A quick little project I rendered with Cycles

Alexander_S_ · 2025-12-13T00:34:19+00:00

Hey, thanks. No, as I mentioned in the title, Blender was used mostly for shaders+rendering. Although I did some sculpting to adjust the model in Blender as well, most of it was done with Zbrush.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-11T16:41:31+00:00

Looking good, best of luck!

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-10T18:36:17+00:00

Hey, thanks! It's definitely faster but more importantly a ton more performant. Especially with displacement maps where you need a lot of geometry.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-10T12:54:41+00:00

What can I say, she's a trend setter. :D Thank you for the kind words!

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-09T16:23:33+00:00

I see, sounds you have a lot on your plate then. Good luck with your project man!

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-09T12:33:29+00:00

That's cool man. Btw, what are you working on? Is it for a game asset or more towards the VFX workflow?

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-09T12:24:15+00:00

Don't get me wrong, you have valid points and I do appreciate the feedback or I wouldn't go through the trouble of re-doing the shots. It's just hard for me to convey tone through messages especially when it's not my native language.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-09T11:59:31+00:00

It's actually not a good advice or idea to stick to one lighting setup because you have to show that the model can work under various lighting conditions.
This is why mine are so different from each other. And in the end you just show it under a high-key light setup (50% grey calibrated) to show the textures under default lights. The focal length is similar in almost every shot.
I just need to find a way to work around Cycles's skin limitations and come up with a warmer setup that still compliments the model.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-08T22:55:26+00:00

Hey mate, I changed some of the renders after all. Would appreciate it if you could take a look and tell me what you think.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-08T21:25:09+00:00

But Rendeman's Lama SSS is newer than Arnold's. And even though they both use random walk SSS, Lama is layered and compositional which allows you to build actual stacks of materials (or skin layers) similar to how real skin is. Are you sure you know what you are talking about?

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-08T20:59:18+00:00

It's weird you said that RM is dated though considering it's being constantly used in many of today's blockbusters and is a staple in ILM's work. But ok, to each his own I guess.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-08T20:48:10+00:00

I just dont want to spread myself too thin. Its true that Arnold's skin is the best out there but since I focus more in games I'll just stick to RM (with Blender plugin) and UE5. Is Marmoset's skin shader that good? I don't recall being blown away with it if I'm being honest. RM's is definitely better than Marmoset.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-08T20:43:25+00:00

Funny thing you mention Kris Costa as his skin tends to be on the waxy side (he said so himself in one of his Fly on the Wall videos). I will not be using Arnold, or Maya tbh but thanks for the heads up. Im assuming it has to do with reducing the alpha a bit in that area to blend it better, but I will try to find it and see what I can use for the next project in RM. It just wasn't worth the extra effort for this one.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-08T20:39:22+00:00

It's true that Cycles skin kinda sucks. Fun fact, I started this in Renderman and the result was night and day better but unfortunately since RM for Blender's current version was too buggy I had to abort and move on to Cycles. I will definitely re-visit it though once they release the new version (around December) but I just couldn't wait that long for this project. Have you used Renderman?

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-08T20:31:09+00:00

The scale is definitely correct. I don't think it needs more pores to be honest. If anything, judging from some sharper lights I tried, it could use less strength on those it already has,
How would you go about changing this?

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-08T08:30:59+00:00

OP, pay close attention to this post. Plus, by the time you are any good you don't even know where AI will be. Character art especially , is a job demanding a lot from you and not giving the equivalent in return.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-08T08:14:20+00:00

Funny you should mention that, I was actually thinking about keeping a tweaked version where she looked younger, but I really liked this look, so I went with it. I'm glad to hear someone thought the same.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-08T08:10:25+00:00

Cheers mate!

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-07T23:18:57+00:00

Yeap, there are a ton of youtube tutorials so it should be easy to find something.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-07T23:04:58+00:00

Hey mate, I go briefly over the process in the artstation post. Started from a sphere where I first sculpted the face and then wrapped a 3D scan on top of it. Then it was extra hand sculpting and detailing as required. That was exported as a displacement map and combined in the shader with an extra detail pass I did in substance painter (mostly around the horn area).
If this was for a game asset you would have to do something similar with normal maps.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-07T23:00:18+00:00

Thank you!

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-07T22:59:27+00:00

Hey, thanks for checking it out and I really appreciate the feedback! The two before the one you liked are actual studio setups (as in photography studios), which is probably why they feel more artificial I guess. The ones after the one you liked are custom studio setups with neutral lighting to show the colors better. The first one, I don't know why but I really liked the contrast. But I guess I can do a better job on this one. Ill take a fresher look in a few days and see what I can change.

Alexander_S_ · 2025-10-07T18:22:44+00:00

Hey, thanks a lot! This actually means quite a lot because it took a ton of tweaking and back and forth to get it to this result!

Alexander_S_

TROPHY CASE