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I then returned to the scene by clicking the camera area in the upper left and choosing my saved position. I also inserted another bulb light that faces the scene like the rendering camera does. I set its brightness low and loweed the intensity of its shadows. I then duplicated that bulb light. This duplicate I set to only affect the head of the G2F (and the hair and eyes because they are part of the head). The limitation tool for the lights is in the upper right properties tray. You can also exclude items.
I now had the scene close enough to do a real test render with better settings. In the render room (film icon upper right), I improved settings for pixel accuracy etc. as you can see in the screencap. I also increased the dimensions of the render. This had some good and some bad. A good thing was that the clouds did pick up the light streaming through the upper left window. An example of bad is that I did not like the way the back wall of the building picked up the light (personal taste).
I decided to tackle the rear wall first. I opened the wall props and entered the modeling room. I selected one of the polygons on the glass. The properties tray (right side) tells me which shader the polygon is part of. So, I simply looked through the shader list and double clicked that shader to open its tree. I set its reflection to none and made a few other minor tweaks. I did aother test render and was happier that the back wall did not seem to take away from the vampire hunter (in my opinion).
Using the director's camera, I pulled away to see my scene setup. I want the arm of a second bad guy to be by the camera. I navigated to my browser tray to the Daz Lycanthope. I clicked and dragged him to the scene and placed him where it would seem like the camera was peeking out from under his arm. I had to adjust the G2F neck and head a little so that it would appear like she was turning to face the new threat.
I had already posted this test render, but here it is again.
Well, I am going to take a break from this. I certainly didn't expect this simple vampire hunter scene to get so involved. But hopefully, it demonstrated once again where some commonly used functions are. I will go back and try to fix the typos in the morning. No promises, but at some point I may go back to the screencaps with a red line and draw some useful arrows.
EDIT: Went back to fix some of the typos. Very annoying. Sorry if I did not catch them all.
I know I've said it before in this thread, but I will say it again. If this thread has shown you that Carrara can do a lot more than serve as a modeling plugin for Daz Studio, then the best place to be introduced to the very many functions of Carrara is PhilW's tutorials. His beginners and advanced series cover so very many functions and in much moe detail than I could hoe to do here. And for those of you that prefer more realistic looking renders than I do, his "Realism" tutorial is a must. And if you plan to use Carrara as a modeler, then Mmoir's tutorial for vertex modeling in Carrara is top notch.
OK, I couldn't resist tinkering just a little bit more. I adjusted the outside spot light to show her face better, but now it has a weird interaction with the fur on the top. Now I am going to stop for a while. So addictive
Here is the same scene without the clouds. I'm sure many people might prefer this if the Lycanthrope arm was then presented better.
Now I really am stopping.
great work @diomede
times 2
Creating and Saving a Carrara Skin Shader from a Studio Character
Here is how I set up a newly acquired G2F character for future use in Carrara. There was a recent Published Artist discount so I am now the proud owner of Valerie, a G2F character preset by PA addy. http://www.daz3d.com/valerie
The following is NOT the best way. It is my way, which may or not may not be useful for others.
Some of the issues that I try to address are
1st - top priority - numero uno *** Do I want a Poser CR2 version of this G2F available for the Poser cloth room? (because I have V-that which will not be named -plugin, the answer to ths is usually "no" now). Given that I don't care about a Poser CR2, my preference is for setting up and saving as much as possibe in Carrara for direct future use.
OK, whatever the answer to the Poser CR2 issue, have to address the following.
- Which maps does the character come with? Where are they located? Which shading domains in Carrara can make best use of them? Which shading domains share the same maps?
- Do I have the correct UVs available for the G2F in my scene?
- Am I doing a dial morph?
- How do I want to save?
1st - because I will not be needing a Poser version of this character, I am not going to deal with loading it in Studio and exporting as a cr2. That simplifies things for me because I am just going to worry about use in Carrara. That pretty much comes down to making sure that the morphs are available for use in Carrara as (a) full body morphs including the head, (b) morphs that are just the body, and (c) morphs that are just the head. Also, want to make sure that the skin maps are available and optimized for use on G2F.
I used DIM to install the character product in the same default location as other Studio products. Therefore, I could use DIM to find where the product resources were installed.
I opened a new empty Carrara medium scene.
I then navigated to my People : Genesis 2 Female : Characters subfolder in my Carrara content browser.
I then clicked and dragged the "Valerie" icon from the browser to the instances tray (lower right).
A new G2F loads in the scene. Note that the supergroup level is titled "Valerie", the next subgroup is "Genesis 2 Female" and that includes the "actor" level and the "hip" hierarchy.
First, for the sake of the forum TOS, I am going to load and conform some clothes. Doesn't matter what. I happened upon some shorts and a tube top - 3DUnverse Eclypse outfit
Here is a test render. Could be worse, I suppose, but one thing that jumps out at me is the eyelashes. I bet there are more issues, which we will see.
Shape - one thing to check is the method of morphing. I selected the "actor" level and clicked the parameters tab in the upper right of the properties tray.
There is a search box next to the word "root." I typed Valerie in the search filter.
Notice that there are three related parameters. One is just the body, one is just the head, and one is the full figure including body and head. By default load, the full figure is at 1. The key here is that these Valerie morphs will be available to any fresh load of G2F. The more morphs you have, the longer it may take to load an initial Genesis 2 figure in Carrara. You can mix these dial morphs at will with other morphs that you own without ever entering Studio.
I am going to focus now on the skin shaders. Experience has taught me that Studio-optimized characters load in Carrara without some of the maps and other shader channel settings. I want to go through and optimize for Carrara once, then save the global shader in Carrara. To do so, I am going to use DIM to check for maps that come with the Valerie character and where they were installed. I opened DIM, navigated to my installed files and typed Valerie in the search box. The product appeared in my installed list. I right clicked on the Valerie row and a menu appeared. I chose "show installed files." A list of files for the character product appears including the location. I made a note of "runtime/textures/addy/valerie"
Notice that the Head texture comes with Valerie-Head, Valerie-Head-B, and Valerie-Head-S, in addition to various makeup (MU) files. Valerie-Head is the base skin map for the face. The -B file is the bump map. The -S file likely corresponds to the Carrara highlight channel.
So, I want to check to see if the Valerie maps loaded. I returned to Carrara. I selected the"actor" level of the G2F. I clicked on the "shader" tab in the upper right properties tray. The list of shading domains appears. I know that the nostrils are part of the face. I double clicked the nostiril shading domain and the texture room opens with the nostril shader tree displayed.
At the top level, I can see that there is a map in the color channel but that the highlight and bump channels are empty. Not all of the maps loaded.
First, I focused on the color channel. I opened the color channel and confirmed that the map that loaded was Valerie-head.jpg. So far so good. However, I like to be abe to make easy adjustments in the future, so I like to apply an operator like a mixer or a multiply. If you multiply by a white color, than the texture map will be applied unaltered. However, you can also multiply a slight pink or olive color to tinge the skin. Or, you can use a mixer to apply spots, or stripes, or mud, or whatever.
For this color channel, I used operator : multiply, and then chose a white color for the second channel.
I then opened the highlight channel, which currently says "none." Again, I chose multiply to make any subsequent adjustment easier. In the first channel, I chose texture map and navigated to the location of the files that come with the Valerie product. Recall that DIM told me the location was
"runtime/textures/addy/valerie" This is a subfolder of where you Daz Studio files are.
I went to that folder and loaded "Valerie-Head-S" in the first channel of my multiply subfolder of the highight channel.
In the second channel of the multiply, I chose value 1-100% and set an iniitial setting of 10. I defer to Dart, Jonstark, and many others on realistic skin settings, so don't assume that my multiply is "correct." Will discuss at more length belowand of course refer back to other similar issus in prior tutorials in he same thread.
I can't see a single image in your tutorial. I don't know if it's only me or not
For the sake of the maps, I turned to the bump channel next, and can return to the shininess channel. Again, the bump map for Valerie's head did not load on default. Once again, I opened the channel and chose operator : multiply. In the first multiply channel I chose texture map and navigated to the "runtime/textures/addy/valerie" and chose the bump map valerie-head-B.jpg. In the second multiply channel, I chose value 1-100% and chose 100 so that the bump map is currently unaffected, but easy to adjust in the future.
Now, unlike the highlight channel, the intensity of the bump channel is controlled in the top channel of the shader tree.
Now, what about the channels that do not have maps? These include alpha, shininess, reflection, transparency, refraction, glow, subsurface scattering, and translucency. Again, although I defer to others for skin setting in general, I generally use settings in the following ranges, but of course it often depends on other important factors.
These are for shading domains dominated by skin such as those on the face, head, arms, legs, and torso. These would not apply to eyes, teeth, etc.
Color - Texture Map multiplied by white
Alpha - None
Highlight - texture map ending in S multiplied by value (1-100) in the rang of 10 to 20
Shininess - value (1-100) in the 5-10 range
Bump - texture map ending in B multplied by value (1-100) set to 100, or a normal map multiplied by smaller number, remember to set intensity at top level range 5-15
Reflection - (shader = 0%, fresnel = 25%, raydepth max depth = 2, max attenuation = 85%)
Transparency - None
Refraction - Index of refraction = other, othe value = 1.0
Glow = none
Subsurface Scattering = check Enable Sub, Diff Reflect = 40-45%, color is pink vary around 96,51,32, Translucency = 23-27%, Intensity = 18-22%, Refraction Index = 28-32%, Fresnel Effect 20-24%
Translucency - None
Remember to check the box in subsurface sattering to enable subsurface scattering (although this will slow down test renders so you might want to wait until your scene is assembled).
Next, copy the nostril shader to other skin shading domains tha will be using he same maps and settings. The nostrils share te same maps as the face. So, I click and drag the nostril shading domain to the face shading domain while holding down the control key. Now, if I edit the nostril sin shader further, it will update the face as well.
Sorry, Philemo. I had the screenshots saved, and typed the posts in as a batch, and then went back to attach the screenshots.
Unfortunately, I have to go to my regular work now so the torso, limbs, eyes, and teeth will have to wait.
Philemo said
I can't see a single image in your tutorial. I don't know if it's only me or not
Wow, diomede... this thread is perfect!
So, I was too eager :-). I prefer that. With the recent events in Daz Forum, I wanted to be sure.
Sorry for letting work get in the way, but have to pay bills. Had left off after completing the shader for the nostril and copying that to the face shading domain. Now, it is unfortunate that the published artist chose to title the map valerie-head.jpg because the face and the head shading domains do NOT share the same uvmap. The head, ears, neck, torso, nipples, and hip share the map titled "torso".
First task was to copy the shared channels from nostril to torso. So, I went to the shader trees in the texture room and closed them all except I opened the nostril shading domain and the torso. I then right clicked on the shiness channel of the nostril which brings up the option to copy and then pasted in the shininess channel of the torso. I then repeated that for the other channels that do not need a map (reflection, refraction, subsurface scattering).
I addressed the three channels that require maps, which are the color channel, highlight channel, and bump channel. The color channel already has its map loaded, which is titled valerie-torso.jpg. I created adjusted this channel by choosing OPERATOR : MULTIPLY and then hoosing a white color for the second multiply channel. The map automatically slid to the first multiply channel. I then opened the empty highlight channel an created another multiply operator. This time, in the first channel, I loaded a textre map, ad then navigatedto the folder with the valerie maps and loaded valerie-torso-S. I then entered the same multiply for the torso that I had for the nostril (which was 10 in this case). Similarly, I opened the bump channel and created a multiply, loaded the valerie-torso-B map and set the multply to a white color. I remembered to go to the top channel and set the bump intensity to he same as the nostril, which was 8. I then copied the torso shader to the channels for head, ears, neck, nipples, and hip.
I repeated the same procedure for the shading domains for the arms and legs, which share the same uvmap. The published artist named the map for the limbs valerie-leg.jpg. So, the map for the shoulder is valerie-legs.jpg. The procedure is to have open just the legs shading domain and the torso shading domain. Copy and paste the channels for shininess, reflection, refraction, and subsurface scattering from the torso to the legs. Then go to the channel for color, which already has its map (valerie-legs.jpg) loaded and create a multply operator and multiply by white. For the channels for highlight and bump, create a multiply operator and load the appropriate maps ending in S and B respectively. Multiply the highlight map valerie-legs-S by the same amount as the torso (10) and multiply the bump map valerie-legs-B by a white color. Go to the top level and set the bump intensity to the same as for the torso, which was 8.
Now that the legs shading domain is complete, copy and paste it to th domans for feet, toenails, forearms, shoulder, hands, and fingernails.
Now the core domains for the skin are complete, but the eyes and teeth have to be addressed.
I then closed all of the shader trees because the skin maps won't be helpful for the eyes. I double clicked eye reflection. Based on examining the M5 shader that came with Carrara, I chose settings in the following range.
Eye Reflection
I set the color close to white, (0,96,0)
In the alpha, I multiplied the texture map (valerie-eye-reflection.jpg) times value = 100%
Highlight - value = .20
Shininess - value = 45%
Bump - value = 0
Reflection - value = 45%
Transparency - None
Refraction - multiply Index of refraction = other, othe value = 1.0 times value = 0%
Glow = None
Subsurface Scattering = None
Translucency - None
I then addressed the cornea.
Eye Cornea
Color - valerie-eyes-02.jpg
Alpha - Multiply texture map (valerie-eyes-tr.jpg) times value = 100% (can reduce value if not transparent enough)
Highlight - None
Shininess - value = 100%
Bump - None
Reflection - None
Transparency - None
Refraction - None
Glow = None
Subsurface Scattering = None
Translucency - None