My 3D CG Tips and How-Tos 3

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Updating old content for modern Poser

Updating Daz3D Michael3 for SuperFly and Cycles

Issues and workarounds

The Michael 3 figure is more than a decade old at this time of writing. I wanted to know whether I could update it for use in Poser Pro 11. Here are my notes and findings.

One quick solution is to add Subsurface Scattering (SSS) to the character's original Poser Root Surface shaders. ( Poser Material Room has a quick add button for this).

One solution for second skin clothing (i.e., clothing graphically painted or overlaid onto the character texture), was to prepare transparencies outside of Poser - i.e. by using a graphics editor software, then to apply them over the character texture. I wanted more bump and displacement on the second skin clothing, so this is my solution:

I tried using the Physical Root Surface Node to modernise the shaders.

The old shaders use Poser Root Surface and do not render as well in SuperFly render engine. However, I prefer the results obtained by SuperFly. Therefore, I created alternative shader trees using the Physical Root Surface, and incorporated the original character textures in them.

Here are my node solutions.

(I have made the 3rd-party character textures unviewable, to protect the rights of the image creators).

Shader setup for the head of Michael 3 SR2, using Physical Root Surface and old texture set:

Multi-layer shader for body with second skin suit

I modernise the old character textures and add the second skin bodysuit texture by using more than one layer in the Poser Material Room. This was not possible back in the day when the character textures were first published. In the Base Layer, for each material zone, I only have the character texture. In Layer 1, I have the second skin suit texture for those material zones which are to be covered by the second skin bodysuit.

Remember that I repeat this the above step for all material zones (arms,, torso, thighs, etc) which need to be covered by the bodysuit texture.

What to do when the old character set has no bump maps ?

Well, one way is to generate the bump (and normal) maps using modern generators (not going to mention them here because it is a digression - you may look that up using a search engine).

My solution is to use shader nodes.

Node trick to provide modesty hip coverage

Based on the shader nodes discussed above, it becomes evident that a simple solution exists using shaders to give the figure some moedty while the rest of the scene is being assembled.

Some results of modernisation of Michael3 SR2 figure shaders

Here are some renders... (Includes my original and 3rd-party bodysuit textures)

Robe modelled by me using Shader3D. You can see his Layer 1 second skin bodysuit under it.

Showing my Layer 1 hips and thighs shader using second skin bodysuit texture, while rest of body is using original character texture in my upgraded Base Layer shader.

3rd-party briefs in use ! Not second skin suit. I used my modern shader nodes with his original textures.

Wings geometry and shader by me. Multi-lay body skin shader by me (using 3rd-party overlay texture in Layer 1 and upgraded base shader with 3rd-party texture in Base Layer). Wand and hair are 3rd-party assets.

Summary:

Below, I show two annotated graphics to compare the old and my modernised shaders

(I think it is a bit hard to see the different because of the webp graphics format being used on this website.)

Toon and Celshaded rendering for M3 morph in Poser

The A3M3 morph of the Michael 3 figure incorporates an Aiko3 anime-style look, and was created by KBK.

I tried to update the shaders of the A3M3 character so that it would look more like an anime or a toon render in Poser Pro 11.

One problem of Poser's Geometric Toon Line render option is the appearance of random dots in the final render using Comic Book style.

This dotty render is because I had to use Firefly Engine and the Poser Root Surface shader nodes, in order to get Geometric Toon Line and Comic Book Style rendering. Unfortunately, it is not good enough !!

I decided to abandon the Geometric Toon Line option, and instead, use the Firefly Toon Outline render option yes, it is a different setting in Poser Pro 11).

Now I show the difference between two FireFly renders using Poser Root Surface Shaders:

Therefore, I decided to rework the shaders and use Cycles Root Surface and Cycles shader nodes instead. I took a minimalist approach.

Poser Superfly render with my Cycles Root Node Celshader trees.

First image in this section: The SuperFly render result. Second image: My Cycles shader for exposed skin. Third image: My Cycles celshader for second skin bodysuit.

Poser Firefly render with basic Poser Root Surface setup.

To refresh, I remind the reader that I attempted to update the shaders of old figures for use with modern Poser software. I decided that the Firefly render results were not good when I used Geometric Toon Line and Comic Book Colour (note: they do not work in Superfly. That is why I omit discussion of them in relation to Superfly rendering).

I used a minimalist approach - just use a flat skin colour in the Poser Root Surface for each body part. Make sure that the Toon ID numerical value is the same for the material zones which are to be the same colour - eg, hand, forearm, knee, shin, foot zones in my case. The body parts that are to be second skin bodysuit (hips, thighs, abdomen, etc) have a different colour from skin. Add lights to the scene (Firefly cannot render correctly without Poser lights). Forget about using Geometric Toon Line and Comic Book options. Select the Toon Outline option in the Firefly render settings panel. Render.

Now, at this point, people familiar with the Poser Material Room will ask: for Firefly rendering, why not use the Set Up Toon Render function. Well, I did not get the result I wanted, so I just did what I did.

Likewise, why didn't I just use the Cycles Toon BSDF node ? My simple anser is : I do not like the result produced in SuperFly render when I use that node. So I worked out my own version.

Using Geometric Toon Line and Comic Book Black&White with Firefly Renderer

I have been complaining so much about Geometric Toon Line and Firefly rendering. Well, it isn't that bad. Below, I show a Firefly Render without toon options, and a Firefly render with Geomtric Toon Line and Comic Book Black&White options selected.

Below, adjusted the settings of the Geometric Toon Line and tried it with various combinations of values for Comic Book Colour and Comic Book Black&White. Here are my results with another morph of the modernised Michael 3 figure.

My Greyscale Celshader Cycles Shader in Poser

Using HDRI illumination, no Poser lights

I tried getting Cycles shaders to render a greyscale celshaded result for SuperFly.

(For my project, I gave Paul 2 purple irises just to make the renders a little bit punchy.)

Here are examples of what I used:

- eyelashes with transparency (I hand-painted the input image using texture template for thsi figure)

- eyes with non-greyscale irises

- skin

and,

- the background to match figure.

My Colour Celshader Cycles Shader in Poser

Using HDRI illumination, no Poser lights

Well, it is just my attempt, for the Paul 2 figure I used :

arms, head, legs, and torso
tongue and gums
toenails and fingernails
eyelashes (with transparency)
cornea
External Eyebrows - I made eyebrow geometries for the Paul 2 figure, because he literally has no eyebrow geometry. The geometry is needed for this type of shader.

Showing my shaders on my anime-style Pauline 2

I did a matching female character and used these celshaders on her. Her hair and clothes were modelled by me. She has a custom face morphed by me.

Take a look:

A note on why I did not use 3rd-party Cycles celshaders for this project

I did try the excellent commercial product Superfly Shaders by Vince Bagna. I did not quite get the look I wanted, however. Hence my own Cycles celshader development. I did learn from many others in the Blender3D software universe, who were experimenting with the look during the 2016 - 2108 era. A lot of manual input and using one's eyes to evaluate whether the look renders in the correct style.

If you wish to see what the renders using commercial toon Cycles shaders look like and what my node setups are like for the whole Paul 2 figure when I tried them out - go here

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