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Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

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Photo-op
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Photographer
Edmonds, Washington
17 Posts

Top Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

I've been working on some CG models, and... it's not working out the way I want it to.
For those of you that don't know what is involved .....
First, you have to create a wire frame model.
Then you have a variety of maps you have to add to it.
A map for color, a map for texture, a map for light inclusion, a map for reflectivity... blah blah blah.
Then you have to set up movement ... joints, bones... etc ...
To be quite honest it is a big old pain in the arse.

Anyway...
Here is what I need from you.

She doesn't look .... Human enough.
I have been looking at her for over a week (from wire frame on), so ... I need fresh eyes.


http://www.modelinsider.com/images/portfolio/display/598/598-4bbc2e003ec23.jpg

yeah I noticed the black speckles under her eye... I'll deal with that.

Try not to mind the hair.
I just mocked that up so you wouldn't have to see her bald... she's shy that way.
I will improve the hair when I have everything else right.
she is a work in progress and I need your help.

So what is it about her that makes her look fake???

I'm pretty happy with the rest of her ... except for maybe her feet.... and hands.
I've tried to make her as realistic as I can down to her tan lines.

If you would like to see that feel free ... but she is nude.. Yes she is pretty much a cartoon but I have to tell you she is naked.

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Rick Gordon Photography
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Boynton Beach, Florida
523 Posts

Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

It's her eyes themselves that are "off" IMO. The cornea whites appear greyish blue, and the stare is glassy making her appear "robotic". The iris and it's reflections are very well done.

Actually, I'm amazed at how well you did with a CG image. Her pores and lips are spot on. You did a phenominal job and I only wish my editing skills were 10% of the talent you show. Kudos!

EDIT: wow, I just checked out the full sized version in your port and she's amazing. Torso, breasts, tanlines, legs, are killer! Her right arm (left facing) between the elbow and shoulder looks to be "off" just a mite, and her hair sits the head like a wig, but otherwise I'd be hard pressed not to have thought you had shot a real woman. I'm in awe and bow at your talent level, oh Yoda Master!  smile

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Photo-op
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Edmonds, Washington
17 Posts

Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

Thank you,
I had a feeling it was the eyes.
I've added a bit of red to the eyes ... she may look a little stoned.

Right now I'm experimenting with different methods of rendering the lighting.

As soon as I have something I'll share it with you and I'll want your opinion again

Thank you again.

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Sean Baker
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Silver Spring, Maryland
59 Posts

Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

I'm no 3D artist, either, but the things which stand out to me are:

The eyes.  As said, they just don't fit the scene / mood / model.  As if they're being rendered as a glass surface when they should be opaque with a thin reflective (mostly transparent) coating.  Corneas are also a bit too distinct.

Inner edge of right nostril - sharp; looks as if the inside of the nostril is being lit or is empty and being filled in by the renderer.

Lips - they shouldn't come together so neatly; there should be some imperfection to their meeting which is either not present or not represented well by this frame.  I'm also used to seeing lips this size have a more accented protrusion from the face generally - not necessarily coming out further, but coming out faster where they do.  Could just be the lighting angle.

Left side jawline - could be JPEG artifact; could be LOD of the render, but there looks to be some polygonal corners protruding.

If going for a hyper-real look, a few light creases and 'body' to the skin would do the trick.

---

Like I said, I wish I could do what you did, but fwiw those are the things I'd be noticing if I managed to get this far.

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Kevlar Vest Girl
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Chicago, Illinois
999 Posts

Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

The face is darker than the neck.

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Sean Baker
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Photographer
Silver Spring, Maryland
59 Posts

Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

Kevlar Vest Girl wrote:

The face is darker than the neck.

If you lived around here you'd be used to that.  Sunless tanner is expensive!  roll

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Photo-op
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Edmonds, Washington
17 Posts

Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

I've been trying a new lighting method, and it seems to cause as many problems as it solves. And now that I added a little more color to the whites of her eyes she looks stoned.

http://www.modelinsider.com/images/portfolio/display/598/598-4bbd40496a055.jpg

She continues to be a work in progress..

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Portfolio Plus
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Jacksonville, Florida
209 Posts

Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

You keep saying "she looks stoned" like that's a bad thing.

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ClassActPhotography
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Studio City, California
148 Posts

Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

Portfolio Plus wrote:

You keep saying "she looks stoned" like that's a bad thing.

He also keeps saying she doesn't look human enough, like it's a bad thing.
I think she looks great. I want her very badly.

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Portfolio Plus
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Jacksonville, Florida
209 Posts

Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

A permanently stoned chick that isn't human?

I feel like I'm back in Hollywood again.

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AVD
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Chelsea, N/A
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598 Posts

Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

things that got me about the first image:
the black speckles under the eye actually looked human.  like something a girlfriend would see in the bathroom mirror in the washroom and take 39 minutes to fix (giving me time to eat her main course).  To me it's the complex transitions where many things are happening at the same time.  Like the transition on the upper lip. and the transition from the glassy white of the eye to the iris. and a bit around the shininess of the nose. Each individual bit looks amazing by itself tho!

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Photo-op
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Edmonds, Washington
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Top Re: Freinds Artists countrymen lend me your ears

She's only about 2 weeks old, so she is to young to be getting stoned ... even if she were in Hollywood. Tommy, that makes her too young to date... Sorry.

I also kinda thought the black speckles looked like flaking mascara, so I wasn't too upset about it. It is actually a flaw in one of the 4 layers that make up her skin. Sadly I'm not all that sure which one... I'll find it. I kniow that makes me sound kinda stupid. Each map needs to be put in with its own numbers.
like for example if the depth map is put in with numbers too low, it will have no effect. If it is given too high a value, then she will look spiky.
finding a balance between the color, bump, UV, and texture maps is a little tricky and I'm working on it.

I'm thinking I'm having an issue with how the "lights" react.
As photographers we know the effects of large and small, close and distant lights.
I'm seeing a lot of harsh shadowing.
If it was in the real world I could just change the distance of the light.

I can't do that in this software.
There are raytraced and depthmap lighting ... blah blah ... I just have to figure out how that translates into real world effects.

Of course once I have the light spreading and bouncing in all the happy ways I want it to ... I'm sure I'll have to readjust the maps.   

I also think I went overboard with the shiny nose. The shine goes too high.
The good thing is that is it's own map.
A map that is probably totally unnecessary.
I just wanted to give her a little oiliness to her forehead and a little shine to her nose. Things that most of the women in our lives do their best to get rid of. I just thought it gave her a little more human quality.
that's the same reason she has freckles and I have thought about giving her a mole.

Thank you guys for your input, I'm trying to work out the problems as you tell me. Keep it coming.

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Kevlar Vest Girl
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Chicago, Illinois
999 Posts

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First of all, let me say how good a job you've done so far. I'm trained on Alias Wavefront to a degree, have spent a few months with Blender, and am now trying to parse that knowledge over to Maya. I don't think I could have made such an exquisite model at this point.

Can't you select the lights, change their size, output, and move them? In AW, I could make a light as big as the universe and plant it within a foot of the object I was lighting.

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Photo-op
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Edmonds, Washington
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I'm going to see what kind of things I can do with the lights
Thanks for the clue

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ClassActPhotography
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Studio City, California
148 Posts

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I think it would cool if you created a whole group of beautiful CG models and then we can have a theme park, kind like "Westworld" where photographers can go and experiment with models and different lighting techniques and poses and swimsuit stuff and things like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYvyiruWzYo