Creating a Skin Shader for a Daz model Tweet

[RobbieTheCupcake]

I apologize if this seems like a common issue but I can't seem to find any guides or answers specific to my problems. To put it simply, I want to take an out-of-the-box Daz figure (say, Victoria 8) and make it look good in the Octane renderer.

I've found a number of guides and tutorials out there, but they all seem incomplete in one way or another, for example:

-Tutorial just says to auto convert the iray materials, which would defeat the purpose of using Octane in the first place
-Tutorial gives me a skin shader without really explaining how they made it
-Tutorial tells me to use a third piece of software like Cinema4D (which I'm not going to use because it's $100/month)
-Tutorial wants me to extract the 3D model of the figure and put it into 3dsmax (which I absolutely cannot afford) and do a lot of things that are FAR above my skill level
-Tutorial is based around Octane standalone

This tutorial ( https://thinkdrawart.com/how-to-create- ... dio-octane ) was the most helpful so far, but he provides a skin shader without going into detail about how he made it. There's an interesting image in that article of the different layers he put into his material, but again he doesn't really explain how he put those into the single material. He also mentions using a tonysculpter skin shader from the liveDB, which is a suggestion I've seen in a number of other guides too. However, when I try to apply it to my figure, my figure looks like a ballistics gel dummy in the Octane renderer, which tells me I am obviously using that shader wrong. So I guess I'm not really sure how the liveDB materials are supposed to be used.

I'm also not sure whether or not I should be using the daz-supplied textures at all as RGB Images. In the previously linked tutorial, his shader is setup to use the daz supplied diffuse textures, but I have no idea if that's the preferred way to do it or not. If it IS the preferred way, I don't actually know how to setup all of the other linked nodes to work with the texture.

Lastly, I cannot find any information on how to make eye, eyelash, finger and toenails, or makeup materials for the octane renderer.

Again, I'm sorry if this makes anyone roll their eyes but to me it seems like the information either isn't out there or is geared for professionals who already know what they're doing. I don't mind using ready-made assets like the RedSpec stuff I've seen, but I'd like to know how it's put together so if I want to tune it I know what I'm doing. I appreciate any help anyone can give me!

[face_off]

Hi

The simplest solution is the RedSpec skin materials. https://render.otoy.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=119.

Also - I will have the 2019 build of the plugin available by the end of the week, and the new Octane 2019.1 layering system fundamentally changes how you can render skin, and I think it will open up a lot of new techniques. The old way was to have a Material Mix with a Diffuse (providing SSS) and a Glossy (providing reflections). However this was tricky to tune. In Octane 2019 you can have all the skin layers as different material layers and it looks incredible!

Paul

[RobbieTheCupcake]

Thanks for the reply! I look forward to the update.

[rajib]

If you want a start try the "Tonysculptor Skin R20" from the OctaneLive material. If you search that you will see many post here regarding it. Basic concept is that you need transmission and Medium (absorb light and also scatter the light) to get the SSS effect : light passing through skin e.g. the way ears look red when the light source is behind it. And you want to use specular nodes to create 2 kind of highlights, one more flat and affects larger area and the other more concentrated highlight and then play around with the mixing to see what you like. How bright the base diffuse texture is, whether it is dark skin or light skin, what kind of SSS map it has if any, etc all effect the final result. So it is more of a trail and error to see what looks good. Once you have setup a base shader then for each skin material you can tweak it as needed.

But like Paul mentioned, with 2019 things will totally change. I spent more than a year tweaking my skin material (You can take a look at my gallery to see the results : viewtopic.php?f=5&t=70965) but with the 2019 I will have to start all over again with the layered concept. I think it will be easier to create skin material in 2019 than before.

My advice is to RnD. Without doing that you will not fully grasp how each of the node and setting affects the skin material. There are many skin materials in the OctaneLive and you can see how they set up the skin materials. That will give you a basic idea. Do note when you use a specular node for the skin material, always enable Fake Shadow otherwise your renders will be very long and slow.

My basic skin setup is [Diffuse (With Transmission and Medium Absorption) + Glossy (little bit of glossiness) ] + [Specular (With Transmission and Medium Absorption - With less roughness for concentrated highlight) ] + Specular (With Transmission and Medium Scattering - With more roughness for spread out highlight) ]

[3dxcentric]

So has any progress been made on this disaster? Literally everything has been a mess since this 2019 layering or whatever release. I can't find support anywhere, all of this TonySculptor stuff and RedSpec stuff is now obsolete, and I'm really starting to get angry after thousands of dollars spent on this software. Where are the OFFICIAL shaders!?? What is up with this third party crap?

I'm just sitting around waiting forever while my income depletes and depletes because it's hard to produce anything good anymore.

[rajib]

Not really. Paul, has not been able to implement the full layering system of the materials so no luck there. We are stuck with the ability to add only 1 layer item. It you export to Octane StandAlone then you will have access to this full layering capabilities. Now 2020.1x added another feature called Random SSS walker that changes the skin material once again. So good luck experimenting with that. I have spent countless hours over the years to get my skin material look good. And every release I have had to change it as some internal changes / bug fixes in Octane had lead to the same material behaving differently in the newer version.

I frankly don't think Otoy has much interest in releasing materials. Even with the new material types like Metallic Material, Universal Material, etc. their Live Material definitions have not changed to take advantage of these new material types. So I won't hold my breath for them to release new materials. I think only with the help from third party contributors the Live Material will grow.

If you can find OSL shader definitions for materials, then probably you can use NGE to create those material definitions. I think the standalone does support OSL material, but no such luck with the plugin. You will need to create it yourself in NGE.

[3dxcentric]

Brilliant.

[sHTiF]

I am using my own skin shaders but what makes you think that TonySculptor or RedspecSSS is obsolete? It works as good as ever even in 2020, yep it doesn't utilize the latest and shiniest but it delivers still good result without it.

[rajib]

I am using my own skin shaders but what makes you think that TonySculptor or RedspecSSS is obsolete? It works as good as ever even in 2020, yep it doesn't utilize the latest and shiniest but it delivers still good result without it.

Yup, to me the TonySculptor and RedspecSSS should continue to work and give good results. I guess the OP does not want to get into adjusting the materials for the different lights, etc. I too have my own skin shaders and they need tweaks now and then between HDR / Octane Sunlight / Indoor lighting. But at the same time the new things are making it easier to create a decent skin shader. And like the OP I do wish Otoy would at least create a official shaders though not for skin but more so for all metal / etc with their latest universal materials / metallic materials. Or maybe they can work with Quixel / Adobe to create an easy way to go between Megascan / Surface Painter to add PBR materials to Octane.

[sHTiF]

To me it seems people are rather lazy and want just a one click solutions. There is no such thing. Yep there are a lot of things I would love to have, like material layers supported in the DAZ plugin. But it is not like once this is available my renders will be 100% better, the visual change would be quite subtle if at all. What it would bring is easier workflow though.