SSS Fast Skin Shader

[JeffPatton]

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=204200

[JeffPatton]

I've just figured out how to make the fast skin shaders work with a shellac material. However it appears the fast skin shaders won't work with the multi-subobject materials...nothing new there I know...but I have a reason for that now at least. The multi-subobject material does not have a MR connection roll out....So you can't use a MR lightmap with it (which is what I used to make the sss skin shader work with a shellac material).

I can explain the process further if anyone is interested, but it involves editing the subsurface.mi file and after doing so, it appears all of the skin shaders no longer work WITHOUT using a lightmap. So it changes the way you have to use all the skin shaders.

[ikephoto]

Hi Jeff, it'd be interesting to try Lightmaps on the fast sss... I'd like to hear more about it. Could you post a render to see some results? And about changing the way fast_sss would work after editing the mi file... maybe you could make a copy version of the file and then edit... and keep both? Dunno... :)

Thx, Ike.

[Jonas]

Thanks Jeff!

After reading that thread I put a completly black, shiny material with a bump map in the great "material to shader" node. I then connected that one to my Overall Specular Weight slot in my SSS material and now I can controll the bump effect on the specular to get that lovely oily skin effect! :)

/Jonas

[Jonas]

Jeff,
Just saw your post, I would definitely be interested of getting the Shellac to work with SSS!
That would be great!

/Jonas

[JeffPatton]

Ooook, here we go. Sorry for the big image, but I had to make sure all the details could be clearly seen.

First...Backup your subsurface.mi file before going any further! I can't stress this enough.

I removed almost all of the "hidden" tags from the subsurface.mi file. I left one or two things hidden because they serve no purpose outside the .mi file. Here's a link to my subsurface.mi file to save you the hassle:
Subsurface.mi file (http://www.jeffpatton.net/CG-post/subsurface.zip)

Now just replace your subsurface.mi file with the one above, and start 3dsmax7. Load a test scene or create one from scratch. Create a shellac material and add the fast skin SSS material as the base material, and whatever you want as the shellac mat. Here's a screen grab of the shellac mat I used and it shows placement of the lightmap files:
http://www.jeffpatton.net/CG-post/shellac-sss.jpg
And here's the shellac material render:
http://www.jeffpatton.net/CG-post/final.jpg

[JeffPatton]

I should also point out that more info on the lightmap & depthmap "shaders" can be found in the additional help section of 3dsmax. Just go to Help>additional help>standard mental ray shaders library. And do a search for lightmap or depthmap.

I only mention this because I'm not sure if I'm using this right, or what...I was just testing some ideas.

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