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Modifying model texture color compensates Raycast color desaturation


I love Raycast but how do I compensate for the Raycast color desaturation? My model’s skin goes white when I use the Raycast effect. How can I bring color back into my model when I use the Raycast effect?

Modifying model texture color to
Compensate for Raycast color Desaturation

I am learning how to use the Raycast Effect.

Raycast takes your “ink and paint”-looking model and transforms it into an almost photographic image of a 3D object. I often experiment with my Crimrose model (CyberStep, Inc. )… and, when I subject her to Raycast, her already pale skin gets even lighter… she looks like a porcelain figure.

Today I experimented with the idea of modifying my model’s texture file images so as to compensate for that Raycast color desaturation… and had great success!

How do I use Raycast?

LearnMMD’s GloriaTheAnimator, GTA, for short, wrote an article to introduce us to the Raycast effect. I find that Raycast is a complicated effect with “more than one way to skin a cat”… so these are the steps I go through to invoke Raycast:

After doing all that…

My image was looking good… but, poor Crimrose, she had a deathly complexion… as I said: porcelain-like.

The more I tweaked the brightness and color of the many lights that illuminate my model and scene, the more it became clear that I didn’t want to distort ALL of my colors just to give my model tanned skin. I decided to re-color the model’s texture files to give her that tan.

Photoshop or GIMP those textures…

My Crimrose  is a simple model… she has one PNG image for her entire body and another image for her face colors.

I have the original image, above, and three tests that I made as I progressed from naked-white skin to nice, realistic color and shading.

I first started with the FACE.PNG… in the First test, I simply adjusted the midtone levels (Photoshop Control-L… GIMP Tools>Color Tools>Levels)… sliding things for a darker, more saturated look. … and… That wasn’t enough!… better color, yes… but still too light.

I next adjusted the levels a little darker and shifted the color to a more tanned-skin color… tried again… and found the skin looking good… but those strong red shadow areas were, indeed, glowing red on the model! … So, for the final adjustment, I desaturated just those glowing colors without shifting the open face colors, at all. … … Perfect!

Color shifts on the body, too!

You can see that Crimrose has pale skin… and the transition into Raycast turns it white … So, in that first test, I simply adjusted levels to make it darker, and then shifted the  over-all shade of the color to a more natural skin-tone. … The result in the First Test was still too pale. … So, I went overboard and REALLY darkened that body.png image… and in the Second Test, it looked great! … except that the bit of texture on her neck was glowing red… so, for the Final Test, I desaturated the color for that neck shadow. … Perfecto!

Aaahh… so nice!

CLICK to see the full size 845 x 480px image.

Keep the Faith!

So, what do you think? Does modifying your model so as to “look good” in Raycast count as Editing your model? … Not an issue with my Crimrose… I am allowed to edit as long as I credit… but in this instance, I do not think ANY model creator would mind that I altered her model so it can look its best in my animation.

I collected all the final files together and SAVED my model in its own folder as Crimrose-Raycast.

Have fun with Raycast and MikuMikuDance!

 


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