realistic skin w/ scanline or plugin render

[Clockwork]

I think you can push max's renderer quite far, but there are just some things it won't do. In order to reproduce a true skin look, it's a combination of correct texturing and lighting. You'll want to use a renderer that uses 'sub-surface scattering' . Try Brazil or V-Ray

[dubge]

hey clockwork thanks for the imput, ya that's what i was saying. i've seen brazil has some really good SSS. But for now I'm going to have to go with max's renderer due to the $$ for the plugins. anyone else have any thoughts sugestions?

[Grayson]

Ba! No need for any 3rd party render or plug-ins.

Check into the translucent shader. It a big fake but you get a lot of bang for the buck. Between that and a fall off map with a warmer color in the middle you can probably get some pretty nice results.

This is what I got when I was playing with the translucent shader.
http://grayson.cgworks.com/img_drop/test/translucent_big.jpg

[JayCMiller]

nice one Grayson "it's a disgusting blob", did you use the new translucent shader in max 5?

[dubge]

hey greyson pretty sweet. i'm going to try and figure something out with what max has. thanks man. looks great. what are you using for lights? i owuld guess it' just a couple of them.:)

[EricChadwick]

There's a great thread in the Texturing & Surfacing - General forum about skin shaders, worth a look.
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=63930

[dubge]

Hey posm i looked at that and found a lot of good info. But at the same time a lot of people were using lightwave and G2. and that kinda brings us back to the plugin renderer question. but don't get me wrong lots of good stuff in that thread. thanks man!:)

[EricChadwick]

Some people are using max in there.
I know it's a lot of pages to slog through.

Page 39 there are a couple.
One towards the bottom on page 37. Scanline only.

[Martijn Wijmer]

I found this a great tut by the master himself: Stahlberg
read it here. (http://www.androidblues.com/shadetut.html)

[dubge]

posm- wwooo thats nice. just what i'm lookin for. ya that thread is a monster. i'm going to see what i can get with those tips. thanks bro!

Martijn Wijmer-that guy is so great it makes me shiver. thanks

[gnarlycranium]

The problem with Stahlberg's tut is that it's for Maya. I only know how to translate a few portions of it, the rest is gobbledegook.

[Bluplet]

A decent skin shader of sorts with max's scanline renderer? To a certain extent, yeah. Here's an example of mine, using Neil Blevin's lifepod sphere and lighting setup as the unwilling victim.

http://members.optushome.com.au/blup/cgtalk/skinshader.jpg

[Protoplasma]

I`d also say that default scanline is able to achieve good results. to the gollum/hulk hint: i read that the hulkskin is made of about 100 layers. hard to imagine but it seems to be true. the layers are reserverd for several effects. there are some for dirt, others for wet-effects, others for dust. I guess that the skin setup is more important than the renderer u use.

[gnarlycranium]

Maybe, but you gotta have a render that is CAPABLE of handling what your different layers are supposed to do. For some of it, halfway real SSS has gotta be a must.

[TerryHan]

hi there,

bluplet, what method did you use to achieve that kind of effect? I have been reading up on sss for a while, and was wondering whether 3d max can achieve that kind of effect...

thanks!

[censored]

Brazil r/s has a dedicated skin shader.

[Bluplet]

Originally posted by han_terry
bluplet, what method did you use to achieve that kind of effect?

The shader itself is just a big fake, but it works well for the most part.

The basic idea is to construct a shader that has two specular highlights - one each for the upper and lower layers of skin. It also needs translucency affected by the presence of light and maybe some colour scatter with the same behaviour.

In max, this can be achieved using a mix of shellac and raytrace materials for example.

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