31/07/2024 Heya, just letting you guys know that Blender's 4.2 update has changed a number of settings and broken a few of the shaders on start up. If you are comfortable using the shader editor its not to hard to fix them yourself, but if you're not I recommend using the toolbox on the 4.0 or 4.1 versions of Blender. (remember that you can have multiple versions of Blender installed at once)
I will include a fix for this in the next update.
17/08/2024: I have included a version for Blender 4.2 that fixes the issues I mentioned. There is no need to download it if you do not use Blender 4.2.
OK, so loading textures is generally OK, so far so good, I can see clearly I'm loading the correct maps for a correct character... But then, how do I handle color for a githyanki and their spots? I see there is a "Gith spots" item in the shader settings but I don't understand how to use it (and I think I'm missing the spot map, as I can't see them in the basic four map files [CLEA, HMVY, NM, MSK]). So... How do I handle the toad-colored spotted gith with this great tool? :)
You need to make sure that your texture maps are set to non-colour (unless otherwise specified). To change a skin colour from the defualt preset to another provided preset, look for the node group plunged into the skin shader labelled "skin colour", then at the bottom of that node click the checkered circle icon to open a drop down menu to show a list of all available node groups inside the file, select any node group with "skin:" in its name to change to that preset.
For Blender 3.6 I had similar issue, however it wasn't the non-colour fix. I had to remove the MSK and MSKA/MSKA Alpha. As show on the BSDF shader. Character on the right is the fixed and the character on the left is the one with the issue.
Awesome Toolbox.
Edit: Don't remove the MSK and MSKA/MSKA Alpha. On skin_shared_shading_MSKA texture image, set it to sphere instead of flat. There will still be a slight imperfection mesh, but hardly noticeable. But if you don't want any color issues use above method.
Thanks to Volno for clarify that the shaders were made for blender 4.0.
you are using an older version of blender, changes to the BSDF shader where made in version 4.0 which I believe is the cause of the issue with subsurface scattering you have pictured. Please upgrade your version of Blender to the latest version. Additionally, there is separate MSK/MSKA map for bodies that you will need use instead. (the one included in the toolbox is specific to heads).
I do have 4.0 but because of some add-ons I can't use it. If they ever update them I'll switch over. But at least for now I can still work with your toolkit. I did figure out a slightly better way. On skin MSKA I set it to sphere instead of flat, there is still issue on the left hand but only minor, hardly noticeable.
Never mind me, I just realized I was following your guide but not by your blend file, and I just discovered padme video.
But anyway thank you for your hard work, I see this has been great help for new modders, hopefully I managed to use it, since I'm very veeeery new in anything 3d
Hello! I'm not sure if I'm just doing something wrong or what, but when I'm working on equipment mashup stuff I usually copy the Tintable Armor material into a new material for different parts; this can make it difficult to keep the same dye colors across materials though because if I change the colors in one material, I have to manually copy the colors to all the other materials. I assume that its possible to edit the nodes so that multiple materials can all use the same color palette, but I'm not sure exactly how to go about doing that.
edit: I didnt know there was a blender 4.2 update. and i managed to kinda adjust the color. but i cant get it as dark as a regular brown eye...
in a future patch or update, would you be willing to add brown eyes to the eye options?
personally, i try to make some heads for asian ethnicities, specifically the ethnicity which i am, and its just a little difficult to not have the eye color option that the majority of my people have.
unless there is a way for me to do it, and I dont know how?
i think i figured it out. kinda. (fingers crossed)
it seems a little easier compared to the old version i had of yours or blender, (unless i didnt even look properly before lol) and i managed to get it darker, but the streaks in the iris remain a bit light when i drag it down to darker. I THINK i'm getting it though.
follow up question: in order to get a skin tone in between the shades you offered, it is the same general method like with the eyes? or is there an obvious tip? ive only played with it for an hour or so before bed, so the only way i can darken/lighten skin tone is just by using the warm tone you supplied and detaching one of the nodes and playing with the numbers right in the nodes area.
thanks for making this. it is really helpful, I'm sure the more i play with it, the more sense it will all make. Your first version really helped me learn so much.
I havent looked yet, but are you able to tell me if there is a body option in the new version? Like when i opened the old version the body is just there, but obvs the new vers has astarions jacket, but my people are bodyless lol (i'm sure if i ever move into armor modding, i will benefit from this)
Yay armor shader! I was using another one that worked pretty well, but the color system was confusing- it was more based on the RGB/CCMY scheme and it was hard to tell which slider applied to the colors on the cloth mask. How do the velvet settings work? They look amazing, Say I plug in Larian's texture maps and increase the velvet effect- can ?I export those same maps with the increased velvet effects? ( I have Substance Painter because textures in Blender still befuddle me lol.)
hey thanks, I'm glad you like them! The velvet uses the alpha channel of a PM/PMA map as its input, it will disable itself if you don't have anything plugged into the PM alpha socket.(look to Astarion's shirt PM map for a reference of what this channel should look like) The settings for the velvet in the toolbox are very different from the ones in game (some things just don't translate across). All the settings in the 'Velvet' panel are actually all just tied to a HSV (Hue/Saturation/Vaule) node that controls the colour of the effect. I'm not sure if you can increase the effect in game via texture maps, but I think you could increase it via altering the parameters in the toolkit. Similarly, if you wanted to play with the effect more in blender, you can pop open the node group and mess around with the values in the 'layer weight' an 'map range' nodes inside.
yes! you just need to bake the output of the shader itself to an image rather than the individual maps. You also won't need to mess around in the compiler if you do this.
151 comments
31/07/2024 Heya, just letting you guys know that Blender's 4.2 update has changed a number of settings and broken a few of the shaders on start up. If you are comfortable using the shader editor its not to hard to fix them yourself, but if you're not I recommend using the toolbox on the 4.0 or 4.1 versions of Blender. (remember that you can have multiple versions of Blender installed at once)
17/08/2024: I have included a version for Blender 4.2 that fixes the issues I mentioned. There is no need to download it if you do not use Blender 4.2.I will include a fix for this in the next update.
So... How do I handle the toad-colored spotted gith with this great tool? :)
I had similar issue, however it wasn't the non-colour fix. I had to remove the MSK and MSKA/MSKA Alpha. As show on the BSDF shader. Character on the right is the fixed and the character on the left is the one with the issue.
Awesome Toolbox.
Edit: Don't remove the MSK and MSKA/MSKA Alpha. On skin_shared_shading_MSKA texture image, set it to sphere instead of flat. There will still be a slight imperfection mesh, but hardly noticeable. But if you don't want any color issues use above method.
Thanks to Volno for clarify that the shaders were made for blender 4.0.
I am glad that you are enjoying the toolbox!
I do have the same problem.... all textures are .png and setted to "non-colour" T.T
But anyway thank you for your hard work, I see this has been great help for new modders, hopefully I managed to use it, since I'm very veeeery new in anything 3d
I assume that its possible to edit the nodes so that multiple materials can all use the same color palette, but I'm not sure exactly how to go about doing that.
in a future patch or update, would you be willing to add brown eyes to the eye options?
personally, i try to make some heads for asian ethnicities, specifically the ethnicity which i am, and its just a little difficult to not have the eye color option that the majority of my people have.
unless there is a way for me to do it, and I dont know how?
kinda. (fingers crossed)
it seems a little easier compared to the old version i had of yours or blender, (unless i didnt even look properly before lol) and i managed to get it darker, but the streaks in the iris remain a bit light when i drag it down to darker. I THINK i'm getting it though.
follow up question: in order to get a skin tone in between the shades you offered, it is the same general method like with the eyes? or is there an obvious tip? ive only played with it for an hour or so before bed, so the only way i can darken/lighten skin tone is just by using the warm tone you supplied and detaching one of the nodes and playing with the numbers right in the nodes area.
thanks for making this. it is really helpful, I'm sure the more i play with it, the more sense it will all make. Your first version really helped me learn so much.
I havent looked yet, but are you able to tell me if there is a body option in the new version? Like when i opened the old version the body is just there, but obvs the new vers has astarions jacket, but my people are bodyless lol (i'm sure if i ever move into armor modding, i will benefit from this)
The velvet uses the alpha channel of a PM/PMA map as its input, it will disable itself if you don't have anything plugged into the PM alpha socket.(look to Astarion's shirt PM map for a reference of what this channel should look like)
The settings for the velvet in the toolbox are very different from the ones in game (some things just don't translate across). All the settings in the 'Velvet' panel are actually all just tied to a HSV (Hue/Saturation/Vaule) node that controls the colour of the effect. I'm not sure if you can increase the effect in game via texture maps, but I think you could increase it via altering the parameters in the toolkit.
Similarly, if you wanted to play with the effect more in blender, you can pop open the node group and mess around with the values in the 'layer weight' an 'map range' nodes inside.