How to make tears?


https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic324977.aspx
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By Lamias - 7 Years Ago
Hey guys

Is there any way to make tears falling down the cheek of a character? 

Thanks!!
By Kelleytoons - 7 Years Ago
The thing that occurs to me first is to use an image.  IIRC (and I may not -- it *seems* to me there is such an overlay to use for tatts, but I could be thinking of something else) there are such overlays available in CC.  If so, and if you can use an animated map there, then you could just put that on the face.

I'll take a closer look at this to see what's possible.
By Kelleytoons - 7 Years Ago
Ah, there ARE face "decals" but you can't use animated maps (which would have made this easy).

At this point the only way I can see doing it is by using some particles -- I note there are some water drips for sale you might be able to position, or you might try doing it yourself (particles are tricky to get right, particularly running down a curved surface).

By wires - 7 Years Ago
A few years ago Wolfzone made a tutorial for creating tears in iClone, it should still work in later versions.

I'm not sure if it is what you have in mind, but take a kook anyway.

By Kelleytoons - 7 Years Ago
Well, that's what I was thinking originally, but it would have been much nicer if the decal could be used instead of doing the entire face (the decal could also be repositioned which would be an advantage if you wanted the tears to come out in a slightly different place).

Not sure why decals can't use animated textures -- seems like it would be easy to fix this in programming.
By Lamias - 7 Years Ago
Thanks for the responses guys!! They are exactly what I was searching for!!

I will try to test these ideas when I have some free time!!
By Lamias - 7 Years Ago
Update for future reference:

The tutorial posted here is really good, and achieves exactly what I aimed for. The problem is that, when you export the face textures with the tears as a video, and you import it in your diffuse map, the skin color changes (it is mentioned in the tutorial too). The mismatch is really visible and the only way to fix it is though color correction on a video editor, but it's too big a trouble. (Brightness and contrast within Iclone don't work because it's a video diffuse map)

Screenshot:
https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/9b042d82-ce09-4a0d-a5d2-a36d.bmp

So i went in old school:
I used two props from 3D blocks, two circles to be exact. I made some opacity maps to simulate the randomness of a tear (it's not a perfect circle) and i lowered the opacity and changed the color to match a bit with the skin of the character. Then it was a matter of positioning on the eye, and increasing opacity and specular and scaling with keyframes on the timeline.

This is the result after 10 mins of work, I am sure others can do better:
https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/e5395748-7063-416d-949b-c5f7.bmp

Thanks for the help, and I hope this thread will be of help to others!!

Edit: Don't forget to link the objects to the head
https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/338d9f6b-76f8-4e3b-8858-d867.gif
By Kelleytoons - 7 Years Ago
Not bad for 10 minutes.

I had been thinking of using a PopVideo but in essence the same idea (main difference is that with such a video you can create it in After Effects or somewhere else and get results much more professional).  In particular I was thinking about this tutorial on making rain (all done in AE with no outside FX):

http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2017/01/new-tutorial-realistic-rain-drop-fx/

Using just one of the rain drops and not doing as much randomness would result in a VERY nice tear that could then be used on any character.  I still might do this when I get the time (sigh -- so much software, so little time).
By Snarp Farkle - 7 Years Ago
This is really cool to learn, thanks KellyToons and Lamias for posting this!
By justaviking - 7 Years Ago
A very high-tech option would be to create a "Substance" material that varies from no-tear to tear.  Then you could keyframe that.  Very likely a bit too much work given some of the other options available and demonstrated in this thread already.
By mtakerkart - 7 Years Ago
@Lamias

You will be able to improve your "old" method with the upcoming morph creator  Iclone 7 tool. make a real tear mesh following the face.
Even in close up with refraction material Wink
By Lamias - 7 Years Ago
Yes, I have seen the videos and they look really promising!!!

Seriously, can't wait for the release!!! BigGrin

(sigh -- so much software, so little time).


Man, I couldn't agree more. I feel that not even 24 hours of Iclone each day are enough to satisfy me..!! It's a blessing and a curse Tongue