Playing with Cycles in Blender 4.2

[Ricardo2020]

I have been learning how Blender 4.2 works, both as a modelling engine for MakeHuman as well as making scenery for the models to be placed within.

One thing I am wanting to do is give a model a task within a scene and then render it with complete realism.

First things first. Create the model, then create the scene.

The model I already have. The scene I do not.

As one who does these things already knows, a scene is simply a collection of objects, including the model. The scene I am working on has a piano being played by a woman. I have both the woman and the piano, but they have not been placed in a scene yet.

I figured I should first have a look at the piano, an upright grand built by Yamaha. This is a very nice glossy black full size studio piano. To have a gander, I loaded it up and positioned the camera off to the left side and shot across the keyboard from a low angle slightly below the keys. This way, I could have a look at that beautidful black finish. I then told Blender to Cycle render. After six minutes of chugging, this is what I got:

Yamaha Upright Grand Piano rendered in Cycles

If you look close, the sheet music can almost be read! Now all I have to do is build a scene for the piano (a nice music room in a quaint English cottage, perhaps) and then get my model to take the bench for a concerto. That would be none other than my female_003, since she really likes traditional big band jazz and can play the dickens out of a keyboard, any keyboard (piano, organ, synth, etc.).

I need to give that model a name.

[Ricardo2020]

I really like the Cycles rendering engine in Blender 4.2, although I know so little about it that I am certain that all of its powerful features are not being leveraged in my humble works of art. That being said, the results I am seeing are nothing short of breathtaking compared to the earlier posted art I was making by other means. And so, I share more pictures of female_003 using the Cycles engine. The image below was rendered in around five and a half minutes.

Cycles render of female_003 in tied up bikini

The pose and the bikini were made by Elvaerwyn, who also made much of what you see in the model possible with the hard work she put into the targeting inside MPFB2. I really like that bikini. It turns my BBW swimsuit model into a Sports Illustrated Magazine diva.

Head and shoulders Cycles render

The render above was made in a little over ten minutes. As one moves in close, the rendering time increases dramatically. The camera was dollied in and elevated down so I could pan up and shoot from below in order to see her lovely wattle jawl and full bosom. She was not camera shy at all during the shoot, and managed a perfect straight face for the lens.

I am gobsmacked by the detail in the bikini and the texture of her skin. However, I am mostly underwhelmed by the hair, which is one of my favourite MakeHuman Community styles. I must learn how to rework this hair to arrive at the realism I see in the rest of the model. There is also a spot where the strings of the bikini do not lay over the skin around her clavicle. Still, you can get a good idea of what she would look like if you met up with her in real life. Once I get expressions into the mix, you will get to see her happy face.

Back in the days when I was working with a MakeHuman model named Shelly Blake, I remember that she looked much like this model you see here. Shelly was a wee tad thinner and younger, but she had the same features, including a round face and very long straight and shiny hair. Perhaps this is Shelly after some years have gone by. I am not sure, since Shelly was from the future in the days when Mars was colonized and folks could travel there from Earth and take up residence.

[Ricardo2020]

Working with female_003 within the Cycles rendering engine, I decided to play around with my single light and take my model out of the shadows. I moved the light in much closer, but not so close as to make it excessively bloom. I did not want to wash her out in a glare, since her skin has a fair tone.

And so, I told Blender to do another Cycles render and waited as my machine churned and grunted while powering through to get the shot you see below, which took about five minutes. This lull in the action gave me time to prowl this forum looking for new topics and banning spammers and those dreadful AI bots...

Bright lights in Cycles on female_003

Below is a screenshot depicting the workspace where the shoot took place in MPFBv2 running on Blender v4.2 which shows some settings in the right hand column pertaining to the long hair. No matter how I set them, the hair remained rather low res. I need to figure out exactly how to fix this.

Workspace Screenshot on Spanky

Anyone have any clues? Is there a person here who already knows how to rework this hair while keeping the overall style? If I do it, much time could pass since this kind of blending is well beyond my current skill level.

I am thanking you in advance, whomever you turn out to be...

[Ricardo2020]

I think I might be onto something. Have a gander at the screenshot below:

Screenshot of Blender settings on Spanky

Now have a peek at the Cycles result:

Closup of female_003 in Cycles

The hair looks much better. We still have more to do on it, but we are getting there!

[Ricardo2020]

After playing around with the hair settings, I rendered a couple more close up images of female_003 to see how the light would act of I moved it in close and placed it so that it rim lit her lovely face. The first one is a head and shoulders portrait with the lens stopped down to get a lot of DOF.

Head and Shoulders with mild rim light

The second one has the camera dollied in close as she bows her head a bit, perhaps in a deep state of thought about the results of this shoot. With the increased hair settings, things look much better in the image.

Close up with mild rim light

Now to get her to smile, and that might take a while since expressions have yet to be added to MPFB. I am really looking forward to that most essential upgrade...