If you're looking to add more realism to your DAZ Studio renders, you may have thought that an expensive external render engine or tediously long render times were the only way to get the results you want... Think Again! Macro Skin is a texture and shader combination for Genesis and Genesis 2 Female created with a single resolute purpose in mind - bring more realism to DAZ Studio, making it easier and faster to achieve than ever before (oh, and still make her pretty. I guess that's two things). In the spirit of innovation, Macro Skin puts high-end, industry leading proven techniques for improving realism in your hands with the click of a Material(s) preset, and unlocks the hidden power of DAZ Studio's 3Delight renderer.

Like no other product currently available for DAZ Studio, Macro Skin takes a thoroughly comprehensive and unique approach to eliminating the "giveaways" that exist in typical renders of the human form. As a result, Macro Skin looks great in any scene, but is particularly impressive when you zoom in for a portrait or even closer. Take a look at close up images for this product and you'll notice something very different - they're really close! Don't be shy, Go Full Screen. Zoom in. That's the power of Macro Skin!

Surprisingly; these skin shaders actually render faster than DAZ Studio default skin shaders - typically 40% faster in common lighting situations and up to ten times as fast before lights are added (see Speed Test popup image for an example). In addition, the techniques used in this product promote the need for less "tricks" and "tweaks", and better performance under varying light conditions. So it can save you even more time. Moreover, Macro Skin provides several custom surface specific features in each shader, some never before seen in DAZ Studio, which eliminate the sharp edges and other problems that make a 3d model look unreal.Note: All Promotional Images for this product are unretouched DAZ Studio 3Delight renders.

For those of you curious about how Macro Skin works, here are a few more details: To start with, Macro Skin texture maps were assembled using high resolution, full-body photo-reference from multiple angles just like Elite textures, with extra care given to capturing in scale detail for just about everywhere, including the scalp. Macro Skin adds to this by incorporating a super detailed set of photo/hand crafted/software modulated normal and bump maps with micro bumps(8K for torso and limbs, adding even smaller bumps on top of the ones you are used to seeing - just like real skin). Macro Skin uses these height maps to drive specular bump detail instead of "specular screening"(pore level detail specular contrast maps). This means that bump details vary more, based on lights and viewing angle, rather than contrast being "burned in".

But that's just the start. Each custom shader is build on the foundation of properly implemented linear workflow - shader based gamma correction, which enhances shadow, light and color interpretation to match what our eyes see in the real world. Note that if you have experienced a washed out look with gamma correction, it was incorrectly implemented! Learn more about gamma correction here: Approaching Realism and Gamma Correction Demystified. Additionally, these shaders automatically shut Gamma Correction off in shader if it is on in Render Settings, so you don't get GC happening twice. Having Gamma Correction control built into the shader means you can apply GC selectively, where as Gamma Correction in Render Settings applies to the whole scene. And with MacroSkin, all the heavy lifting (figuring out what parts of the shader get anti-gamma settings) is done for you.

To achieve it's dramatic render speed increases, Macro Skin accounts for Subsurface Scattering with Shadow Mix - A seamless blend of 3 diffuse channels which feeds the most significant contribution of the SSS effect into the shadowy part of diffuse just like scatter does, but without the overhead of complex ray and thickness calculations. Thickness and the overall strength of the effect are controlled with an SSS Strength Map. Both a mild and a strong SSS Backscatter Strength Map preset for the ears are provided. This effect also responds to lighting intensity and direction but is unaffected by scale. For those that prefer ray traced SSS, a Macro Skin SSS version of the shader is provided which lacks the speed improvement but similarly preserves diffuse detail and avoids the "waxy" look of other SSS based skin presets.