re: human skin

First of all, you'd need a proper lighting setup, I'd go for a studio-like one with at least two rectangular lights.
This adds depth and makes for the bump map effect to stick out better.

Speaking of the bump map - have you tried to apply this map to the displacement channel, instead?
What's the difference between bump and displacement? --> displacement, as the name aleady states, manipulates the surface normals (white is "up", black is "no change"). Carefully define global accuracy and intensity in the "Displacement" tab found in the Options menu. Balance those with texture size and multiplier to achieve best results at reasonable render times (careful with displacement, because it might raise render time to a higher power - you've been warned ).

If you're not planning high res close-up shots, bump mapping might be sufficient, just try it out both ways.


As for the nails, you could
- add a separate diffuse layer with transparency map of just the nails - then you're able to edit the nail colour on the go.
- add a separate reflexion layer using the same map (maybe play with the multiplier) - this lets you control the reflectivity of the nails seperately.


Give us a shout how it went

Cheers,
Matt

[Tiia]

Re: human skin

Hi,

and thanks so much Matt, it is tons better now!I ditched the ready made materials and did them myself which seems to work ok.
I got a slight error on the nails and inside the thumb, so next thing to get my head round is how to adjust the seams where it wraps round the hand..

[frip51]

Re: human skin

Hey!
Good job - that looks much better now!
Also, try out different light and environment settings, since this render seems a bit washed out (did you render on black background using an alpha channel? there are dark outlines around the nails...)

Cheers,
Matt

[Tiia]

Re: human skin

Thanks!

I noticed that biggest problem for me is the lighting, which does make it all look bit bland, I spent ages trying to figure out the material without sparing a single thought to the lights..
The blackness around the nails comes from the map for the nails which I think is not quite right just yet, I had some 3dstudioMax tutorials so had to experiment and go along with them! I just can't get my head around the physical sizes of the maps, as the ratio I should make them into and how they wrap around the fingers.