THIS IS A MOCK UP ONLY!
As I’m having a whole shed load of problems getting this head to render in maya with displacement maps (meaning I can start doing the hair before going back to the texture map and details), I thought I’d do a mock up of the hair in photoshop. Sorry for bad quality render but was a bit of a rough job and meant only as a guide for the final head image…oh and the glowing eyes were added only as fun they won’t be on the final image.
Wayne…
Mental Ray displacement and Sub Surface Shader with new texture
I’ve been trying tpretty hard of late to get displacemtn working in maya with Zbrush maps. Finally with some serious help I managed to find where teh problem lay, so here’s a render done in Mental Ray using a sub surface shader (Fast Skin).
Now as I’ve never had cvause to use a SSS shader before I’m pretty sure this is rough as hell so any tips are greatfully recieved. Also I’m aware teh texture needs alot of work as thers some banding and stretching going on. This was due to a bit of a test at using a displacement map as a cavity type shading for my colour map. Obviously I’ll be going back to this to get it better.
Hair for Alice is still not turning out like I want it to…so it may be a little while till I work out the whole ‘hair’ issue.
C & C welcome.
Wayne…
The work on the skin makes a lot of difference. Def going the right way … sounds like quite a battle, though. Best of luck 
Oops I had texture on earlier verion of the model!
More Texture Work - Zbrush render
Yeah it has been a bit of a fight to get this model to do what I want it to so far. I’m hoping this is easing a little now (fingers crossed). I did some more work on the texture last night in ZB and so far I’m pretty happy with it. This renders not a mental ray one , its zbrush. I find this gives me an idea of what I want the mental ray ones to look like. It’s a fine line to cross texturing the alice cooper head, as you don’t want it to look like the makeup has been painted on with black ink. But neither do you want it to look too shiney.
So far there’s no spec or bump maps on it, I’ve really got to get these done pretty soon if I get the chance. The hair is driving me crazy at the moment. I’d spent ages getting it right on a low poly model and imported it thinking ‘hey at least that’s sorted now’… How wrong I was, shave and a haircut didn’t like this one bit and flat refused to render the hair at all. So looks like I’ll have to start the hair all over again. Ah well it’s good practice.
I was a bit unsure last night whether to stay with the more ‘hand drawn’ looking styleof texture or this one thats more realistic. So what do you think? Realistic or more stylistic?
Wayne…
“So what do you think? Realistic or more stylistic?”
Sometimes we all get bogged down in the technical aspects of modelling and texturing and rendering. But, in the end, it’s an artistic endeavour. I think that’s a question for you, the artist, to decide.
It’s looking good, though.
Do you like the way I side-stepped that one, with a graceful little twirl? Heh heh.
[attach=24109]alice-meat2web.jpg[/attach]
Something I knocked up in a few mins for Newbie challenge 08 (Wirez) over in the challenmges forum. I liked it so much I thought I’d link to it here. What annoys me is the fact that I spent over an hour last night lighting my model and wasn’t really happy with the way it showed off the modelling and texture. Then tonight I wack together a lighting in 2 mins and it looks miles better…go figure!
Wayne…
[attach=22889]alice-skintest#2.jpg[/attach]
Mental Ray Skin Shader test with HDRI (DT3DskinShader)
I’ve not managed to do alot with this model the last few days due to my son teething (parents know what I mean lol). I have done a first pass at the hair but unfortunatly the scene is so heavy with mental ray as a renderer using shave and a haircut that it runs out of RAM and virtual memory. So I’m going to have to find a work around.
I really need some crits on this skin shader I’m using. I’m not sure whether I should turn back the specularity a bit or not. I find this shader (although more complex) easier to set up and the Simple Skin SSS shader in mental ray. It’s probably about time I gave him some teeth and eyes as well lol.
I used some normal and HDRI lights to help make this render a little more realistic. I stil have to sort out the bump map for the pores etc. Plus my spec map ruins the render, (he ends up looking like he’s been varnished) so I’ll have to go back to that as well.
Wayne…
WOAH BAD HAIR DAY ALERT!!!
Hair Test #1 - Shave and a Haircut (hair is default maya render).
I must have been a bit slow this morning as I didn’t realise all i had to do was render the hair as a seperate layer and composite in photoshop using the alpha channel.:o
yeah I know the style is wrong, and it looks like he’s got a damn afro (or extremely bad hair day).:lol: But I really need some critisism about the texture and shading of the hair. More shine or finer hair do you think? At least he’s not bald anymore:D
Wayne…
Whoah! That hair is something else, welcome to my nightmare, indeed. 
Great modeling, and great likeness. The texture is a little bit too red in places like the cheeks, and chin. And the spec doens’t have enough variation in it, but overall, still pretty good. The hair I can’t really comment on, as I’ve never done good hair.
It is great work, anyway. small_orange_diamond
Here’s a couple of options that I have for the eyes. Both are eye textures that I’ve been working on today, suggestions as to which one would be great. Personally I favour the 1st one.
Wayne…
Not a bad technique on the eye but there is a bad repetative pattern at about 6.30 o’ clock. Also the transition from iris to the white bit is too harsh. If you’re going to have red veins then do not be afraid to put in a small but prominent one or two as it looks more real than an even faint sort of pattern. Also don’t forget that the white part gets red when it is past a certain point.
I had a good starting point for the Iris texture once by applying the green grass texture No.25 onto a sphere with the viewer looking down the z axis.
I took some screen shots with the v repeat at 1 and the Hrepeat going from 1 to 6. I might have used a couple of vRepeats as well to use for cloning.
I made some various levels of sharpening to some of the layers and also duplicates with different contrasts.
Next I blended the various bits into one iris. Looked good after the highlights and internal reflections were drawn in. 
The reason for this is the iris is actually pieced together from about 4 different photos of iris’s in photoshop. Some areas matched better than others. As the eye is never going to be seen thats close up anyway I didn’t spend too long on it.
Yeah I did miss out the red at the corners of the eye but as I’m going to go back to all the textures on this model again before the final render I’m not too worried at this stage. The vines included are more there as a ‘hint’ to the veiwer. The eyes on this won’t be seen close enough to even notice them probably in the final render. There’s no point putting detail onto a model that no one except me will ever see.
This model has been a bit of a battle to get right so far, but I’ll keep knibbling away till I get it right. The second eye I posted looking at it now isn’t really up to scratch for the model so I’ll do another one and that should turn out better.
Wayne…
Another bash at the eye. Unfortunatly the red at the corner of the eyes on the eye map isn’t showing well here, so I’ll have to go back to that later.
Wayne…
one thing (and the hair will be the hardest part im sure) that I notice on the model is the eyemakeup. It doesn’t look like facepaint, not specular enough. are you rendering in z? or taking it into another program?
right now it look like you just did an airbrush over the texture model, maybe give it some depth n ps, and work on the brushstrokes, and varied specular shading for it
its still looking sweet. when your done make king diamond :D, or GENE SIMMONS
polyguns: The last few renders or so have been in Zbrush, primarily as I can get results faster that way and match my mental ray render later for the final versions. So far he has no spec map, the main reason being I am terrible at them! I’ve been putting it off and trying to escape without on :lol: but I think the time has come to realise I have to do one to get this model looking right. You’re right about the make-up, it needs some serious spec map work so let’s hope I’m up to the job!
I messed around with the eyeball’s again last night so I’ll post the latest render. (I was working on something else tonight, whic is a shame as the eye’s were miles better)
Wayne…
hi Darth,
I kinda agree with polyguns on the eye makeup. I think if you “erase” some of it so that its thinner in parts…like the upper eye (where more sweat is) so some skin is sort of seen under it would seem a bit more real. I hope that makes sense?
Anyways keep going…fun to watch.
Colour corrected version in Photoshop (obviously a version minus eyes :lol: )
I’ve taken the advice from Polyguns and Aminuts and done a quick couple of tests. Also I realised that I could use a skin texture from a model from a couple of nights ago and get a better skin effect. Although I would like to know which you think is better for the look I’m going for the old one or the 'new and altered’one.
I’ve used a few different settings to try and give the eye makeup a slightly ‘worn’ and rubbed off effect. I really am going to need some good specularity on the makeup to make it lok like anything other than black paint.
As usual C & C welcome, do you think I’m heading in the right direction?
Wayne…
the bottom one is kind of what I meant.
I am thinking a way to go about it would be to create a mask where you want the makeup then use a paint brush with the colored spray stroke…playing with spacing so that from a little ways away it looks solid but closer up you can see some skin thru it. Does that make sense? Plus a worn thru spot…perhaps not quite as worn as below.
I think you got the idea tho…if I get a chance a little bit later I will try to do an example to show you what I mean by the above in case I didn’t explain it well.
Un-colour corrected Maya Mental ray render
Ok I did a quick test a little while ago by using a stencil I made in photoshop and tried what you outlined (not sure if I got it right or not). As you can see with the above mental ray i render it still looks somewhat more like a tatoo. There’s a more complex spec map as well, but it doesn’t seem to be making much difference at all.
The difficulty is getting the higher specularity of the black makeup (while making it look like make-up and not a tattoo or paint.) Why do I have a feeling that this may take a lot of tests to get right? :lol:
On a side note, Shave and a Haircut for Maya is driving me up the damn wall! Fine for short-ish haircuts. But to do a convincing styled long hairstyle its like removing your own liver with a chopstick! I’m sure I’m missing something, anyone used this and managed a long hairstyle let me know your secret…please;)
Wayne…
Wow, that is some really nice stuff.
I love the wirez version. Creepy as hell, it’s great. 
I look forward to seeing where you take this.
I’ve always like Alice Cooper myself…