This is a project I’ve been working on. The leaves are stand ins, I plan on photographing and modeling a bunch of jungle leaves and filling in the scene with them. Right now I’m interested in feedback on the faces and skin. There is no post on the first image.
And a wire overlay:
I’ll have to take a look at some real images of the capuchin monkee. I would say the skin looks a little too plastic like, but I love the idea of adding the baby.
A very nice start, photox. The composition is great and the fur is awesome. I like how they are hiding in the bushes and at the same time looking out.
Regarding the skin, I think that it has too much specularity. And in the references I found the face is covered with short and sparse fur also.
Good work, so far 
the schnozzie on the big monkey looks kind of “fibery”?
harleynuts: Made changes to nodes, SSS scale, and maps to try and lower the plastic feeling of the skin.
minoribus: Specularity has been reduced as well as the overall gloss mix, and the spec map has been redone. I redid the face hair system which wasn’t really visible. Thickened the hairs, increased the children and made it more opaque.
f3l1x: Schnozzie on the big monkey has been resculpted to smooth it out and the normal map has been blurred there. The quads are stretched in that area and was causing elongated pinching. Fibery feeling has been reduced/removed.
I photographed 3 longish leaves from outside my condo with my Nikon Coolpix L820, and created the fronds. So there is no longer any outside art in the render. (The original leaf texture was Googled) I made some minor change to the lighting, added a sun, pushed the other lights farther right to left. I think the leaves still have an uncanny CG feel to them.
Any ideas on how to improve it from here?
Awesome!
The little dude chewing on a leaf is just killing me, it’s so sweet!
Quite an improvement on the skin Photox! I think it looks much better. You asked about others areas of improvement, I think the topology and shaping around the eyes would be the one area you could continue to refine.
Just as an alternative pose idea, I’ve seen some pics where they are showing their teeth that look pretty cool… Maybe momma could be protecting her little guy.
But it is really coming along nicely
@IronLung, Danke. The little monkey creates a whole different feel to the piece and adds a little heart. He’s going to stay.
@harleynuts67, The new shaders are a step away from uncanny. I put a rig on the big monkey and added a snarl shapekey and made a first pass at the teeth. It’s a classic pose for the Capuchin and I really should have it. The upper teeth need some shaping, and the shader needs some experimenting.
This quick 400 sample render is less, “Awww” and more “KILL THE MONKEY!”
Impressive! You commented on the teeth yourself, so nothing more to say this time
Impressive!
I agree, showing the teeth changes it up quite a bit, but I like both of the compositions you have done. That was a good idea of putting the leaf in the little ones mouth.
Just wondering, what type of light set up are you using?
@minoribus, thank you for the kind words.
@harley, Sometimes it’s the tiniest little touch in a piece that stands out. The leaf in the little one’s mouth seems to be that thing here.
The lighting is a sun, a large semi sphere mesh light, pointed like the sun, and a key and fill mesh lights. The whole scene is surrounded (but never visible) by a semi glossy cube to
get more indirect bounces. Lighting is something I want to get better at.
Unfortunately this scene is coming to an end. It’s just too taxing on my system.
I have a habit of making scenes with large hair/particle numbers and this one is out of control. I’m going to do an overnight large render around 2000 samples, of the thumbnail shown here. And then tomorrow night a large render of the relaxed pose and call it a finished project.
I want to do something low poly on GPU, probably a cartoon style. Something different.
Moved and reshaped the teeth and chin, added a tongue, moved the lights slightly. I think the snarl is less uncanny now,
I changed the big monkeys pose to a more natural all fours, head up, and put the little monkey
on his back, as this is the true bahavior.
