Photorreal Female Study [WIP Crossing the Uncanny Valley]

[ivanebeoulve]

Hi All.

I started to work on this model about a year ago, in my spare time. it’s almost fully rigged, and with a huge amount of body shapes and pose corrective shapes… anyhow I tought I could share my progress on this forum since I’m rendering in V-ray

Once the model is finished, I’m planning to do a photorealistic beauty shot.
modeled completely on blender, and rendered in V-ray, and hopefully bring more users to this small community. and give this forum a bit more life.

so here goes :

I started with just one photo

Mapped from view to the model in Blender

FastSSS Skin Shader

Skin was a LOONG step in this, and it’s hardly perfect. tweaks in the Specularity need to be done for certain Light Situations (or that’s what I’ve Found)

Textures Enhanced in Photoshop using HI-RES reference Images

Eye Geometry + Basic Shader (a lot of work needs to be done here, so far I’ve encountered many bugs that limit the shader itself, but microdetailed textures are missing too)

Glossiness & Reflection Maps Tests and Tweaks

[I tried to attach more screenshots but I can only attach 5 :(]

This is the Result so far:

Hopefully you guys will see a lot more progress on the coming weeks, I unfortunately have only the weekends to work on this, so this is going to be a long ride.

I would really, really appreciate your feedback, what’s missing, what’s too much, for I need a set of fresh eyes to look at it from another perspective, any question is welcome.

Thank you

[bdancer]

Super cool! Do you have access to vray 3 to try “Skin” shader?

[cooler_inc]

Wow, awesome!!! It’s good to see the progress with more images, waiting for updates!

[ivanebeoulve]

@Neilg

Super cool! Do you have access to vray 3 to try “Skin” shader?

thank you!
I don’t, accidentally, while trying to gain access to http://nightlies.chaosgroup.com to download the Vray for Blender 3.0 BETA
they offered me access to Vray 3.0 BETA instead!, but I have to file a few documents, and it got a little confused…

anyway, I’m actually more interested in it because of the hair, I keep having the same thickness Issue of vray 2.0 (I’m not sure how am I going to render hair in this project) that I know it is resolved in later versions.

I’ll try and gain that access.

@voltron7

Wow, awesome!!! It’s good to see the progress with more images, waiting for updates!

thanks!, yes that’s the plan, I think the process is sometimes more entertaining than the final render, hope we all learn from it

[bdancer]

they offered me access to Vray 3.0 BETA instead
Yes, to have access to V-Ray Standalone 3.0 beta you may need to sign the NDA. Blender builds are available without NDA, just request access to Blender builds.

[Nachex]

ivanebeoulve awesome progress bro! you kept very consistent proportions in modelling. The shader looks nice, but the ligthing quite flat. If you want photorealism will need to make some sculpting to bake specs, glossy, bump and subsurface maps. I can help you with eye shaders and making more awesome the model, I have free time only on weekends also, but if you want I can help you rendering the gir, keep it up ivanebeoulve

greetings.

[ivanebeoulve]

You are correct Nachex, the lighting is flat, that is because I used a similar setup from my reference images

you can see in the reflection of her eyes how it consist of 2 softboxes, and an octabox in the middle, that is to reduce shadows on the photo.

and yes!, I am saving the sculpting part for LAST, I have access to z-brush, but I really hate it, the workflow from blender it’s incredible awkward and unintuitive, it IS a powerful tool, but I am still considering how this whole sculpting thing is going to work out best, the model is constantly changing, and any change in multires is going to be wasted if I get ahead of myself…

thank you for offering your help. it would be great!, but delegating the process may cause a major conflict on my poorly filing method, Blender tends to “Crash” certain files and I need to open a new one and then append all the objects and lights to a new file, and this creates a MESS. duplicated materials, duplicated Textures, I think I’m good as it is.

what I would love to see, from you and others, is a bit of documentation experimenting with version 3.0.

=========

As an update on the project. I ported to Version 3.0
so far, I doubt it was the best decision, since this has caused me a LOT of unwanted details, things not rendering, shaders not working properly, lights not intense enough, and the most time consuming of them all…

I - have - no - idea - how - to - do - things…

there’s no documentation whatsoever, since it is a BETA i tottally understand, and it took me hours finding out simple task such as:

How to setup Global Illumination with HDRI.

Where all my Shader Options went?!!! (hit n!)

How to mix two Shaders on “Screen” mode

How to Override Render Setups

and this where just a few, that took a couple of hours to figure out (test render, nope, change settings, test render, nope, change settings, nope, test render, ah finally!) I was really pissed off tbh, but here it is for everyone.

Also there are a couple of bugs that I intend to report, Andrey, one regarding SSS specular amount and glossiness driven by an image texture, and another regarding Vray dirt Include/Exclude settings.

but that is prob. going to take some time, I had to work around those bugs.

[andybot_cg]

nice modeling! Will be nice to see the finished result.

Glad you’re figuring out the nodes. It is powerful, but I agree it can be really confusing sometimes.

One question I have - why do you have your SSS node linked through the bump node? Wouldn’t you want your SSS plugged directly into the layered BRDF? Just wondering if the SSS works if it’s “behind” the bump node. I believe it’s possible to have multiple connections coming out of the BRDF socket (for ex. one to “bump” and one to “layered BRDF”).

Andy

[ivanebeoulve]

to tell you the truth, I don’t know, the bump node was added to my materials through the convert materials function automatically.
It’s a good point, I will have to check if the bumps are working that way too.

[andybot_cg]

ah, the automatic conversion. I guess that’s a question for Andrey then. I don’t always follow exactly what’s going on either, sometimes it seems more complicated than it needs to be. For example, each bump, normal, etc. maps get a set of nodes each. I’m used to the old material editor where you can check multiple map options per material.

[Nachex]

ivanebeoulve let me know if you have doubts or issues about materiales and settings, and send me your files if it keeps crashing; I can check if you want. I’m currently working multiple linked, files, caches, and all types of materiales and I can say new build it’s pretty stable. Have fun with new nodes setup, It,s good decision and I can say is way lot better than v25 version.

greetings.

[ivanebeoulve]

well.. lot of work being done!, not so much perceivable progress, but im hanging in there

@vlado

ah, the automatic conversion. I guess that’s a question for Andrey then. I don’t always follow exactly what’s going on either, sometimes it seems more complicated than it needs to be. For example, each bump, normal, etc. maps get a set of nodes each. I’m used to the old material editor where you can check multiple map options per material.

I can tell for sure now, that vb3.0 is a huge upgrade, I’m taking advantage on this advanced materials settings, and at last i can edit image textures in the node editor and get it to work!

@Morbid_Angel

ivanebeoulve let me know if you have doubts or issues about materiales and settings.

Nachex, I do have a request, up until now, I haven’t been able to create a shader like this. (photoshopped)

Where its completely transparent, casts no shadows, but it does have Fresnel reflections, on screen mode only, not reflecting blacks, or anything darkening.

I tried a simple IOR 1.0 refraction and IOR 1.3 Fresnel Reflective material, but this doesn’t work, the material just disappears and reflections do too. any ideas are
appreciated. this is to make a lacrimal reflection, and help blend the eyes better.

On the other hand I received access to nightly builds yesterday! (but the webpage isnt working somehow)

maaaaybe i’ll try the skin shader, maaaybe, since re done in vb3.0 is almost finished on fastSSS I would hate to throw it away just like that… but Im really tempted…

I will finally be using the particle hair system and the hair shader!

I’ve been waiting for this for a loong time. (and finally compare to cycles and internal’s render times)

I’ve reached a point where I need to

A) use zBrush to texture paint and sculpt or

B) take my chances with Blender’s multires and sculpt tools…

this is a little progress in the eyes I’ve been working on.

which is not like super realistic, but compared to the original, it’s definitely an improvement.

after sculpted details are done, I’m hoping to see a way more marked difference in realism

and then I can work on lighting…

[Nachex]

files.rendering.ru/temp/vrayblender3-2.71-56341-23e2c97-a156e09-x86_64-windows.exe download last build from here, ivanebeoulve. Next week for sure nightlies webpage will be working back again .

[Nachex]

Try this setup, and add a direct light just affecting eyes, to cast innet shadow.

[ivanebeoulve]

thanks Nachex Ill give it a try!

to update this is a quick render on how things are going

I added Teeth with pretty straightforward material, nothing advanced yet.
Changed the Lighting to just one above and one behing, instead of the 3 in front

still working on the eyes transition.
I think it needs a little bit of redness and veins (it has, but it doesn’t show somehow)
I removed the makeup but I may add a bit to test it
SSS of the eye has a few weird shadows, I think it was the prepass, but maybe its the cornea casting shadows. ill check on that
still no microdetails on sculpting, bump maps are approximated from the diffuse, that’s why it looks off in some areas specially the nose
add details and redness to her ears is on the to do list.

after that is done, ill be moving to hari, peachfuzz and then accessories to give her more life (and ofcourse, join her neck and head)

all in all, looks like little progress, but I can feel it moving forward

[Nachex]

Hi man I see a huge improvment in the model. The eyes looks quite good, I little reddish in the contour will help. I’ll lower a bit the bump, you see in the nose it’s more noticeable
With some more comp and hair, will definitely look less cg man. Happy to see how it advanced so good ivanebeoulve.

greetings.

[bardo]

@ivanebeoulve

If you want some inspirations or simply some advices, you’d find usefull this thread
http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthread.php?78654-Beautifull-women

It’s a similar project…you have the same target! a beautiful realistic CG woman!

[seanser]

Hi Ivan, I’m also testing out sss2 on a head model. I’m wondering are you having any problems with the sss and textures? I’ve probably set up my nodes wrong but my sss isn’t displaying my normal map properly and I’m having a few issues with colour maps for the skin layers. You’re head is coming along nicely!

[ivanebeoulve]

@beestee

@ivanebeoulve

If you want some inspirations or simply some advices, you’d find usefull this thread
http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthread.php?78654-Beautifull-women

It’s a similar project…you have the same target! a beautiful realistic CG woman!

thanks bardo! the post is awesome!, inspirational for sure, I’m still struggling to get to that level of detail, but definitely wont give up easily

@Ivaylo_Katev

Hi Ivan, I’m also testing out sss2 on a head model. I’m wondering are you having any problems with the sss and textures? I’ve probably set up my nodes wrong but my sss isn’t displaying my normal map properly and I’m having a few issues with colour maps for the skin layers. You’re head is coming along nicely!

I have been having issues, specially when I set the render to be 25%, 50% or 100% the colors of the SSS change entirely.
but I haven’t updated the exporter, so I haven’t reported it yet.

but I haven’t used normal yet, only bumps, and they are temporary until I sculpt the details, Ill post the shader later so you can see how I did it. but I admit it really depends on lighting and resolution right now

[seanser]

I was able to work it out myself, I didn’t have my nodes set up correctly. About the sss changing, I had read on another forum that the sss in V-ray is linked to render size, I don’t know if that is true or not. Anyway, I’ll start a thread and post my own nodes setup in the next couple of days. Your screenshots were helpful, thanks for that!