First piece. Respectfully seeking advice and comments.

Artwork Works in Progress
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Arnold arm.jpg2300×1626 220 KB

Hi All. A year ago I built my PC and downloaded Blender. I’ve been busy (the old story) but have now taken the plunge and made my first piece. I’ve hit a brick wall and I respectfully ask for advice (don’t laugh - what I’m lacking is second nature to all of you I’m sure). Please see my image: Arnold Arm.jpg. I’m having real trouble finding information on attaching a human skin finish. I’ve found many tutorials on Youtube pertaining to heads. These tutorials invite you to download associated image files which appear to show unwrapped features : nose, mouth etc. I don’t believe that is what I need. I’d like to know how to generate and apply a realistic skin material which can be tweeked to apply to various bodyparts. I would be very, very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.

I do understand that I need SSS. 30 years ago I emulated SSS in CAD Microstation 3D by copying my objects co-oincidentally (i.e. into the same place) and scaled the copy slightly smaller and to have emmitance while the outer version was adjusted for translucency). As you may guess I’m not a total newbie to modelling and rendering, but this blender is a whole new ballgame !

Also :-

  1. is my model too big at 400,000 tri’s ? It will not be articulated in animation, only rotated.
  2. Do I need to re-topologise it? If so, what’s wrong with using that tool (forgot it’s name) which globally reduces the tri’s to a chosen value? (Remember, it won’t be aticulated in animation, only rotated) ?
  3. After I attach a good skin material, do I need to bake (I think that means to render and capture shadows etc. [?]) in order to ease the animation of rotating of the object?

Guy’s (girls are guys too :slight_smile: I’ve written too much already in my attempt to show you where I’m coming from and what I need. Don’t be fooled by my image. It took me a long, long time and what I’ve learned is very narrow and could probably (certainly!) be done more efficiently. If you’ve reached this far, thank you. Any advice and comments and suggested videos would be massively appreciated. Best Regards, Roman.

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Duplicate the model, Apply modifier (Decimate) which can bring that model down to about 1,000 triangles. Then you can unwrap it or just choose to do the automated smart project. From there you can bake the normals/occlusion into textures. After that you can create the skin by using photoshop or move on to one of the smarter tools such as substance painter or some others. I’m not sure Blender has the ability to paint textures well or not since I’ve never used blender for it.

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Thank you. I’ts all gobledygook to me right now but at least it’s in “ink” so I can research your advice. I must admit that I’m puzzled that I need to paint the skin. Thanks again.

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Fine pice! Are you going to do the rest of him?

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Amazing!

One of the best ways to achive your goal is as such:

  1. Decimate it down to maybe 50 000 or so (use Decimate modifier). You should not lose any detail. If detail starts to get lost, go higher.
  2. Create new RETOPOLOGIZED mesh. A light one. Do not worry about detail much ( maybe 2000-5000 polys)
  3. UV map and Texture using photos the Lowpoly retopology.
  4. Add DATATRANSFER modifier to your Highpoly to steal the UVs from your lowpoly. That way your highpoly will have identical texturing to lowpoly but a lot more mesh resolution and also high quality rendering (no need to mess with baking or any other steps)

That way you can work on texturing of the lowpoly mesh that is easy to use and see results on higpoly.

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Thank you. There is no immediate plan but fer sure I’ll do him whole. Right now I wanna crack realistic skin and do a simple animation of this piece rotating. Best Wishes, Roman.

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cgstrive, Thank you very much. I’m reading and reading your advice and I have questions. I’ll check with you first if its OK to start asking … Is it OK? This could get a bit long … Regards, Roman.