btw is this a noise texture with distortion for the shader? and what about the other mask (the brown one for example)
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Maybe he used musgrave texture for main mask(s) and then pluged the output into wave texture to get the waves inside. But you cant output vector from a musgrave texture, so he probably used noise texture
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ouch 
that’s sad
Magic Texture to separate the skin tones, another Magic Texture for the marbling effect, and Voronoi to break up the edges.
I can get it into 3.1 by loading the skin first and then the model, so not too sad. 
There’s nothing I can do about this though… 
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I’ve got my hair as a separate piece of geo with 4x subd since I’m not gonna preview with em on anyway.
It still doesn’t behave properly with wrinkles, but at least the gross deformation is pretty solid.
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That reminds me of another issue in which increasing the subdivisions above 4 throws up a “target contains invalid polygons” error when I try to use Surface Deform to bind the eyelashes geometry (and that’s with a triangulate modifier already added, which would normally circumvent that sort of thing).
I believe I’ve finally reached that point where the software is pushing back harder than I can push forward, although it’s taken a lot longer to get to this point than it did last time around.
[Edit] As in, it’s taken longer to start hitting impenetrable obstacles (not longer to get the job done - that’s been faster). 
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I really hope your journey opens some damn eyes finally. Blender studio is finally working on a “realism” focused short after like 20 years and it looks like they’re still kinda just banging rocks together. Maybe you should intervene for the sake of all of us, hehehe
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Just edited my post, as I think it might have come across as a jab at Blender instead of the opposite (despite the obstacles).
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oh, i’m still jabbin blender
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Looking forward to seeing the releases of the textures. Wonderful work!!!
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I am really amazed at all this work and community. I love how everyone is giving tips and advice to make @ChrisJones project amazing. @ChrisJones I wish you luck and success on this project; it is looking fantastic so far and keep up the great work! I don’t know if I could help you in any way to achieve your goal but I am happy to be able to see your progress on this project!
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I just re-discovered this while someone asked something about eyes… I can’t believe that i didn’t followed this thread the last… (what was it?) few month since i saw this first (still to high level for me) … i’m an idiot and have to like several of this yet… so @ChrisJones : don’t wonder about a tsunami of 
's…
Edit: I give up and just followed you
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My Jaw is on the floor. Excellent job!
I had a question about something you tackled a long time ago. You mentioned you used bones to drive multiple shape keys, gave those bones an animation, and then used another bone to drive the animation of the shape key bones. Now I’m not sure how to word my question, or if I even understand the technique properly, but doesn’t that like… still play the animation? How do you “animate the animation” without the original animation playing?
For example, when you animate the “shape key bones” of an eye blinking, its now keyframed in the timeline, doesn’t it play that animation before you can animate it manually? I don’t really understand how that works.
Looking forward to seeing more of your work! Keep it up.
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Thanks @robouden, @BB23Dart @Okidoki & @Oliver_Flatt (and anyone I missed).
I think you’re referring to this (which I later replaced with something simpler). It uses an Action, which is essentially a separate timeline, and you can animate that timeline. Think of recording a video of someone blinking once, and then recording a video of that video while you scrub the playhead back and forth to make them blink how you want.
I’m still using Actions for the quick posing controls on the fingers.
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Bro, this is gold. I’ve learned more about blender reading through this entire project of yours than I’ve learned in a decade. Thank you for sharing your techniques!
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I’m replying to an older comment, but, does the rig automatically drive the shapekeys and tension maps based upon their position, or do they have to be keyed in tandem?
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The rig drives them.
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Hey chris, do you think you can at least put on sale the textures you used for the video ? people would love to use them for projects as they are ready now, even if the whole thing doesn’t work perfectly, i think a lot of people are just waiting for the textures for now ?
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That’s all I’ve been trying to do. The main holdup is the product pages and documentation are in a state of flux, because I (still) haven’t settled on the best way to separate/bundle the textures, shaders, wrinkle maps, wrinkle nodes and such, and pricing for each. Once that’s locked in the ramifications will be ongoing, and there’s no backpedalling if I get it wrong.
It’s a complicated beast. 
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Hey Chris! I really admire the work you’re doing, and I think that it will leave a lasting mark on the CG community. Really hyped for the release of the textures, etc.! Also, I seem to remember somewhere (found it) you mentioned that hair was next on the priorities. Sounds Exciting! I do however have a suggestion:
I am a single artist who uses blender as a hobby. I would be happy to invest in your models, rigs, and textures to bring some life to my personal projects, but I’m not sure I’m comfortable spending hundreds of dollars on any digital assets, regardless of the quality. Now, I know that you have poured countless hours into this project, so I think it would be absurd to ask you to lower the price: You’ve definitely earned it. What I suggest you do is make a few tutorial videos on how best to use your assets. Some examples of things you might want to share:
- How to make the model look like a real person (i.e. from a photograph or perhaps a 3D scan)
- How to animate the model using motion capture.
- How to animate the model with speech.
- A few small projects using the the model, just so we can get an idea of ease of use and possible use cases, without having to buy the model first.
The most important thing that I think is weighing down my confidence is animation; A convincing character is only as convincing as it’s motions and expressions. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing your character rig; the rig you made is ridiculously intuitive, and utterly genius, I’ve never seen anything quite that effective. But in your showcase videos you make it seem so easy to bring the character to life, and we never see how you actually do that. It may be just as easy as it looks, but the showcases make such a big deal about it that without knowing the process behind it, the first assumption is that it’s much harder than it looks. If you were to share some tutorials on creating a convincing character animation, I think that many people will be much more confident in their ability to use your model, and I think you could get much more sales and general awareness of the project because of that.
Keep in mind that while I believe I am speaking for what others will want, this is ultimately just my opinion. And if you don’t agree with it, I can’t really make you do anything. But just know that the day you decide to make a few tutorials on how you animate your rig, that is the day I take out my checkbook. But until then, I will watch the project with a close eye.
Thanks for your time!
P.S. I just watched your String Theory music video for the 5th time, and I can confirm that it is literally the best video on the entire internet. Also I would pay folding money for a 3D VR version of it. Just sayin’
EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot, I wanted to ask you if the model includes muscle/skeletal system deformation, and if not, what tools would you recommend I use to incorporate that? In my mind that is a very important part of a realistic human character. Thanks again!
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