Yes, we need another hero! Check this out...

Hey ho, it's only money, right? Yep -- a skinmap for Genesis 8, and I've also used the face and body morph in this set of test shots. (These are comparatively quick renders: I let each cook for an hour in IRay, and because it's just one model, one garment, one hair prop, the CPU handled it just fine.)

I'm about 85% of the way there with this character ... it's not absolutely right, but it's close. I confess, the eyes are painted in three out of four of my shots today, because the scleras (the white parts of the eyes) are glaring like searchlights ... they make him look like a Goa'uld! There's no built-in control to tone them down, so I'll have to muck about in the materials pane and dim down the diffuse color, or specular color, or specular values, or reflectivity, or whatever it turns out to be. That should be a comparatively minor fix ...

...and I have to admit, he's kind of pretty just as he is; although I have a feeling I'm also not getting the body shape quite as depicted in the catalog images. This is probably because I don't yet have the Genesis 8 Body Morphs. Now, the product page at DAZ does not say that you need the body morphs in order to load this body shape, but I think maybe it should, and you do, because...

catalog imagage. Dae for Genesis 8

... that body is a fraction different from what I'm getting, and frankly, the only issue that could cause the difference is that I don't have the body morphs. Anyway, that's by the by. I'll have them soon enough, then you can expect the body to load up and be identical. Also --

DAZ catalog image. Dae for Genesis 8

The catalog images show the eyes rendering the way they ought to ... those scleras do not glare like searchlights! So the solution has to be in the materials settings. That's a challenge for tomorrow.

I also bought a pack of (gasp!) IRay shaders for fabrics, so there's a lot to play with. I confess, right now I have only the vaguest idea of how to handle IRay shaders, so there's a lot to learn.Since I don't yet have a tonne of costumes for Genesis, I thought I'd try pasting the shaders onto other stuff and see how it renders up. This will be interesting!

Also, I ran an experiment to see if Terragen would render a figure exported out of DAZ. The answer is, it will ... but it imports only the diffuse map (ie., the image that makes the visual pattern or texture on any surface), and ignores everything else. Which makes a character look weird indeed! You do get a drop-down menu, where Terragen asks for the correct shader for every single surface on the OBJ you just imported. Ooof. In other words, it would take a day or two to organize the simplest image you can imagine. Hmm. Not worth the time it takes.

Quite happy with today's work! More tomorrow...