- Jul 7, 2017
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- 7,648
It's not that simple either. Maya's pure skin texture is realistic and purely 2D. It is basically a 2D image displayed over a 3D mesh. But the texture remains just a 2D image for now. So if you want to display the 2D texture three-dimensionally, you need a bump map.
Bumpmapping is therefore just an illusion (albeit effective) that simulates surface unevenness that is not present in the geometry of the model.
Therein lies the problem with Maya's skin.
The solution to this is much more difficult than the example image above shows because Maya is a human mesh. This means that wrinkles have a completely different surface irregularity than the skin itself. Ergo, you have to explicitly create the bump map for a human mesh and the 2D skin texture and cannot simply use a bump map, even if it is included in a purchased Daz3D character.
Creating an explicit bump map is very difficult and takes a lot of time. I've done it in the past and it takes me 2 weeks just to do a character's bump map. Why? Because you have to edit the bump map separately. Let's stick with Maya's ass. The skin must be done individually, then any birthmarks, the buttocks fold itself, the asshole and the vagina.
In the case of Maya's skin, I see that the black and white transition in the bump map is a bit too large and not soft enough. The hard part is finding a happy medium.
