tatoo with photos

[marcel]

hello! as i had some emails from beginners who didn't understand that topic of textured models by photos, I have keeped the different states of a little work i've done during that late afternoon... first, in one, ther is of course the beginning: a 3d model, here a 3d sphere... in 2, the 3d model has been snapshoted, and i have added on another layer the thing on his eyes; of course i have further modelled the whole thing; now , I had save the z document, and export (in doc palette) the document to a 2d application; here photoshop; in photoshop, i open the document: careful: don't move, or resize; just let it be as it is; then i use a photo of my eyes, making "big" eyes for the shoot; the photo is in 3; then i begin to cut part of the photo, applied these parts on the corresponding parts of the model; it's step 4, or, as it is useful to understand well the making off if you want to try, the single step i post after; then i paint the "link" between the photographics parts, and i add the different things: http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200311/user_image-1069006828uhe.jpg
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200311/user_image-1069006872qnq.jpg

[marcel]

well i continue; it was step 5; then, step 4 + step 5 give step 6 (no suspense), which is the final texture; then i save , and come back to z brush; in document palette, select import, and import the texture just finished; it is going to match perfectly the z document; the remaining steps are classics: apply materials, lighting, render... i join a big size of step 4, to show the use of the photo, and the need of reworking after... http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200311/user_image-1069007160fff.jpg

[marcel]

hope this little tutorial helps beginners; by that way, you can do in zbrush very photorealist pictures... to finish, a little wish for pixologic team: as i like to change a lot of materials,a sort of palette like the one in texture master, where it would be possible to charge material: for example, one material with specular from 6 to 60, with 6 or 8 variations; so it will be possible to paint directly the progressive change of a material; i know, it's possible to save, rename, and load; but iot's very tedious! i 've done that here, going from 11 matte material to toy plastic, on the red around the metallic things on the eyes... friendly .M.

[andreseloy]

Marcel thanks a lot for share this very detailed workflow¡¡¡
Congratulations
Andreseloy

[artboy21]

WOW! thank you very much marcel!!! this really helps me better understand how you texture with photos. your results are always amazing! i guess i will have to wait till i buy the whole version of zbrush to try texturing this way. just one quick question, in step 4 what did you use to paint around the outside part of the face? is it just a little piece of a skin photo that is repeated?
thanks again for taking the time to help us all understand your workflow!

artboy

[marcel]

thank tou andre and artboy; yes, it's just a little part of "meat" which is repeated; the main feeling of the face is going to come from the modeling; i just need, with part of photos, of, how to explain, "photographic touch"... it's often very sufficiant to give a convincing photo look...

[Jaycephus]

Marcel, great illustration of your techniques! :tu:

I just recently figured out this cool method of painting skin (using small patches of skin photo-textures with a ZBrush paint brush).

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200311/user_image-1068961869gvo.jpg

However, I basically hand painted this texture. This is a pretty fast method for basic skin, but obviously having photos of eyes, eyebrows, etc. would make the whole texturing process much faster and easier.

For the texture above, I cut rough circles of skin textures from different places on a photo, obtaining several different color values of skin from one photo. I did not use a close-up photo of skin. I just wanted skin colors, not the close-up texture and hair. (I may try that in the near future.) I pasted these circles of texture onto a black background and imported into ZBrush. Using the ZBrush Simple Brush, one of the textures, Textures:Transparent ON, one of the circular alphas that fades out at the edges (or any alpha with Radial Fade turned up a bit), and the Spray Stroke, you can quickly cover an entire body in a very nice, realistic flesh color. With the right Draw Size setting, you can get spots of color of around 7 mm on something the size of an arm or face. It is realistic because it is not a uniform, perfectly blended, single color. I also would switch to a lighter or darker skin texture and spray that on lightly to get extra variation. Our skin has all kinds of color variation in, not just due to moles, freckles, and age spots, but also due to variations in the size and frequency of pores and fine wrinkles of the skin, and the underlying structure of muscle, fat, and capillaries. I especially think the pattern of capillaries can create a splotchiness in the skin that you rarely see accurately depicted in most 3D artists' skin textures. By using skin textures of two or three different values and randomly spraying them onto a base coat of skin, you can quickly produce a very nice skin texture.

I also used the different skin colors to vary the color of skin from the normally darker skin of the forearms or forehead, to the lighter skin on the under sides of the arms and other areas that never see the light of the sun. For the darker areas you want to end up with the darker skin textures predominating, and for the lighter areas the lighter color skin texture should predominate. However, the splotchiness of the skin should be even all over the body regardless of color values.

For the veins, I used a very saturated purple color (blue works too), but low color Intensity (5-12), and the vein alpha. I used the Rectangle stroke to draw the veins at various sizes, and I rotated and/or flipped the alpha between drawing each set of veins to hide the fact that I was using the same alpha over and over. I also lightly sprayed more skin texture at low color intensity over the vein areas to help improve the sense that they are really under the skin.

Blushes or any 'reddened' skin is similar to veins, except it is actually the fine capillaries in the skin that we are seeing. Use a bright blood red instead of purple or blue. I used the vein alpha, the Spray Stroke, a small draw size and a medium to low Color Intensity. Just spray lots of fine, blood-engorged capillaries over an area until you build up the desired level of redness.

For moles and freckles, I used the Spray Stroke with zero Flow and high Placement, the hard-edged circle alpha, no texture, and a dark tan or deep brown color. A few light strokes and you will have your texture sprinkled with moles or freckles. Instead of varying color on freckles, I vary the color intensity setting, from high for dark moles to very low for the light, faded freckles. You can vary the height or width of the Brush so that the freckles are not all perfectly circular. One thing to keep in mind, moles should be randomly placed around the entire face and body: they are not a product of the sun. Freckles are usually caused by the sun, and should predominate in the darker skin areas such as the bridge of the nose, forehead, shoulders and forearms.

The next step is to try to duplicate some of the 'high frequency' characteristics of skin, such as the pores or fine hairs, which are often only noticed for their specular highlights. I use the dotted alpha and the spray stroke set to zero Flow and Placement of 1, with a small Draw Size to cover an area with many tiny specks.

For the specular highlights, you also need to consider material. Despite the fact that you are painting a texture, the material used and its settings can have an enourmous impact on what your render will look like. I used a tri-shader/colorizer material with low specular for most of the skin, but I also saved a high-specular variation for the highly-specular areas of the texture, and for simulating the specular glints that you might see from pores or fine hairs.

Finally, their are the pure 2.5D effects that can only be obtained in ZBrush. These are not really something you would want to try to incorporate into the 2D skin texture, but there is a way to do it. The problem is that things like hairs and deep wrinkles don't look exactly right when incorporated into a 2D texture placed onto a 3D face or body. So since I am just creating illustrations, not textures for use in animation, I have no problem adding certain effects in 2.5D after the scene has been composed.

I don't have any 2.5D effects in the illustration above, but I am contemplating taking it a bit further. If I'm going to produce a picture for next halloween, I really need to get started right now anyway. ;)

Here is an example of 2.5D razor stubble and deep wrinkles:

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1044405778ctr.jpg

A note on fine body hair: from looking at the work of 3D artists, you would think that no one has any fine hairs all over their bodies, or in some cases, any hair at all. Of course, this is because hair is difficult at best, and impossible for many. On top of this, many artists seem to be under the impression that bald men are truely hairless, and that women never have facial hair, etc. The truth is that all people, men or women, bald or not, have almost the same 'number' of hairs all over their body. The hair pores of bald men don't simply shut down, they just cease growing 'normal' hair and start growing very fine, very short hair. The same thing is true for the hair pores of women's faces, chests, and backs, and anywhere else that men have hair, but women 'seem' not to have hair. I mention this to highlight the point that a realistic skin texture is very difficult, because in addition to the skin, we also see darks and specular highlights from the hairs, and the pores themselves. I think ZBrush gives us the tools to create or at least convicingly fake this kind of detail in illustrations and texture maps.

[Fouad B.]

tout dabord merci de partager ta methode.
deux questions Marcel:

pourquoi ne travailles tu pas directement avec texture master sachant qu'il s'agit de la même technique que > modeliser > capture d'ecran > import photoshop > manipulations (là je peux t'accorder que l'habitude de photoshop peut éventuellement justifier, mais finalement les outils de peinture de Zbrush sont quand meme infiniment plus puissant que Toshop) >reimport dans Zbrush > application de la texture sur le modele et enfin retouche.
Alors qu'en passant par texture master tu te retrouves bien avec un visuel 2d à retoucher de la même maniere que sous Toshop.. puis ensuite appliqué à ton modèle .

deuxiemement à propos de ta requête de librarie de materiaux disponible, rien ne t'empêches d'utiliser l'outils "Zlist" qui te permet de stocker des objet, des materiaux et cache alpha et enfin des textures. sers t'en pour les materiaux uniquement si cela te conviens.

[Equalizer]

Jaycephus that's so sick its brill! just give it some nasty eye socket detail like in event horizon when it shows some brain.

Great tips Marcel & cool example!

[matvara]

Thanks a lot Marcel and jaycephus for this
great info.
Marcel, I have followed your works and i'm a
fan of your both modelling and texturing
routines. Thanks for sharing these technics!
:tu:

[Frenchy Pilou]

Hi Marcel
Oh le pauvre homme!
On dirait un personnage de Terry Gilliam :cool:
fanzine about the Master T G :) (http://www.smart.co.uk/dreams/)
I am waiting your answer to Fouad about Texture master :)
Pilou
Ps Ah les tatouages, me rapelle le sketch de Perre Dac et Francis Blanche sur un "Tatovage" bien(ou mal) placé :D

[marcel]

jaycephus, very interesting approach... not the same, but i'll try; seems very full of popssibilities!... Foud, it's not texture master, cause it's pixols, snapshot, and it's pixols because the level of information possoble on pixols is far greater than in plain 3d; frenchy pilou has somewhjere ask something like that, with if i remember well a star engraved oin a plane, in 3d and in pixols...