Calida Productions - Resources for Digital Artists

2.        Next we want to check the diffuse settings and make changes if necessary. You can select all the skin parts to make this change because you want the skin tone on her whole body to match.
▪        Does the character have too strong a color in the diffuse color setting? If so lower it to white or such a pale color it no longer reads. In the example picture to the right the green shows too much and needs to be lowered.
▪        Characters you feel are too pale can be adjusted with changes to the diffuse color. A very pale tan, yellow, pink or green can alter the skin tone that the character has in your final renders. Be sure to start out with a very small amount of color and add more if its still too little.
▪        In some cases if you want a paler character or if you feel the texture is too strong you can lower the strength of the diffuse map. Some characters have this lowered as much as 15 percent (to 85 percent rather than 100).

3. While you have all those skin areas selected go ahead and check the ambient settings on them. Many people prefer no ambient color at all, especially on skin textures. Other people like a very small amount to bring a bit more brightness to the skin. One word of caution with ambient settings. If you use more than a very small percentage of ambient the character will "glow" in low light situations. If you're using a lighting set where you need some of the character to be in deep shadow you will not be able to use much ambient color. If you do use an ambient color I suggest not more than 5% and that you use a color similar to the skin tone or a color that will enhance the skin tone.

4.        Now we want to fix all the specular settings.
▪        Many times you will find that no specular map has been put into the strength setting. There should be at least three maps for specularity. One will be for the face and lips (ideally the lips would have a separate specularity map but those are rare), another is for the head, neck and torso, and lastly one for the limbs. You will need to locate those and apply them yourself in the texture folder where all of the textures and maps are located. The easiest way to do this is to hit the drop down arrow and select any texture from the character. Now click the drop down again and when you select browse you will already be in the correct folder. The specularity will be black and white and with luck the name will give you a hint. The other type of black and white texture map in the file will be a bump map and hopefully the creator will have named them in such a way that you are not confused.
▪        Once you have the specularity map in the strength setting you may want to do a test render. Odds are that the specularity is still too high and you need to lower the percentage a good bit. Also check to see what color is used for specularity. A medium gray or blue gray are the most common choices for specularity though some people prefer other colors. The lighter the color you choose for specularity the higher the odds are you will need to lower the specularity percentage. You may find that the creator has used a burgundy for specularity and that can in some cases give an odd pink gloss to the characters skin.
▪        The average glossiness setting for skin should be between 70 and 90 percent because skin has a smoother shine rather than a sharp glossy shine. The specularity and bump maps will help break up the specularity so that it looks more realistic. You will however want to play with this setting till you get a look you like best.

5. Next you need to be sure that the bump map has been transferred into the bump strength setting. If not you will need to locate them like you did specularity. There should again be three. After you make sure there is a bump map then you will almost certainly need to adjust the strength percentage. In most cases it is transferred into Studio with a low setting like 2.0. You can start at 100 percent and make adjustments to raise or lower it if you feel the bump is too week or too strong. Remember in most cases the goal of a bump map is to slightly vary the texture of the skin so that the specularity will be even more scattered than it is with just the specularity map and to give the tiny variations in height you find with human skin. Too high a bump setting will give you a very unnatural surface.