So any fans of @kikovanitysimmer ‘s renders know that she adds a lot of extra detail to her sim’s skin. Her process has changed since then, but she still hosts her old tutorials on her discord!
We’ve been getting a lot of talk about how hard it can be to follow so I’m providing a text-based step by step tutorial!
Requirements
TheSims4Ripper
Blender 2.9+ (I’ll be using 4.0.0)
Any photo editing software (I’ll be using Ibis Paint) that has these features:
Multiple layers
Adding noise
Changing brightness/contrast and Hue/Saturation/Value
Inverting colours
Sims4studio (optional)
First things first:
You do not need to export a custom skin. Using the _diffuse.png you got from exporting your sim works just fine!
It’s preferable that you export your sim naked. Not a requirement, but makes it a lot easier. Here’s a video tutorial about dressing your sim in blender.
Onto the tutorial!
Displacement Map (Pores and the like)
Import your texture. Here, I’m using Kiegross’s Kiera Skin, edited for personal use.
2. Change the texture to black and white
3. Duplicate the layer
4. Edit the Brightness and Contrast to your liking
5. Add noise. Pictured here are my personal settings
6. Erase parts that realistically would not have a lot of pores, ex. Lips, hands and feet. Kiko suggests putting your eraser hardness or opacity lower as these areas still have texture to them.
7. Save picture as is! You can delete the noisy layer if you wish, but we will need the original black and white layer for everything else.
Specular and Roughness Map (Shine)
Creating a new layer is highly recommended so you can backtrack
Using the original layer, edit the brightness and contrast. Pictured here are my preferred settings
2. Take a black brush and colour in areas you don’t want to shine. Realistically, these are the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet and their respective nails. You may also want to take a white brush to the areas you do want to shine, like lips, chest or thighs.
3. Save as is!
Adding to Blender
First things first: Go into the Shading tab. Link your sim's materials using Ctrl+L to make it easier on yourself!
Add your new Displacement and Roughness Map to your material
2. Add a Displacement Node
3. Plug the Displacement Map's colour into the Height. Change the scale to whatever you like (I chose 0.0005)
4. Add two Color Ramp Nodes to your material
5. Plug the Spec + Roughness Map's colour into each Color Ramps' Fac
6. Plug one Color Ramp into the Roughness and another into the Specular/IQR (you may need to roll out the Specular tab to find it)
7. Drag tabs on the Color Ramp to change the strength of them. For the Roughness Color Ramp, you'll need to swap them around to have the desired effect.
And that's how you get the details! There are other ways to get the details, but for beginner renderers, you can start with this!
