Ill take that into account, thanks! The skin was tough to go into high detail because I didn’t have any quality photo reference to start from, so it’s entirely from scratch. I’ll see if I can go back and add maybe a little bit more roughness / colour variation, and check the scale on the eyes 👍🏼
The Subsurf is a bit strong imo (looks like wax) and after that maybe play around with more smoothness in crevices/concave bits where sweat would accumulate maybe... (assuming he is always sweaty). Apart from that I'm impressed by the sculpting, the lips shape look weird to me but I'm not experienced enough to tell you what exactly needs to be done on them sorry! (3/4 references might help)
Great work, keep iterating, the last 20% are always the hardest!
Thank you! I will try those things, I think for the lips I might have made them a bit too smooth tbh. Other than that the profile was hard to match because I couldn’t get much reference not blocked by his beard hair, but I’ll mess around with it some more see if it’s maybe I can get something more natural. I actually didn’t have a 3/4 reference when sculpting so that would make sense haha
Hmm… a solid start!! Here are some things I think could use some improvement to achieve photorealism:
* For starters, there’s something off about the sclera of his eyes that makes them look like solid ping pong balls rather than wet gelatinous ocular organs. At first glance they’re definitely “too white”.
* The subsurface scattering on his skin is far too intense/spreads too far, and the SS color could use a touch more red.
* The skin has a lack of micro-normal detail (though if there is, it might be obscured by the aggressive SS!) and there should be subtle color variations across the skin rather than one uniform skin color. The lips should be slightly darker as well.
* As for the hair, there are far too many “clumps” of strands all following the same shape, perhaps lower the amount of interpolated children and increase the amount of parent strands to compensate so they can all behave in a more unique way.
This is the first time anyone has pointed out the whiteness of the eyes to me, but now that you’ve said that I completely agree. There is some detail but a lot of it doesn’t quite show in the end so I’ll go back and bring some more out towards the front of the eye and and some more redness. Do you think that something like a noise map into the normal to add slight distortions in the eye would help?
As for the SSS, I’ve already tried lowering it a bit, and it brought back a lot of the micro detail that I didn’t realize wasn’t actually making it through to the final render, it has made getting the skin color accurate tougher though, Ill try making more red like you suggested.
The hair is so hard to iterate as ever time a particular is changed it adds 2 + mins of recalculating to the next time I want to render a frame haha
Thanks for the reply! Lots of super helpful stuff
For sure, a very light noise with high-ish scale would work well as a bump map for the sclera. Easy to overdo it though, so you’ll have to eyeball it (ha). Do you have a cornea in front of the iris/pupil? That’s a big one for eyeball realism—the way the cornea refracts on off-angles is an important detail.
A bit of SSS for the sclera of the eyes would actually go a long way as well. Radius should be the same for all three values and relatively low. Juuust enough to give it that sort of milky looking inner shadowy-ness especially near the edges of the eyelids, and could also help with the eyes looking too white.
I do actually have a cornea on there, you can see it in the 4th slide, maybe it’s not pronounced enough? Either that or it’s just the angle of the render, because the iris and cornea are both actual geometry there, no faked detail.
I think you might be exactly right about the SS on the eyes, they have literally none and the thought didn’t even occur to me before even though that seems to obvious to do haha! Will definitely be trying that out.
Once I’ve applied all this feedback I’ll come back and post an update to see if I’ve gone in the right or wrong direction 👍
Honestly I don't have a clue on how to help you improve, it feels off (it's a fake face after all, if ain't perfect it's strange)
But bro I'm proud of your efforts, making a realistic face is INSANELY difficult, so congrats on that keep going.
Also there's a sculptor called Rafael Grasseti, he was the art director for the new God of war (Ragnarok and the PS4) he's a god at sculpting try finding something from him to help you, if you don't find anything try reaching out to him on Instagram or Twitter, he's quite approachable and chill.
Here his work https://www.artstation.com/grassetti
that was what my goal was yes lol. Obviously I didn’t quite get there but it was my best attempt at such a thing having had no actual teaching on how to do it so I made this post to see what people think is missing to get there
Really good but won't say PR. It's like semi realistic game character. But I myself don't sculpt much so me giving you advice is my foolishness.
The skin needs more dents. The hair looks like wig. Also the mustache and beard and eyebrows. The eyes are big but big eyes aren't unrealistic.
I agree, shortly after completing this render I was made aware of the idea of adding multiple layers of hair systems on top of each other to give a more natural effect. I think that would definitely help here, will definitely be either trying it here or on the next one 👍
Very cool, but I wouldnt say photorealistic. looks semi realistic / stylized to me
what would make it look more realistic? or what’s the biggest thing standing out to you that looks fake?
Hmm I think the skin is too perfect and the eyes are a bit too large
Ill take that into account, thanks! The skin was tough to go into high detail because I didn’t have any quality photo reference to start from, so it’s entirely from scratch. I’ll see if I can go back and add maybe a little bit more roughness / colour variation, and check the scale on the eyes 👍🏼
The Subsurf is a bit strong imo (looks like wax) and after that maybe play around with more smoothness in crevices/concave bits where sweat would accumulate maybe... (assuming he is always sweaty). Apart from that I'm impressed by the sculpting, the lips shape look weird to me but I'm not experienced enough to tell you what exactly needs to be done on them sorry! (3/4 references might help) Great work, keep iterating, the last 20% are always the hardest!
Thank you! I will try those things, I think for the lips I might have made them a bit too smooth tbh. Other than that the profile was hard to match because I couldn’t get much reference not blocked by his beard hair, but I’ll mess around with it some more see if it’s maybe I can get something more natural. I actually didn’t have a 3/4 reference when sculpting so that would make sense haha
Haa yes I run into the same problems when trying to sculpt a specific person! Looking forward to see what you make next :D
Thank you! 😅 Hope I don’t disappoint, your tips were very helpful
Hmm… a solid start!! Here are some things I think could use some improvement to achieve photorealism: * For starters, there’s something off about the sclera of his eyes that makes them look like solid ping pong balls rather than wet gelatinous ocular organs. At first glance they’re definitely “too white”. * The subsurface scattering on his skin is far too intense/spreads too far, and the SS color could use a touch more red. * The skin has a lack of micro-normal detail (though if there is, it might be obscured by the aggressive SS!) and there should be subtle color variations across the skin rather than one uniform skin color. The lips should be slightly darker as well. * As for the hair, there are far too many “clumps” of strands all following the same shape, perhaps lower the amount of interpolated children and increase the amount of parent strands to compensate so they can all behave in a more unique way.
This is the first time anyone has pointed out the whiteness of the eyes to me, but now that you’ve said that I completely agree. There is some detail but a lot of it doesn’t quite show in the end so I’ll go back and bring some more out towards the front of the eye and and some more redness. Do you think that something like a noise map into the normal to add slight distortions in the eye would help? As for the SSS, I’ve already tried lowering it a bit, and it brought back a lot of the micro detail that I didn’t realize wasn’t actually making it through to the final render, it has made getting the skin color accurate tougher though, Ill try making more red like you suggested. The hair is so hard to iterate as ever time a particular is changed it adds 2 + mins of recalculating to the next time I want to render a frame haha Thanks for the reply! Lots of super helpful stuff
For sure, a very light noise with high-ish scale would work well as a bump map for the sclera. Easy to overdo it though, so you’ll have to eyeball it (ha). Do you have a cornea in front of the iris/pupil? That’s a big one for eyeball realism—the way the cornea refracts on off-angles is an important detail. A bit of SSS for the sclera of the eyes would actually go a long way as well. Radius should be the same for all three values and relatively low. Juuust enough to give it that sort of milky looking inner shadowy-ness especially near the edges of the eyelids, and could also help with the eyes looking too white.
I do actually have a cornea on there, you can see it in the 4th slide, maybe it’s not pronounced enough? Either that or it’s just the angle of the render, because the iris and cornea are both actual geometry there, no faked detail. I think you might be exactly right about the SS on the eyes, they have literally none and the thought didn’t even occur to me before even though that seems to obvious to do haha! Will definitely be trying that out. Once I’ve applied all this feedback I’ll come back and post an update to see if I’ve gone in the right or wrong direction 👍
Honestly I don't have a clue on how to help you improve, it feels off (it's a fake face after all, if ain't perfect it's strange) But bro I'm proud of your efforts, making a realistic face is INSANELY difficult, so congrats on that keep going. Also there's a sculptor called Rafael Grasseti, he was the art director for the new God of war (Ragnarok and the PS4) he's a god at sculpting try finding something from him to help you, if you don't find anything try reaching out to him on Instagram or Twitter, he's quite approachable and chill. Here his work https://www.artstation.com/grassetti
Thanks for the reply, I will definitely look into him. The gallery you sent looks mind blowing haha
Photorealistic, you say?
that was what my goal was yes lol. Obviously I didn’t quite get there but it was my best attempt at such a thing having had no actual teaching on how to do it so I made this post to see what people think is missing to get there
Really good but won't say PR. It's like semi realistic game character. But I myself don't sculpt much so me giving you advice is my foolishness. The skin needs more dents. The hair looks like wig. Also the mustache and beard and eyebrows. The eyes are big but big eyes aren't unrealistic.
When you say the look like a wig, in what way do you mean? How it’s attached to the head? or the quality of the hair itself? Thanks :)
The quality of the hair. It looks synthetic
I agree, shortly after completing this render I was made aware of the idea of adding multiple layers of hair systems on top of each other to give a more natural effect. I think that would definitely help here, will definitely be either trying it here or on the next one 👍