How to even out skin tones?

zoombapup

Hey all.

Having a bit of an issue here that maybe you guys could help with.

I've been projection painting a model in mudbox from some reference images of two different men. My problem is that the lighting on the two are very different and the skin tones are all over the place.

I was wondering if anyone had any tutorials or methods to even out skin tones. I've got photoshop 6 (I stuck with it because I had a decent PNG exporter for it). So I was hoping for something photoshoppy but none of the tutorials I searched for were about modelling (mostly about beauty touchups).

Here's the texture itself. Obviously lots wrong with it. But I wondered about the skin tones.



Ta.

JacqueChoi

Is this for a current-gen asset?

Or for a PS2 era asset?


Can we see this thing on the model?

zoombapup

Its for a current gen-ish, not really important though as I'm just testing out some workflow to then redo things a bit later.

Here's a view of the mudbox. Only 2 levels of subd right now. As you can see the damn legs are completely different colour. Plus the face is too light (harder to see in this image).

zoombapup

Well, if nothing else, I can always give him some pants I guess. Bleh!

Dan!

you could try---mask the area-hue/saturation+brightness/contrast, maybe add an overlay or softlight layer with the desired skin tone. or give em pants

skankerzero

I mainly use Photoshop 6 too.

I would do as Dan says and mess with the hue/sat. you can also try levels.

Another one that I use is paint on a layer set on 'lightness'. That helps some.

JacqueChoi

if this is current gen, you have WAAAY too much lighting baked into the texture. There should be little to none.

As for skin tones, you currently haven't gotten many.

General idea is to think of it this way:


Areas where you grow hair, are generally the areas that the sun hits more. Those are the areas that become more tan. The areas like the insides of the arms/backs of the knees, inner groin do not get hit by the sun and are therefore more pale.

Pale skin tends to have things like varicose veins and more subcellaneous skin splotchiness showing through.


Also, there's a LOT to be said about tonal variances:
Look at all the blues yellows reds and greys in these skin tones, and what that does for believability.

Also add freckles, pock marks, windburns, moles, and other skin blemishes.

Rick Stirling

In photoshop try Image > Adjustments > Match colour.

Swizzle

Photoshop 6 doesn't have Match Color.

Using Hue and Saturation in conjunction with levels/curves and brightness/contrast adjustments should do the trick.

Calabi

What high pass filter? I think I remember a method where you use that to even the tones out.

r_fletch_r

Select the area to match.
Use levels, and go through the channels one by one matching their black point, gamma and white point.

the real solution though is to colour grade your source images before you start texturing. it only takes a few minutes and you dont have to worry about it again.

heres a quick take on it. (literally 1 minutes work)

poopinmymouth

Make a gradient from colors you pick off the skin tone you want, more levels from light to dark the better, then use a gradient map adjustment layer to colorize the bottom layer. http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/gradient_map.htm

zoombapup

Thanks for the tips all.

R_fletch_r thats pretty cool, so I'm not quite understanding black point etc? care to explain a bit more, or pass along a URL to read about it? I'll do some digging in the meantime. I agree about colour grading though. It didnt occur to me until I saw the legs being so much browner than the back (it looks like that from the photo ref, so I guess the guy liked to tan his legs or something).

Poop. Gradient map adjustment layer. Check.. will have a look.

Thanks again all.

r_fletch_r

zoombapup wrote: »

Thanks for the tips all.

R_fletch_r thats pretty cool, so I'm not quite understanding black point etc? care to explain a bit more, or pass along a URL to read about it? I'll do some digging in the meantime. I agree about colour grading though. It didnt occur to me until I saw the legs being so much browner than the back (it looks like that from the photo ref, so I guess the guy liked to tan his legs or something).

Poop. Gradient map adjustment layer. Check.. will have a look.

Thanks again all.

firstly sorry for the edit, I've just been made a moderator and I keep pressing Edit rather than Quote, the dialog is exactly the same and I dont notice I've hit the wrong key.


Now for the link
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1276351&seqNum=4

the tutorial is for after effects but it covers using levels to match colours which is 100% transferable to photoshop