georg

an attempt in a realistic portrait… all sculpting in blender, first in dynatopo then in multires for adding fine detail, like the skin. retopo in zbrush with zremesher, texturing in zbrush. hair is blender hair. rendered, of course, in cycles… whole scene has 8 mill polygons, and rendered in 25 minutes…


and here is a screenshot from the sculpt (with all multires objects set to highest level) and the hair systems visible


fazit: doing a realistic portrait with textures and all jingle bells is much harder than sculpting … lol… therefore, constructive critique is welcome, so that i can use what i learn from it for later projects…

ps please click the image to see fullsize, so that you can see all the details i put :slight_smile:

Very beautiful Doris. I really like how you have textured/sculpted the leather jacket and his sweater. His hair looks very good as well. I’m not too good at judging skin, but the facial imperfections that were added really are nice. Something about his eyelashes maybe seems off just slightly, maybe they need more, I’m not sure.

The only thing that stands out to me as an area that could be improved is that little crease you see where his neck meets the edge of his sweater collar.

Is this someone you know? Another great piece for your portfolio.

Hi doris, interesting work, I like a lot the cloth and skin shaders! Is oustanding the quantity of polygons !
I have a question: tha big quantity of polygons helped to made the microdeatails working toghether with displacement and normal maps?

mmm… about feedback, I think here two elements on image I see some strange: the right eye, and the eyelashes. The right eye comparing to the another, looks more straight , while the another looks good:


About the eyelashes, I think they looks very straight too, and need a little curvature, Im not sure if they have, but I think you can solved:


Acord the firts image reference, you can mantein the direction of eyelashes of up but change a little the size of the eyelashes up ubicate to border of eye.


The another way to manage this problem is acord the second image reference, change the direction of eyelashes of up give them a curvature looking to up, Oh in both case the eyelashes of botton need a curvature that looks down (I indicate that on the first image about eyelashes).

I forgot the nostril is very darkness! add some of darknes in that part (maybe add hair too there :P).

That is my little contribution doris, sorry for paint on your image, but is very complicate explain all on words.

nice work, I hope you give me a feedback too in my next job (Im working on portrait too :slight_smile: ).

greetings, and good day !

thank you harleynut :slight_smile: yes i agree on the eyelashes. i am having my problems with them. also, because i seem not quite understand how blenders hair is supposed to work. … hmm, this little crease is, i believe, a too strong shadow of the muscle. it slipped my attention, i should have moved the light ever so slightly. thanks for pointing out. … and, no, he is “created” from several reference fotos (but having one as a leading one)

wow, joseperez, thank you so much for your help. i do appreciate very much (and appreciate your clear explanations via draw over), and sure will give back this favour when you post your portrait. i am looking forward to it (kick me with a pm, in case i miss your post, please)
yes, i understand your argument with eye. the strong rotation of the eyes led me a little wrong way. good point you have.
the lashes , these are from a problem i am having with blender hair. i actually have the guide hair (parents) similar like on your lower ref foto, see here:


but, it does render the childrens always much shorter than the parents :frowning: i do not know why. and so the curve i created in the parents hairs is “chopped off”… this also happened with the main hair, when you look the screenshot, which shows the parent hairs, it is much longer hair than in the render?? confusing… so, i think i need tech help here … good point about the lengths of the top lashes, it slipped my attention that they are longer at the outside corners. i defeinitely will put this is next time!
nostrils, yes good point too, have not thought about putting hair there, good idea!

and to your question about the polycount and maps. these sculpts are so highpoly that i could sculpt the skin details like pores and tiniest wrinkles (the head has 6 mill about). it does not carry a displacement or normal map. not even a bump map. it carries a diffuse texture, an sss texture and a glossy texture. on the sweater sits a texture that displaces and bumps. but the head and jacket do not have displacement or normal maps. pure sculpting they are.

thanks a lot, jose, it is very helpful to get such fine critique. i learned alot from it, and will make much better next time :slight_smile:

Hi doris, mmm… about that tecnicall problem, I will try help you.

*for made a quick test and see quick results, I made a simple scene with a cube, and set the hair particle system the usual form, and I only have one parent particle.

*for my is more easy work with the “Simple” mode on Children, for some reason I understand more in comparisong to “Interpolate”

Ok I break the problem on parts, the first thing I found that cause that problem is the Shape option:


if the value is “>” to “0” the hair is more short that his viewport version, check if your option have the value on 0


you can see here if the shape is 0, the render version have the same lenght of his view port version, maybe cant be clear because the tip is very small, but if you put a value of tip for only purpouse to check you can see better the comparison


The second thing I will post in another post, because I only can put 3 images for post .

ok, the second thing I found is the Min Pixels and Max Ext on “Cull back face”


you can see if I put high values on two options the pixels of strand are more small, when I move that option the strant was dispersed look:


I think that option depent about the scale you handle on your scene, but in default scale this is the values of that options:


PD. you can see the dispertion only on perspective view, on orthogonal dont see that fenomen.

in next post, is about the children has diferent size of his parents.

Well, I think the problem about the children with diferent size is on the “Lenght” and “Threshold” option ubicate on Children panel.

usually if you have the Lenght and Threshold equals to 1, all children can have the same size of his parent:


(I think with this option we say: “any particles (Threshold = 1 = 100% child) will have the same size of his parent (Lenght = 1 = 100% size of his parent)”.

“Threshold = 1” is any particle will asing the lenght, you can check that, when I change the percent of lenght:


we say a similar order to up: “any particles (Threshold = 1 = 100% child) will have the same size of his parent (Lenght = 0.5 = 50% size of his parent)”.

now if you change the value to Threshold you can see some particles asign the percent size will you asigned on “Lenght” option:


In this image we say: “some particles (Threshold = 0.39 = 39% child) will have the 50% of size of his parent”.

if you set Threshold = 0, all particles will have the % size that you asigned on “Length”.

for more clearity

Threshold = 0-> all particles have asigned the % size of Lenght.
Threshold = 0.5-> 50% of particles have asigned the % size of Lenght.
Threshold = 1-> neither/none/any (I put synonyms, for made me sure xD) particles have asigned the % size of Lenght.

Doris, they are the three possible tecnical issues that I found about your description, let me know if my explanation dont clear in this part =P.

in the next post is about the lashes configuration, Im not sure if you dont have problems to made hims.

hi Doris, I will give you my recomendations for made eyelashes:

if you have much childrens you can approach the option Clamp for merge the tips:


now for give more a naturall form I sugest, you set a negative value to “Shape” option ubicate down of “Clamp” option for close a little the body of childrens with his parent:


on case if you have problems to give curvature to strand I recomend 100% the tool “Particle select”, because display the vertex of strand, and you can use the transformation tools like rotate, translate, scale. for give the form to strand:


for see better the curvature of strand assing more Path steps ;).

I continue give you some tips to another post >=).

another tip is for check the behave of child on particle edit, you can activate the children option for that:


Oh!, another big ventage to use “Particle select” is you can use the Brush too, you can see on my timelapse about hair how I use a lot that tool:

I shared with you, the time lapse about hair I will do to my bird, you can see how I over use that tool ;):

the rendering the curvature looks pretty flat when you have the Line segments option:


for have a more smooth you can asign the “Curve Segments” option:


the last recomendation, if you dont like the curve you can use the “Puff” Brush for “reset” the strand:


PD. well Im not sure how many experience you have with hair tool doris, for that reason I give you that tips, maybe you know all that, but this one can help me in case I forgot some option :stuck_out_tongue: hahaaha.

I hope something post can help you a little :), in my case I review (reforcing my learning) :yes:.

greetings!

-José

Doris, this is a fantastic model!

BUT the render itself is not yet photorealistic. Here are some suggestions:

  1. The skin looks like wax. The basetexture of the skin is already really good, but it’s missing colors (which in reality is mostly blood from under the skin). I took the freedom to quickly paint over your render in photoshop:


There is red missing: on the eyelids, on the cheeks, on the nose, on the lips. (especially on the eyelids and lips)
Also the tear sacs and parts under the tear sacs are often a little bit darker. (Which is why I darkened them a bit)

  1. The beard is not dense enough. I think a beard has 2 - 4 times more hairstrands… even if it’s a shaved beard. (I speak of personal experience :smiley: )

  2. The lighting. It’s too flat. But that can easily be fixed in postpro.
    I took the render to photoshop to show what I mean:


(well… maybe this is too much, but I think you get the idea)

  1. And last but not least: the skin looks too smooth to me, which adds to the waxy look of the skin. Maybe bringing out the creases a little bit more could help?

Nontheless great work! I wish I could model nearly as good!

oh, joseperez, i cannot thank you enough. this tutorial is great! it clearifies a lot of things about hair for me, this should really be in some place here on the forum where others can still find it when my thread is forgotten! … i will try again, to make better, now that i have so clear and precise description what all these settings do :slight_smile: (i was trying and guessing, as you probably have guessed…lol) will be back with improved work, thanks a million!!!

thank you thealmighty. yes i see your point with the colors. actually they were in the render, but i worked them out with postpro, so did the opoosite what you suggest. … the lightning, it is good what you suggest, but changes the mood, , as i will rework the hair and lashes, i will try a better lightning situation, follow your suggestion and same time try to stay with my idea. will be interesting. thank you!

so i reworked georg, and tried to bring in the suggestions. … i redid the eyelashes completely, thank you again so much joseperez, i really learned a lot about blenders hairsystem from your great tutorial. it is now less random, what i create :slight_smile: i also tweaked skin and the lightning… i hope you like, , i know i saw after rendering again things that could be improved, but now i really like to start a new, to apply my freshly gained knowledge :slight_smile:


Wow Doris, is great if you found my contribution served!
Yes now the eyelashes looks less straight and more finest, and lighthing looks much better because now is less opaque :D!. is very cool you made the change immediately, that’s great because you can solve the problem quickly.

You forgot the nostril! hahahaha :(, but that ok, I understand the problem of eye, I think could be very hard re sculp that part :S, to be honest I have a lot of fear handle large amounts of polygon XD because my pc runs with just one million, and make a render is a hell for asking me xD.

And when you sculpt again the human eyelid perhaps erase the micro-details in the process, but Im not sure if the tool grab could help there: P. So I understand that your procedure is super craft.

When I have a decent progres with my portrait I with send you a pm, for critique constructive :D, I think that excercice help a lot for improved the work.

greetings doris, and good day!

EDIT

now I see again the image, you solve the eye! I dont understand why I dont see that correction before! Lol

overall outstanding sculpt and really good render. I think I agreed with all of the crits and compliments so far.

I think the eyebrow hairs are too short. They look patchy, which I think is a result of their being too wavy or bent. Real eyebrow hairs tend to be slightly curved and mostly straight, similar in shape to an eyelash hair.

Also the eyes look a bit glassy to me. It seems like the textures on the eyes might lack enough detail or resolution, and maybe the cornea and such lack the right SSS and IOR and glossiness settings? I really have no exact idea on this.

yes, jose your critique and the many explanations were very helpful indeed. not only for this portrait, but now i have a firm grasp how blenders hair system really works :slight_smile: thank you so much…

oh no, i did not forget the nostril hair :wink: when you look very closely you can see it a little, but maybe i should have made more for the darkening effect you spoke about. it feeled too “wild” to me, so i used only a few… i am looking forward to giving back the favour of constructive critique for you :slight_smile:

thank you, kemmler. yes, the eyebrow hairs are quite short, like when he came from hairdresser. they are not wavy, but next time i make them longer, and work them as i have learned now for the eye lashes… ah, i did not know that cornea needs sss too. this is missing then, the texture has big resolution (1024x1024), is maybe too big, and yes, i did not paint too much detail. will improve on these points in my next project where i need realistic eyes. thanks for sharing the info!

Do you have a skin shader on this head? It looks like it could do with some SSS to make it a little more fleshy :wink: Apart from that, it is an amazing sculpt! And I love the materials on the jacket, and the eyes look wonderful :slight_smile:

Great portrait Doris! Great job on the eyes and modeling of the face.

I just missed some different color temperatures on the skin and a more strong key light to pop out a litte bit more those nice forms. This image may help you with the skin colors in the next projects. :slight_smile:

Nice sculpting, the materials/lighting could use some refining though. Other than that excellent work!

-Abdul-mu’min

hi bonwr, yes i have sss on it, see material below. too much sss looks waxy, as my first approach showed.

thank you lucasfalco, yes i have these colorvariations in there, but very subtle, see below. i like subtelety more. same why my keylight is also not that strong. when you compare with the first render, i actually already went quite far away wrt lightning from what i initially intended. thanks for sharing the infografiks, always good to have info so clear.

thank you uknowho, yes certainly true, but i call it finish.