1) I've tried experimenting with ethnic diversity with my blob people.  I
found a web page where I could copy pigments from the actual range of
humanity.  I found that an actual skin color of someone from the desert
regions Middle East looked okay for representing a black; the use of actual
pigments from an African seemed ...well ...perhaps somehow disrespectful.
Is it a fear of offending in the same way that elements of a racist culture
revelled in ("Al Jolson" ), my own political correctness, who knows.

2) I note on the Disney Channel TV show, "The Proud Family", several of the
African American characters have a pigment tone lighter than I seem to have
remembered having myself as a child.

3) I was reading some old "Iron Man" comic books.  There was one character,
a female administrative assistant, that looked "completely wrong".   Only
until I saw her paired with the leading African American character did I
imagine they were trying to portray her as black and just tried a really odd
way to do it-- with ZipATone dots on a medium skin tone, whereas her love
interest was portrayed with "brown" ink .

4) "The Incredibles" by Pixar has a black character which appears to be done
well.  Suppose I should study this one.



Any tips on how to do this in raytracing? My guess is that cartoons expect
us to see white skin "ambiented out", whereas in real life black skin
generates interest from elements of the finish. (Really don't know how to
say this.)

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The Incredibles trailer is at:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/the_incredibles/large.html

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Wasn't it Greg M. Johnson who wrote:
>
>Any tips on how to do this in raytracing? My guess is that cartoons expect
>us to see white skin "ambiented out", whereas in real life black skin
>generates interest from elements of the finish. (Really don't know how to
>say this.)

You might be interested in the fact that version 4 of Poser contained a
series of ethnic "characters". This feature was dropped from Poser 5.
The different ethnic characters had facial morphs that changed things
like the roundness and flatness of the face, the prominence of the
brows, the fullness of the lips and the shape of the nose. The skin
colours were achieved by taking the same image map (which was quite
pink) and multiplying it by different colours, and changing the
highlight colours.

The main colour of the image map was <.94, .71, .62>.

The Default character multiplied the image map by a plain colour 
<.99, .88, .84> and had highlights coloured <.05, .05, .05>.

The "Carmen" character multiplied the same image map by the plain colour
<.55, .43, .37> and had highlights coloured <.16, .13, .10>.

[In POV, highlights are either the same hue as the light source or
filtered by the pigment (by specifying "metallic"), but in Poser the
highlights can be given a different colour.]

I reckon the nearest POV equivalents are something like:

Default:
  pigment {rgb <.93, .62, .52>}
  finish {phong 0.05 phong_size 7.1}

Carmen:
  pigment {rgb <.51, .30, .23>}
  finish {phong 0.28 metallic phong_size 7.1}


-- 
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure

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Thanks. I tried those textures and they seemed to work well.
Any gossip on why Poser dropped the ethnic characters?



"Mike Williams" <nos### [at] econymdemoncouk> wrote in message
news:nc4### [at] econymdemoncouk...
>
> You might be interested in the fact that version 4 of Poser contained a
> series of ethnic "characters". This feature was dropped from Poser 5.
> The different ethnic characters had facial morphs that changed things
> like the roundness and flatness of the face, the prominence of the
> brows, the fullness of the lips and the shape of the nose. The skin
> colours were achieved by taking the same image map (which was quite
> pink) and multiplying it by different colours, and changing the
> highlight colours.
>
> The main colour of the image map was <.94, .71, .62>.
>
> The Default character multiplied the image map by a plain colour
> <.99, .88, .84> and had highlights coloured <.05, .05, .05>.
>
> The "Carmen" character multiplied the same image map by the plain colour
> <.55, .43, .37> and had highlights coloured <.16, .13, .10>.
>
> [In POV, highlights are either the same hue as the light source or
> filtered by the pigment (by specifying "metallic"), but in Poser the
> highlights can be given a different colour.]
>
> I reckon the nearest POV equivalents are something like:
>
> Default:
>   pigment {rgb <.93, .62, .52>}
>   finish {phong 0.05 phong_size 7.1}
>
> Carmen:
>   pigment {rgb <.51, .30, .23>}
>   finish {phong 0.28 metallic phong_size 7.1}
>
>
> -- 
> Mike Williams
> Gentleman of Leisure

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In article <40aad1c4$1@news.povray.org>, "Greg M. Johnson" <gregj;-
)565### [at] aolcom> says...
> Thanks. I tried those textures and they seemed to work well.
> Any gossip on why Poser dropped the ethnic characters?
> 
Reverse discrimination and the existence of a small number of people that 
still insist they are repressed? Just a guess of course, but something I 
read recently suggests that we have traded racial prejudice for a much 
more powerful fear that any tiny little mistake we make could be racist, 
even when it is a) unintended, b) meant it jest or c) used by the same 
skinned communities current generation as a sign of affection. Think 
Jackie Chan's line in Rush Hour, "What's up my niger!", when it gets him 
attacked, but was OK for his partner.

Basically someone probably complained, so rather than buck the trend and 
telling the complainers to shut up and stop spreading fear and reverse 
prejudice, then just buckled like everyone else. I'll bet on it. Give it 
another 50 years of the new generations of people bucking the trend the 
kids of that time will wonder what the heck the problem even was. 
Assuming the fear and paranoia doesn't cause the current generations to 
explode first.

-- 
void main () {

    call functional_code()
  else
    call crash_windows();
}

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Actually, it's quite the opposite.  Poser 5 includes an entire face 
studio where there are four racial type morphs that you can apply to the 
face texture and the head mesh (I think).  So not only can you create an 
African looking person, but you can create a person of mixed African, 
Asian, European, and Indian descent with little trouble.

Why bother including separate models when you can have a single basic 
model with racial traits as morphs?

-peter

> Basically someone probably complained, so rather than buck the trend and 
> telling the complainers to shut up and stop spreading fear and reverse 
> prejudice, then just buckled like everyone else. I'll bet on it. Give it 
> another 50 years of the new generations of people bucking the trend the 
> kids of that time will wonder what the heck the problem even was. 
> Assuming the fear and paranoia doesn't cause the current generations to 
> explode first.
>

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Wasn't it Peter Duthie who wrote:
>Actually, it's quite the opposite.  Poser 5 includes an entire face 
>studio where there are four racial type morphs that you can apply to the 
>face texture and the head mesh (I think).  So not only can you create an 
>African looking person, but you can create a person of mixed African, 
>Asian, European, and Indian descent with little trouble.

Those Face Room features change the shape of the head, but not the
colour. If you want to create someone who isn't pink in Poser 5 you have
to go into the Materials Room and alter the colour and highlight of at
least six materials (Head, Body, Lips, Nostrils, Nipples, Lachrymal,
Fingernails, Toenails) and may need to alter the hair and eye colours
too

-- 
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure

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