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I don't seem to have the patiece for writing detailled tutorials in my spare time. I prefer to make pictures.
After about three months of steady progress trying to post-process Bryce renders of Poser skin and hair in Photoshop I discovered Lyne's fur method. It differs from my hair method only in one point, really. So I'll skip the details, concentrate on the difference and publish it as a supplement to Lyne's Poser texture map into Bryce bump into Photoshop fur tutorial. I recommend you should read hers first. She explains things in greater depth. It will help you to understand this page.
Quick overview of my hair method
(a supplement to Lyne Masamitsu's fur method)
I did this in Photoshop 5. Photoshop 3 and some other image editing programs work as well.
I render the scene with Poser's default hair.
Then I render a mask for the hair.
In Photoshop, I load the mask as a selection into the picture and save the selection in Alpha Channel 1.
Then I copy the hair using this selection, create a new channel (Alpha 2) and (with the selection still active) choose Paste Into from the Edit Menu. At this point I might change contrast, brightness, apply effects, or even paint extra detail in Alpha 2 for different hair textures after brushing.
With the selection still active I create a new layer (Layer 1) and fill the selection on Layer 1 with the desired base colour for the hair
Next I set the layer blending mode to Multiply with Opacity at 100% and merge the two layers
Then, if it is not still active, I load the selection in Alpha 1, copy the hair and choose Paste Into from the Edit Menu to create a new Layer (Layer 1, again) with only the hair. In Photoshop 3 you'll have to explicitly choose Make Layer after Paste Into.
I disable the Layer Mask and ensure that Preserve Transparency is not selected. The picture shows Layer 1 with the background hidden.
Working on Layer 1, I load the selection in Alpha 1, choose the Lighting Effects Filter under Render in the Filter Menu, set Alpha 2 as a texture channel and check "white is high". The direction of the light should match that of the Bryce Render. Experimenting with the rest of the settings I can make up different looks of hair after brushing.
With the Material settig leaning towards Metallic I get the basis for a nice "freshly shampood and conditioned" look:
Then I de-select and start brushing. I use the Smudge Tool with these brushes at between 20% and 50% Opacity:
Setting the smudge tool occasionally to "Finger Painting" I am trying to create streaks of colour. In this picture there are two very faint red streaks:
The skin is another story - that's why I have the hair on an extrta layer. I have seperate masks for most of the skin (minus eyes and lips), the surrounds of the eyes, and the nose. Tools to use are the Median Filter (under "Noise"), Gaussian Blur and the Blur Tool. Masks for facial details need to be feathered. The image below still needs a bit of work to fix the jagged shadows.
Having masks for everything and keeping intermediate layered stages allows me to experiment with composites, with plenty of scope using the layer blend options for all kinds of unusual effects. Have a look at Phony Hitch-Hiker
Eyebrows are next.
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