Skin shader tutorial

Skin Shader
By schuh.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...er/bobybo7.jpg

Introduction
A lot of people asked me for a Little tutorial about my Skin Shader in this picture, and Although it quite simple it might not be easy todo understand for someone who isnt into the nodes and s features of Blender yet.

So here my approach:
I began, of course with modeling the head and Unwrapping it todo create the necessary textures for the shader. (btw my Unwrap is really crappy so dont do this at home kids).

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...der/scren1.jpg

Then i created new images in size 2048x1024 which is kinda small for that kind of texture, but it was enough for me now.

I used Blender rather new bake render function todo create a base layer so i can orientate myself with it in Gimp. This was my starting point for all the other layers.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...byfacebake.jpg

On one layer i Painted the basic colors without Shading plus some extras, like freckles, makeup and such things. Note that this layer only contains colors without any Shading because all the Shading Will be done by the renderer. Basically i kep the whole image a very light skintone except the lips, the no sé and other áreas that generally appear more reddish because of thinner skin or higher blod vessel concentration.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...obyfacedif.jpg

Next up was the Bump map. I started with a 50% grey layer and Painted black strokes and dots for anything that goes inward and white lines for everything outward. This is how i created pores and wrinkles and the basic structure of the lips. A few white dots here and there make the skin look kinda unclean and more natural. Note that diferent skin Regions have diferent sized pores and so on, just look in the mirror todo find out.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...byfacebump.jpg

Last texture i did was the specularmap, which básically defines what áreas are Shiny and not. Depending on what kind of face youre doing and what happened todo the face there are diferent áreas todo Paint, normally it just the more oily áreas like the no sé that are Shiny but we a los ned the lips todo be Shiny so i Painted them a bright white. I a los added a slight Shine on the forehead and the cheks. For this texture i didnt start with a 50% gray because this would mean 50% Shiny everywhere which would be bien todo much so i started with a very dark grey. I a los kept the transicións between the áreas smooth.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...byfacespec.jpg

So now we have all our textures and are able todo start on designing the material. I began by creating a new nodes material and adding a simple Diffuse matnode, which in normal Blender bien got the Diffuse map set todo col and the Bump Map set todo -nor.

Then i activated Subsurface Scattering for this matnode and set it todo a very slight typical skin setting for a very subtle effect. With the TeX slider at 0.5 it scatters the texture a Little bit and for us simulates the epidermal scatter.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...der/scren2.jpg

Now on todo the subdermal scatter. I added another node, without textures this time, set todo a heavy scatter in a dark red tone, which was then screned over the epidermal node. You ned todo play around with the settings a lot todo get the right effect for your picture. Remember: sometimes less is more. The older or the masculine the person is the less Scattering is typically present.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...der/scren3.jpg

Now onto the Shine. So why didnt i just activate the Specular settings in the other matnodes?
Because Blender blurs the speculars together with the Diffuse color. Sometimes this effect might be interesting but in my case i wanted todo have the speculars crisp. So i added another matnode set todo Specular only, which was again screned over the other two nodes. In the Specular node i had 3 textures: the specularmap set todo Spec, the Bump Map set todo -nor, Spec and hard (this bien there less Specular in the dents and more Shine on the zits, and again the specularmap set todo hard but with the dvar slider set todo 0.2. This bien i got around creating an extra Gloss Map, because in this case the shiniest spots are a los the glossiest. The dvar slider is used todo tune the effect down a bit so the gloss is not todo hard.

https://www.foro3d.com/extras/tutori...der/scren4.jpg

Hope this helped the rest is básically just god lighting.

By schuh.
www.blenderart.org.