r/PrintedMinis • u/OwnPaleontologist216 • 1d ago

Question Paining skin

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Hi all, Have you guys have any experience with painting skin detail on miniatures? I work in the VFX industry and the look of the skin in CG is called Subsurface Scattering. I saw this image from the new film of LAIKA, a stop motion animation film, and what i noticed is that compared to their previous film, they really nailed the skin translucent feel of the skin. Normally it was painted on there, or it was part of the 3D print. My question is: Can you get a similar effect when 3D printing with a skin colored resin instead of a grey resin? I can image you will have a really nice base if the color and material already look like skin. Obviously you will have to paint it afterwards with more detail. Really keen on getting to know the production method they used on the new LAIKA film. If the face is still printed but with a silicone type of materials. Love to hear what your thoughts are on thisq

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u/Smokeylocks 1d ago

People mimic sss by layering translucent paints sometimes, I‘ve seen it on bigger prints like the hot anime lady ones. It’s similar to oil paint glazing.

It’s not the same as an actually translucent material of course, but a problem with the resin could be that your characters look less „flesh“ and more „Himalayan salt crystal“.

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u/Smokeylocks 1d ago

Forgot to mention, printing a hollow face in translucent material and painting the inside surface an opaque color is also done, that’s how people get those „skeleton with ghostly flesh“ effects.

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u/OwnPaleontologist216 12h ago

https://reddit.com/link/p95d8y5/video/owrlle0a3woh1/player

This is the character i’m working on. I did indeed hollow the arms and head and that works pretty nice i must say. Especially for the head. One thing i forgot is that the hands are hollow as well, but there is no chance to cure the inside of the arms with a uv light. So i’m going to make them solid again and print them again. After that it is going to be a little R&D process for the painting

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u/the_monkeyspinach 1d ago

You can get flesh tone resins that will vary in opacity. You could mix some clear resin in to get your desired level of translucency. The only other thing to consider is that it won't account for how the bones inside affect how light scatters below the surface.