I am currently modeling a female character and I am seeking to get some quality feedback on how to make her look more realistic. My goal is to develop two versions of the character:
a fully rigged low-poly version with polygon hair for use in a game engine (Panda3D)
a hiqh poly version using particle hair, sculpting and whatever technique seems fit to make it suitable for quality still imagesSince the whole texturing business is relatively new to me, I choose to get that out of the way at a fairly early stage. So I decided to just stick to the head for now and not progress to the rest of the body until the head is decently textured. (This also avoids getting all wrapped up in giving that final touch to other prominent parts of the female anatomy.)
diffuse color map (obviously) GIMP’ed up from a photo reference
specularity map (though it currently doesn’t cover the hair)
subsurface scattering (can’t see much of a difference there)
transparency maps (ponytail and eyelashes)
the eye is made up of an inner and outer sphere, with the outer one being just a transparent sphere and the inner one holding the actual eye textureThings I am not satisfied with:
The skin appears to be a bit too smooth and shiny, without too much structure. The obvious solution - adding a bump map - didn’t seem to cut it for me. She looks kind of artificial. (Well, she is…)
The eyes don’t look quite right to me. Unintentionally makes her look a bit like a demon or cyborg.Things I am currently not concerned about:
The hair is not supported by the geometry
Triangles
I am still working with the Mirror Modifier active, so the head is actually only half textured.Any comments, however derogatory, are most welcome
I’d say the obvious solution to the shinyness would be turning down the specularity. That needs to be much more subtle. Turning spec down might also allow some of the SSS effects to be seen.
Cyborgs and demons wear their pupils centered in between their upper and lower lids. Humans drop their upper lids to just clear the pupil, unless they are in shock, surprised, or trying to look like cyborgs or demons. You may need to raise those eyeballs a little bit.
The lips need work. The crease from the nostrils looks like it stops dead at the corner of the mouth, it should go around the corner of the mouth and fade out as it heads toward the jaw. Overall the lips lack shape.
Does the inner eyeball sphere cup inwards to give a cachelight reflection? That might help make the eyes more lifelike, as well.
I applied some modifications to the model. The eyes have been moved a bit upward. The lips got an extra edgeloop, and the crease flowing down from the nostrils is now flowing a bit further down. In addition, I decided to incorporate hairs and eyebrows into the geometry, but haven’t re-textured the model yet.
The eyelashes are really making the eyes look weird. The hair looks better now; it looked strange as it practically merged with her forehead before. The eyes also look better, now that you;ve raised the eyeballs. Also, the sharpness between the cheeks and the mouth is too much, imho. But good work so far, though.
As I wrote in the last post, I changed the topology of the head a bit to support the hair and eyebrows by the geometry, so I had to re-texture the model. I think the hair looks much better now. Here’s a new screenshot:
She looks like she’s made out of plastic. You need to turn the spec way down and the hardness. Remember that all that makeup is designed to remove shininess . This will help some. Try some SSS and maybe use a displacement map to give the skin some texture. Try having your hair texture affect the normal of the hair to give it some bumpiness so it isn’t so smooth. You might want to take a look at the lips, especially at the corners. Look at some real lips. Do they just kind of stick out of the face like that? Your ear seems to be modeled pretty well, but it looks like it needs to be ‘meatier’ and have more of a curvature to it. Right now it looks like its perfectly flat and a uniform distance from her head. Hope this helps.
Here is an updated version. I pulled out the ear a wee bit more to give it more depth, and also added some redish color. I tried tweaking the lips, but can’t really see any difference there.
And yes, I turned down the reflection and specularity settings (about 0.7 and .2 now).
I also painted some irregularities into the skin texture and added a bump map for the hair, but can’t seem to see any effect on the rendered image. Maybe the texture resolution is too low? (I am using 1k textures.)
Just finished the geometry of the foot that is gonna be part of the model. Below is a preview that has been textured using Pixelvore’s multi-layered procedural skin shader.
Here is another picture with sandals that could be considered a concept drawing for a character. That’s right, I use the 3D base model to draw some detail onto it in 2D, which is then going to be my concept sketch for the next, more refined 3D model.
The feet and hands are done and attached to the torso. She’s got a new haircur and some clothing. So here is the first full body shot of my current work in progress, Natalie:
maybe the perspective, but her ankles look to thin.
maybe perspective, but her hands look a bit weird
her breasts are too pointy. A breast is more round
(except for young girls maybe where everything is still
developing). The only pointy thing would be the nipple.
