Fixing Specular Lights for Eyes

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RadiantEld's avatar
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The specular light map help to create highlights on models. It is a black and white image, where white parts will receive a stronger illumination from light sources. For eyes, whose material is like that of porcelain, a light source's reflection should appear as a strong white spot. These bright spots are called catch lights. The eyes catch the light so to speak. It is what brings life to eyes and make them sparkle. As you might have noticed, eyes may catch several bright spots, coming either from multiple light sources, or from one light source that is reflected into the eyes from multiple sources. 

The typical specular light map for the eyes of doa models look like this:

Specmap by RadiantEld

  • There are several white spots in it. When one light source hits the eye it will brighten a couple of those spots. Artificially, it mimics the effect of several light sources hitting the eye.
  • The same specular light map is used for both left and right eye. Unfortunately, it appears to be mirrored horizontally for one of the eyes. This is bad, because when the white spots appear at mirrored locations, the left and right eyes will receive different and uneven catch lights.

Examples of uneven catch lights.


Spec1 by RadiantEld

Spec2 by RadiantEld



The solution
  • Make sure the specular light map is textured on both eyes with no mirroring going on.
  • Or make the specular light map perfectly symmetrical. Mirroring have no effect on a symmetrical image.

Unfortunately I don't know how to test the first solution, but here is an example of a symmetrical specular light map.

Spec4 by RadiantEld
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Comments6
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JBMartian's avatar
I can't seem to find the specular light. Where can I find it?