Project: Leila post production

Here's an edited render of Leila. I'm just following what the crits are suggesting at BlenderArtists forum. Here is what I have came up so far:

[another final render]

I've scaled down the cornea and the iris to match the size of the eyelids so she won't look like a doll or something. I figured that's the thing that makes her look odd. I also fixed the lighting on her eyes: I've included a spot light that lights only the layer where the eyes are. This is to illuminate the cornea better to highlight its color. Right now it gives more character to the whole portrait. I found out that there were two hemi lights located at her right side subtly lighting the right side of the face. I removed the other one and slightly increased the one remaining to normalize the lighting of the shadow on the right side of her face.

Progress Update


[fixed hair]

I fixed the hair to make it look more messy because I didn't like her previous one. I figured since I'm editing her and going to be rendering for another 10 long minutes, why not fix her hair.

Here's the Blender color tweak using nodes:

[Blender Compositor Render]

...and here's the Gimp retouch:

[Gimp retouch]

I had to save a Gimp file (.xcf) file for this last one since I may be doing another Gimp retouch in the future if I need to edit it again. I should have figured this out 3 final renders before. So this is the current final render for Leila, hope you like it.

Project: Leila progress 07

Here's the final progress of Project Leila.


[fixed textures]

On this render, I improved the textures a bit to make it look more realistic because she really looked like a mannequin before.


[final internal render]

This render is the final internal render from Blender. I just left the plane backdrop there to eliminate the artifacts at her cheeks. I then played with the lights to achieve the result above.


[Blender retouch render]

I took the previous picture and then created a new .blend file to create a post-processing of the image. I then played with the color curves using the Node Editor to get a look like the one above.


[final render Gimp retouch]

Here's the final render. I used Gimp to put some background on it and also to put reflections on her eyes. I don't wanna wait for another 10 minutes just to get a reflection from her eyes.

So, I hope you guys enjoy it and you learned something from this.

Project: Leila progress 06

Here's another render of her:

I remade her hair completely because it wasn't working out for me. LOL

...and another one:

This one, I've tweaked the hair even further, particularly the rough parameters. Apparently, it gave her hair a random look while still looking a bit organized.


Here, I'm having a bit of a problem with the artifact on her right cheek again, the white outline there. I thought I've eliminated it but it went back again.


I added a Depth of Field or DoF and a backdrop just to setup the blur's parameters. I'm not yet fixed on what background I'm putting behind her. This will be the temporary background for now.

Project: Leila progress 05

I've changed my setup after the last render I made from progress 04. I changed the Fill Light to a Hemi from a Spot Light. Here's the setup:

[setup, render from 3d viewport]

Here's the result of this setup:

[render with Hemi Light added]

I like this particular render because the Hemi Light made the faulty shadow in her nostrils disappear. I still don't like her hair though, it needs a lot of work. Just figured out how to make the hair particles follow a curve, by the way. At least, just before the hair post in progress 04. :) I haven't been doing my homework on hair particles that I've grown rusty of using it.

I'm planning on tweaking the face topology i little more because her chin isn't really looking right. She has a male chin from my perspective.

Project: Leila progress 04

Here's a render without diffuse. I just had to do this because the diffuse map is getting in the way when i observe the bump map.




[render without diffuse]

Here's another render. I applied raytrace transparency instead of z-transparency to the eye lens. I want to see which is better and, obviously, raytrace transparency yields better results.




[Raytrace On Eye Lens]

After a while of constant observation, i realized that the diffuse map is still missing something. This image shows an improved diffuse map. I added some reddish parts on her cheeks and nose as well as on the bridge of her nose just to add a little flavor. :)




[fixed textures]

This next render shows a tweaked model, specifically her chin. When i look at her from certain angles, her chin becomes excessively prominent and i don't want that so i rearranged the vertices to shrink it. Here is the result.




[tweaked face]

Here's another render of her tweaked face topology with wireframe:

I had to do this because I wanna see how the topology goes.


Here's a render with a smile on :)

[render with "smile" shape key]

I don't think I'm going to use this shape key, though. I just want to add it to see how the edge loops will react if she smiles.

Here's the latest render so far:

This is a render with SSS and raytrace ambient occlusion. If you look at the left side of the face, you'll see an abrupt outline there, some white dots occurring. I don't know what causes that, I've encountered that before in Blender 2.49. I think It has something to do with raytracing turned on while using strand rendering. I'm still trying to look for possible solutions on this.

Project: Leila progress 03

I've modeled the tearbuds and tweaked the face to improve the topology. Here is a sample render of it:

[tweaked face topology with tearbuds added]

I wanna add a certain feature on her face, the one that Reese Witherspoon has. She has this small bulge just below her lower lip:

[Reese Witherspoon]

I've tried to make it look similar but i had a different result. You can see it on the image below:

[tweaked face, different camera angle]

Here is another angle. I've tweaked it a little more, particularly the eyelids part:


And now i've finished the eyelashes. Here's a sample render in the same angle:

[eyelashes added]

The eyelashes are made from particle hair. I just duplicated a part of the eyelids and separated it from the head mesh. I then grew hair on it. I had to rearrange some faces of the duplicated faces to make the eyelashes point to the right direction. After tweaking, i edited the particle hair by cutting and pulling control vertices to get the desired result.