I’d personally advise you to start by using just a mix between difuse and sss, and then mix it with a glossy for the specular… And work over the model you’re actually going to use. Doing tests in a different model is like doing tests with another render engine (well, not as bad but still not optimal).
Try it as simple as it can be in terms of the number of nodes you’re using and build from there. Also, try to use at least the diffuse texture from the start, adding specular and bump maps once the skin looks good enough.
Thank you to everyone for your input on rendering skin in Cycles. I’ll have some test to share shortly. Just a couple of things to wrap up to share as many stages of this work in progress as I can.
Here’s a shot of the result of applying a shape key to my head mesh as a form of shape modifier. Naturally I could have gotten into the base mesh itself and moved vertices, but I liked the idea of using a shape key as a modeling method…
Remember I modeled Werner’s head symmetrically but of course no expression is truly symmetrical, so once I got the basic form of the lean of his shoulder and neck in position with my rig, the shape key allowed me to get into the finer details. I’ll likely need to do some refining, but now at least I feel good about truly diving into solving the skin shader.
Here you go. I actually only used one seam after trying a number of different ways it turned out that the simplest was the best. I tried things like adding a “T” across the brows, cutting around the neck, the ears etc. But in the end, one seam did it…
Hey Ricky - check out post #14 - I used a series of reference photos from 3D.SK and used the stencil paint method inside Blender’s texture painting tool set. Get out there and try making a head and let us know how you get on! I’m learning so much just by trying.
One last post before I get into talking about developing the skin shader in Cycles. Thanks to Chafouin for your advice. Here I am using a material override on a render layer to get a lighting set up that approximates my reference photo. Great tip to focus on the lights and shadows before focusing on other details…
You can see me attempting to match the lighting of the portrait. I actually think this lighting is kind of bland and flat, so in my final renders I may go for a less evenly lit portrait and less square on shot of his face, but for now the exercise is to continue to follow this photo as my guide. I’m using a top, front, left, and right area light set up plus a tiny amount of environmental lighting from an interior HDRI.
Yep - the original photo is heavily edited in post-production. I’ve ran a couple of tests of my skin shader through the compositor and/or GIMP and getting close to the look of the original photographer (it’s also quite blue.)
The SSS shader in all it’s forms kills shadows as it scatters light so it’s hard to get those nice deep wrinkles. Hoping post will fix it, but agreed - still a way to go here…
Thanks for the find Ricky. Yep - I’ve been looking at a couple of images. Currently I’ve been using this one as a more natural skin reference that I’m using to match his skin tone. I’ll have more Cycles test to post soon:
Does anyone have any tips on maintaining nice detail and / or shadows when using SSS? I’ve found that the more I increase the SSS scale, the more lifelike a look I get, but the more I loose these final details. Conversely if I dial it back I get a “chalkier” look that brings back all the details but looses the skin look.
Hey Ricky,
Made some further tweaks to both the shader and the shape key I have on the mesh. Here’s a quick viewport snap under more dramatic lighting conditions and angle to better see the current state of the shader and displacement. Note that I’m now using a specular map as well as diffuse, subdermal, and bump maps. Interesting how this is scattering more red light in this lighting set up…
Turning out to be a good experiment shaking things up by trying some more dramatic lighting. This new angle looks too red. Easing up on the amount of red that’s scattering in the SSS is providing a more natural skin tone and pulling some stronger less scattered shadows. That said, at 6000 samples this baby is still noisy. I wonder how this tweak will look under the original flatter lighting set up?..
have to continue with my head but lot’s of work just to get the right shape!
whenever got fee time
got to solve some algo with complex numbers and that is taking much more time then I wanted to put in
Thanks - I didn’t notice the lip until you said. Yep - hair will be the next step once I feel good about the skin shader. Planning to do hair for the head, eyebrows, stubble, stubble around the neck and peach fuzz. Will be my first time rendering hair so yet more to learn…
Good luck with your project. Looking forward to seeing it.
One more render for the night with some ambient light…
