Lighting tests

So, the model is pretty much done, so I've been spending the day starting to set up the lighting. I originally started to go for a normal high contrast, rim lighty type setup. But I sort of fell for the winter-ish diffuse light coming from this HDRI from sIbl, so not sure what direction I'll end up going in.

Other than that, I still need to put in the eyebrows, as well as tweak the spec maps some.

Skin texturing in MARI

The final texture for this project is starting to take shape, hoping to be able to get most of it done tonight so I can start messing around with the SSS shader tomorrow. The texture for the body itself is made up of three 4096x4096 patches for each shader channel, so 18 texture maps total when all is said and done (diffuse, subdermal, epidermal, bump, reflection amount+glossiness, displacement).

Tricky part so far is getting all of the different projections to blend together nicely as far as brightness and color go.

When the base texture is done, I plan on tweaking it to a more olive type tone, as well as putting in some tattoo details on the left arm side.

Displacement map tests

Finally got the displacement maps for the body itself working properly in Maya. Apparently, when you combine 3 texture maps (one for each UV patch) using a +/- Average node, you have to pipe it into the vray displacement node via a luminance node.

The turntable mentioned in my previous post is ticking away when I'm not using the PC (which is about 27 seconds a day these days).

Aaand done

Finally finished one of the 2 pieces I've been raving on about. Still need to render a spin of this one, but all the bits and bobs are in there now, and the still image gave me a good opportunity to try out some grading and color choices in Photoshop. Hope you like it. If you don't, I'll probably start crying. Please don't make me cry.

Final graded version

Clay

Ungraded render straight from vray

More SSS testin'

Did some more tweaks on the SSS shader and the texture maps themselves today. Was looking very rubber-masky, and while the latest tweaks takes out some of the subsurfacy goodness we all love too much, I think it looks a lot more realistic this way.

Eyebrows still crazy (vray fur), eyelashes way to dark and opaque (exported fibermesh from zbrush).

SSS skin shader tests

Man, skin shaders are a lot of work. My inner render dude is loving it. My inner sculptor is crying a silent tear for all the details that get blurred out by the SSS.

Almost there

Here's a couple of wip grabs from the two pieces I've been working on lately, the first being one of the test renders I did earlier today of the orc model. Still some tweaking to do on the metal shaders, as well as getting the body itself textured etc, but it's still a major relief to finally have all of the pieces present in the maya scene.

I just did the count, and jesus christ, with all the displacement maps, spec, glossiness, bump, and diffuse maps, and with many parts using multiple UV patches, this thing now has exactly 100 texture maps applied to it. Stupid, right?

The second image is where I'm currently at with the skin textures for the monster bust I posted last time. What you're feasting your eyeballs on here is an ortographic screengrab of the flat shaded base texture in Mari, from which I'll be deriving all the textures for the SSS skin shader except for the displacement (diffuse, subdermal, epidermal as well as the two specular maps).

Expect more updates over the next week or so as I try to finally get this thing done.

L

quickie 09 monster bust #2

Taking a brief pause from Mari and the seven hundred textures left for the orc project, I started playing around with blocking in some high frequency skin detail for the monster bust / quick sculpt thingy.

Spent most of last night trying to take some high res close up shots of my own mug to use for the skin texture on the orc. While looking at pics of myself at night is already one of my favorite passtimes, it does leave you with feeling somewhat narcissistic. I also made a soft box for my camera flash using toilet paper. Yeah..