SkinVue6 - User Guide

User Guide

Introduction

SkinVue6 was developed to provide fast, high quality human skin renders using E-On Software’s Vue 6 Infinite (V6I) graphics software for 3D character models. SkinVue6 provides a number of improvements over its predecessor (SkinVue2) in both ease of use and skin rendering capabilities. The most notable improvements include:

Mac compatibility
Sub-Surface Scattering (SSS)
Supports operation in Vue 6's Connected or Unconnected Poser import modes
A number of enhancements to the SkinVue materials which improve realism and ease of use
The ability to randomize skin dirt and skin wetness settings
Skin tone warmth and saturation adjustments to correct undersaturated or oversaturated texture maps
The ability to modify lip and nail colors
The ability to automatically modify bump depth settings for SkinVue materials.
Greater control over Iris and Eyewhite parameters
All new atmospheres optimized for skin rendering including several new spectral atmospheres. A lighting setup information window provides insights on adding Fill, Key and Rim lights.
A more streamlined workflow and updated user interface with ease of use improvements to allow quickly going from one tab to another without having to reselect the figure
A new character plugin architecture which expands the list of characters that can be used with the DAZ and Poser plugins. Both new and legacy characters are combined into each of the plugins
The ability to load and save presets for Skin and Eye materials
Render Filters for creating Colored Pencil and Vargas-like art renderings
An automated product installer

SkinVue6 is a VuePython-Powered application designed to automate the process of generating high quality Poser character renderings using Vue 6 Infinite. Through a specially developed interactive Python program in combination with Vue6 Infinite's advanced function editor, SkinVue6 transforms imported Poser models into vivid, highly realistic characters in seconds. SkinVue 6 composite materials contain a base skin texture (either procedural or texture map driven) enhanced with greenish/blue veins, reddish imperfections, skin noise, a Fresnel light ramp that reddens skin in the shadows and skin modifiers such as dirt and wetness. There are three base skin texture options to choose from including Procedural (procedurally generated skin material using no texture maps), Toon (for cartoon style renders) and Enhanced (enhancing an existing texture map to achieve photo-realism). A custom eye shader is also included which provides fully adjustable parameters for eye warmth, eye noise, luminance, and reflection strength. In addition, SkinVue6 provides a number of atmospheres which have been optimized for skin rendering.

This User Guide is intended to provide more insight into the capabilities of SkinVue6 as supplement to the SkinVue6 Quick Start Guide. It is recommended that you first read the Quick Start Guide and use the SkinVue6 software a few times before diving into this document

Installing SkinVue6

Click the SV6 installer icon and the product will install automatically. Please note that the SkinVue6 files must be located on the same drive and folder locations that your main Vue 6 Infinite program is installed on. Do not install the SkinVue6 files in your "My Documents|e-on software" folder.

You do not have to uninstall the SkinVue2 product for SkinVue6 to operate properly
The SkinVue6 Script folder contains most of the content required for the SkinVue6 Python application such as the Plugins and documentation

	Importing Poser Figures
When importing Poser figures into Vue, follow these guidelines: Do not select "Collapse Identical Materials" on import- SkinVue6 will do the collapse for you following Material Swapping Always turn "Group figures as single meshes" on. This does two things. First, it makes the operation of Vue6 and SkinVue6 faster. Secondly, it gives you the option of swapping materials for a whole group or just a figure within the group. Each imported character must have a unique name and that name must not use underscore characters "_". SkinVue needs to reserve the underscore character in order to correctly parse and create material names. Do not change the names of the imported Poser materials - SkinVue6 needs these names in order to swap the materials correctly

Launching SkinVue6

When launching SkinVue6, follow these guidelines:

Select the file "SkinVue6PC.py" (PC) or "SkinVue6Mac.py" (Mac) from the SkinVue6 folder located in your Vue 6 root folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\e-on software\Vue 6 Infinite\SkinVue6 or C:\Program Files\e-on Software\Vue 6 xStream or /Applications/ Vue 6 Infinite) from the Vue >>> Python Menu
Make sure that the SkinVue6 files and folders are installed in the correct places, otherwise SkinVue6 won't run
If you display the Vue Python Console, you should see the SkinVue6 startup information indicating the paths of all the SkinVue6 folders and the loaded Plugins. However, you do not need to have the console displayed to run and operate SkinVue6.

SkinVue6 Scenes

One of the most difficult challenges when rendering Poser characters inside of Vue 6 is to create a lighting setup and atmosphere combination that produces pleasing results. Because the lighting/atmospheric combinations in Vue are very difficult for many people to master,SkinVue 6 contains 8 scene files which optimize the lighting/atmosphere setup to produce near-photoreal rendering results.These scene files have been built in such a manner to allow consistent, repeatable high quality rendering no matter where the character is placed in the scene. A key feature of the lighting/atmosphere combination used in these scene files, is the incorporation of "over-driven" or "High Ambience". A tutorial which explains how High Ambience works can be found here:

http://www.skinvue.net/Tutorials/HighAmbience.htm

To load in a scene, simply click on the hyperlink below the thumbnail image.

SkinVue6 Material Swapper

Missing Textures: If you get something that looks like this after swapping using Enhanced or Toon modes, then your original Poser model did not contain any texture maps in the affected part. To resolve this, go back into Poser and inject some textures into the affected parts or use the SkinVue Procedural swapping mode.

Select the Figure you want to convert to SkinVue6 materials by first selecting it in the Vue scene or in the Vue object browser and then click the SkinVue6 Select button. SkinVue6 will validate the figure against the currently loaded Plugins listed in the lower left corner. If the object you selected is invalid, an error message will be shown.

Note: When selecting a Figure, you can either select either at the Figure group level (e.g. the aggregate group object that was imported containing all of the sub objects) or select a sub-Figure within the group. If you select at the Figure Group Level, then SkinVue will replace materials for all of the Group's sub figures (if there is more than one) which share common material names. Otherwise, selecting a single sub-Figure object within the Figure group will isolate material replacement to just the sub-Figure object.

Indicate which Skin Type you want to convert to - Enhanced: standard SkinVue6 skin using the imported Figure's texture and bump maps, Procedural: fully procedural skin using no texture maps, or Toon: cartoon skin using texture maps with cel shading.

Click the Swap button to swap the Poser materials to SkinVue6 materials. If successful, a message will appear indicating that the materials have been changed amd the UI will change to the Skin Modifer tab. SkinVue6 will automatically preserve the texture and bump maps of the figure.

The SkinVue6 Swapper renames all materials associated with the character using Figure Name_BodyPart_SkinType nomenclature. This is done to maintain the unique identity of the materials with a specific character in case multiple characters are used in the Vue scene.

Note: When naming your imported figures, do not use the underscore character "_" in any part of the name. SkinVue treats the underscore as a special character for constructing and parsing materials.

You can use the swapper on as many characters as you like in the scene. You do not have to save them as Vue VOB files and re-import.

You can only Swap materials once per character. Therefore you cannot switch from say Enhanced to Toon after swapping.

SkinVue6 Skin Modifier


Standard SkinVue6 Speculars	SkinVue6 More SSS	SkinVue6 Specular Eccentricity

Skin Dirt	More Skin Fresnel	More Skin Noise (Spots and Veins)

Wet Skin	Warmth -Warmer	Warmth - Cooler

Right clicking the color indicator box will bring up a popup menu allowing you to Reset the color, Copy the color, or Paste a previously copied color. Note: Any time a color change is made with the Color Picker, that color will automatically be placed in the paste buffer as well. So if for example you used the color picker to change the Lip color, you could simply select Nail color and paste into the color indicator box.

Select the Figure you want to modify by first selecting it in the Vue scene or in the Vue object browser and then click the Select button. (Note: If you just swapped materials, this is not necessary since SkinVue will already have the character in memory). SkinVue6 will validate that the character contains SkinVue6 materials. If the object you selected is invalid, an error message will be shown. Note: After the Figure has been selected, SkinVue6 will validate that it is a SkinVue6 Figure and then deselect it from the Vue Scene. Don't worry, this is normal. It makes the operation of SkinVue6 faster. You will know that a Figure has been properly selected by the "Ready" message in the information text box and by the Update button becoming active.

Skin Dials: all dials range from 0 (no effect) to 100 (full effect). To enter an exact value for any dial, enter a number in the value box next to each slider.

SSS: Adjusts the amount of Sub Surface Scattering in the skin. In SkinVue6, the SSS effect is generated via a luminance map which causes thinner areas of the skin to appear lighter and more red - also know as forward scattering.

Fresnel: Adjusts the amount of skin reddening in the shadows based on the direction of the main light used in the scene. The main light is defined as the first named light in the scene starting with the letter "M" (e.g. Main Light, mainlight, main, etc). If no lights starting with the letter "M" are found, then the first light in the scene will be used as the Main Light source for the Fresnel calculation.

Warmth: Values below 50 cool the skin while values above 50 warm the skin.

Dirt: The amount of dirt to add to the skin. The dice button generates a different random dirt pattern each time it is pushed.

Spots: The amount of added skin freckles and skin noise

Veins: The amount and presence of greenish-blue veins.

Toon Edge Width: Only applies to the Toon Skin Material. Sets the width of the edge border on the character.

Specular Intensity: The amount of specular light used. Use higher values for shinier, wetter looking skin.

Specular Shine: The size of specular highlights. The more shine that is added, the smaller and shinier the speculars appear.

Specular Eccentricity: The amount of noise added into the specular highlights. This makes the speculars look less uniform.

Wetness Amount: The amount of water drops and drips to appear on the skin. The dice button generates a random offset to make the wetness appear more or less uniform. The Pattern drop down selection box allows you to change the wetness pattern. There are 5 patterns included each with a vertical and horizontal variant as denoted by the suffix V and H respectively.

Wetness Scale: Adjusts the size of the pattern. Higher value yield larger drips/drops and visa-versa.

Bump Values: The bump depth applied to each SkinVue6 material. Select the body part you wish to change, and edit the value below.

Color Mods: The color correction applied to Lip and Nail materials. Select the body part you wish to change, and then click on the color box immediately below. This will bring up a color picker allowing you to choose a correction color. If you wish to revert back to no color correction, select a black color or just right click in the color box and select Reset from the popup menu. Click the Mask checkbox if you want the color to completely overlay the base color, or use the Blend spinner control to indicate the percent blend you wish to use (Note 1 = 10% blend, 5 = 50% blend, etc.)

Presets: The Load and Save buttons allow you to inject or save all of the Skin Dial settings. There are a very limited number of presets that are included with SkinVue since this utility was designed primarily to allow you to save your own custom presets. Skin presets are saved in a file with a .svs extension.

Update Mode: Select which body part you want the changes applied to. The light fresnel is always updated for all modes. If you want to keep your skin settings but you have changed the orientation of your main light, then select the Light Only option.

Update Button: After you have adjusted the skin dials and selected the Update Mode, clicking the Update button will apply your changes to the skin materials and then render your scene. It's best to have your render mode set to preview for faster operation. Also, you can interrupt the render by simply clicking on the render window or hitting the escape key (esc).

SkinVue6 Eye Modifier

Note: Older Poser (P1 - P5) and Older DAZ characters (M1 - M2) cannot utilize the SkinVue6 eye shader due to eye UV mapping limitations. Also, The P6 Miki cannot use the Eye Shader.

Eye Dials: Most eye dials range from 0 to 100 with the value of 50 having no effect. To enter an exact value for any dial, enter a number in the value box.

EyeWhite Luminance: The amount of additional light to be added to the EyeWhite..

EyeWhite Warmth Adjusts the amount of yellow-orange tinting that is applied to the EyeWhites. This dial ranges from 0 (No Warmth) to 100 (Full warmth).

EyeWhite Tint: The amount of tinting to add to the EyeWhite. Values below 50 tint the color green while values above 50 tint the color blue.

EyeWhite Noise: The amount of reddish noise to add to the EyeWhite. High values with make the eyes look bloodshot.

Iris Luminance: The amount of additional light to be added to the Iris.

Iris Saturation: The amount of color intensity to add or remove from the Iris.

Iris Tint: The amount of Iris tinting to add to the Iris. Values below 50 tint the color green while values above 50 tint the color blue.

Reflection Strength: Adjusts the brightness of eye glints created by the Eye Reflect material.

Reflection Map: Allows loading of new eye reflection maps into the SkinVue6 EyeReflect material. The dropdown list contains a list of 6 eye glint reflection types to choose from. The Custom button allows you to load any specific reflection map you wish to use.

UV Offsets: Allows the movement of the reflection map in the U (horizontal) and V (vertical) directions in order to precisely position the eye glints.

Presets: The Load and Save buttons allow you to inject or save all of the Eye Dial settings. There are a very limited number of presets that are included with SkinVue since this utility was designed primarily to allow you to save your own custom presets. Eye presets are saved in a file with a .sve extension.

Update Button: After you have adjusted the eye dials and selected the Update Mode, clicking the Update button will apply your changes to the eye materials and then render your scene. It's best to have your render mode set to preview for faster operation. Also, you can interrupt the render by simply clicking on the render window or hitting the escape key (esc).

SkinVue6 Atmospheres

To load a SkinVue6 atmosphere, click on the link below the thumbnail. When you load an atmosphere, a brief description will appear in the information panel describing the features of the atmosphere along with any tips and suggestions for lighting setups.

Note: Since all of these atmospheres (with the exception of the Toon atmosphere) are set to render at high quality, it is best to turn down the quality slider to -2 or -3 in the atmosphere tab when doing skin adjustments or previews. This will speed up preview rendering by a significant amount. Don't forget to turn the quality slider back to zero or higher when doing your final render.

Global Lighting Adjustments: There are two key parameters to focus on when adjusting atmospheres which contain global lighting (e.g. GA, AO, GI, and GR). If your scene needs more global light, first try adjusting the Sky Dome Lighting Gain upward. If this is not satisfactory, then adjust the Overall Skylight Color by selecting a whiter (higher intensity) color. Also, the Overall Skylight Color will have an effect on the tint color of the skin. If your skin is too red, try tinting the Overall Skylight Color towards blue and visa versa.

SkinVue6 Render Filters

Render Filters are post processing utilities that are applied to an image immediately following a render. Currently, SkinVue6 contains 3 types of filters:

Pencil: Produces a colored pencil type sketch.

Toon: Produces a quasi toon rendering effect.

Vargas: A filter which produces a pinup, Vargas-like effect.

To operate a filter, simply select which filter you want by clicking the radio button and then pressing the Filter On button. This will then turn that particular filter on for all subsequent renders.

To turn the filter off, click the Filter Off button.

SkinVue6 Menus

Under the Help menu, you can bring up the SkinVue6 QuickStart Guide, SkinVue6 User Guide, an About screen, or surf over to the SkinVue website where you can learn more about SkinVue and view some examples in the Gallery.

For the Mac, there are no pull down menus. Instead, the menuing functionality as described above is available through a Utility Popup menu which is access by right-clicking anywhere on the user interface (see illustration).

Tips and Tricks

Photo-real Rendering: The keys to making great, photo real-type renders in Vue are using high quality texture maps, a good lighting/atmosphere setup and the having the right skin appearance. In general, the fewer lights you use, the better. Normally, I use just two lights (the sun or main light and a Fill light) about 80% percent of the time. In some cases, I might add an additional point light or two to bring out more skin speculars or to add some different colors to the skin. For more information on lighting and rendering techniques, please visit the SkinVue6 Tutorials section at: http://www.SkinVue.net/Tutorials

Manually Adjusting the Function Nodes: SkinVue6 was designed to eliminate any user intervention or adjustment of the SkinVue6 material Function Editor nodes. While you are certainly free to play with the nodes as you like, keep in mind the following:

If you remove function nodes from the SkinVue6 materials, it may cripple the ability of the SkinVue6 Modifier to modify settings
You can freely adjust any of the existing values in the Function Editor manually. Most of the settings have Constant Value links connected to adjust the key values.
You can add new nodes into the materials without fear of crippling the SkinVue6 Modifier

What are the tradeoffs in using the various types of atmospheres?
For close range Skin renders, GR or GI atmospheres are usually the best choices, since they produce the most accurate shadows, although they will render much slower. You also have to be careful when using GR for skin rendering since there may be some color bleeding onto the skin caused by color casting from surrounding objects.

For medium to far away renders, AO is perfectly fine in most cases. It's much faster than GI or GR and the quality drop off in shadow accuracy is not very noticeable at far distances.

Also, in general you should turn off global lighting for any hair objects used since this will slow the render down to a crawl. Usually I add a single point or spot light to light the hair and that light is set to only affect the hair and nothing else.

Positioning the SkinVue Window: When working on Skin and Eye adjustments using SkinVue, you can freely move the Skin Vue window around in order to see various parts of the scene. When temporarily finished with your Skin/Eye adjustments, you can just minimize the SkinVue window and go back to working on your scene. When you need to re-adjust Skin/Eye parameters again due to any scene/lighting changes, simply restore the SkinVue window and continue with your adjustments.