What is the best way to fix a paintings Topology?

Ive been having problems with my painting topology creating these shiny areas around the mouth. Anybody know the best way to even out the topology here?

[Taron]

Various ways to deal with that, but the best may be Levels: [CTRL] + [L]
On the right side of the levels GUI are the channels: LUM, R, G, B, MAT. The last channel, MAT, is material.

• Click on it and adjust the histogram of it.

• You will see 5 vertical lines or bars. 1= lowest level, 2= bias between lowest and mid, 3= mid, 4= bias between mid and highest, 5= highest.
I should interject that this will heavily depend on what you have on your canvas. If it is all filled, you can literally just move the highest bar down toward the lowest!!!
• If you have empty spaces on your canvas, the trick here is to push the center line all the way to the highest, then the second one also over to the highest. You will be able to observe how it changes the bumpiness.
• When you're ready, hit "Apply" and that should be that.

You can do all sorts of things with it, of course, like adjusting how much bumpiness you wish to keep, or offset it's profile, so to say.
Be sure to have the project saved first, though!

In the back of my head I'm wondering, if I have Levels in the release version, but I think, I do?!

I thought, I may have somewhere more about Levels in Verve, but it was also "just a proof of concept". They work differently than in Photoshop. In Photoshop you would basically use those bars to offset how the image is being read, represented by the histogram behind them. In Verve you actually move the image values directly. It felt more intuitive to me and allows for some different kind of manipulations. It certainly will feel weird to someone, who is used to Photoshop style levels.

Various ways to deal with that, but the best may be Levels: [CTRL] + [L]
On the right side of the levels GUI are the channels: LUM, R, G, B, MAT. The last channel, MAT, is material.

• Click on it and adjust the histogram of it.

• You will see 5 vertical lines or bars. 1= lowest level, 2= bias between lowest and mid, 3= mid, 4= bias between mid and highest, 5= highest.
I should interject that this will heavily depend on what you have on your canvas. If it is all filled, you can literally just move the highest bar down toward the lowest!!!
• If you have empty spaces on your canvas, the trick here is to push the center line all the way to the highest, then the second one also over to the highest. You will be able to observe how it changes the bumpiness.
• When you're ready, hit "Apply" and that should be that.

You can do all sorts of things with it, of course, like adjusting how much bumpiness you wish to keep, or offset it's profile, so to say.
Be sure to have the project saved first, though!

In the back of my head I'm wondering, if I have Levels in the release version, but I think, I do?!

I thought, I may have somewhere more about Levels in Verve, but it was also "just a proof of concept". They work differently than in Photoshop. In Photoshop you would basically use those bars to offset how the image is being read, represented by the histogram behind them. In Verve you actually move the image values directly. It felt more intuitive to me and allows for some different kind of manipulations. It certainly will feel weird to someone, who is used to Photoshop style levels.

Thanks for the feedback. I will certainly be using this tool in the future I am curious though if theres a brush Thats good for flattening topology. As I like the painterly effect that it produces in some areas. I mainly just wanna buff out the area around the mouth. If not then Ill go for the advice you gave original.

[Taron]

With great, great care, you may switch paint modes [m] to toggle to ABSOLUTE " = ". It has 3 modes ACCUMULATE " > ", ADDITIVE " + " and ABSOLUTE " = ". If you hit [m] it will toggle through them in that order. You see the symbol in the lower right brush GUI mock-up (yes, just a mock-up, really). By default it shows " > ", ACCUMULATE. This will continue to add more material on the canvas whenever you paint.
If you switch to ABSOLUTE, it actually paints exactly at the level of "BUILD UP" you were choosing. It allows you to control the exact amount of paint material that will go on the canvas. It will replace whatever was there before by that amount.
If you then, for example, have BUILD UP at 50% (default value), this would be the first amount of material to fully cover the canvas (with the canvas texture still showing). Paint with it in ABSOLUTE mode and you will bring larger amounts of material back down. BUILD UP at 100% will even cover the canvas texture, which is something you may want.

Problem is, you will still paint with your chosen color. Thus you will have to be careful. But it works. For extra care you may take down fluidity to 0%.