This image below shows messiah’s potential of being able to vary translucency via a gray-scale texture map. The texture map node was plugged into the Translucency parameter. A light source is situated behind this object with a dim spotlight in front.
You can see the simple gray-scale image map here. Some procedural noise was also added to add a little variety to the texture. You can see how this effect is used in “Jeepers Creepers 2”.
Unfortunately, when the light source from behind is turned off and the spotlight’s intensity in front is increased - the effect is inverted when it should not be visible - the object should appear opaque, rather, when lit from the front. I haven’t been able to resolve this issue just yet.
For Chikega - SSS
chikega
#32
ThomasHelzle
#33
Hey, your examples are fantastic! Now I know why my testing got me nowhere - I used lights that come from the side or from behind and above, but not from directly behind the mesh…
I mostly got the effect you mentioned, that dialing up translucency makes the object darker if it is lit from the front or side. While this may have some relation to reality (wet paper looks darker and is more translucent), it isn’t what I need in a renderer 99% of the time. And since the scattering in real skin or wax etc. dampens this behaviour a lot like you said, nature doesn’t show that as extreme as messiah.
I can’t always stick a lightbulb behind the ears of my characters - they will strongly protest against that kind of brain-overheating 
At least I now understand how it is meant to work - let’s hope that this is more controlable in the future, Lyle mentioned some time ago they will move the SSS-stuff to a seperate shader…
Thank you for your work and examples!
Thomas Helzle
chikega
#34
Thanks Thomas,
I’m looking forward to the next update as well and hear that Lyle and team are working hard on the renderer. Psssst … if you guys are listening messiah could use a few more procedurals … thanks.
ThomasHelzle
#35
What procedurals are you missing the most? Maybe I can activate my programing skills again…
Regards,
Thomas Helzle
chikega
#36
Ooooooh … where do I start. Well, some of my favorites are Crumpled, Cellular, Veins, Dented … but there are others that I’ve just begun to explore in C4d that are amazing like Cranal, Hama, Luka, Buya, Naki, Ober, etc…
My compliments to such a fine German company.
I’m hoping the tie-in to DarkTree becomes more robust over the next few months. It’s nice that DarkTree can be used with so many different apps.
lmilton
#37
Originally posted by chikega
[B]
The effectors seem to be surface based and not volumetric. So, the same result could probably be achieved with image maps - but it was interesting to play with. Now that I think about it, a grey scale image map could probably be used to vary the translucency or, in this case, the thickness parameter as in G2 tests:
[/B]
Great tests, Gary!
I notice that you’re using translucency attenuation to simulate the eye, but this is a surfaced-based trick and won’t hold up when the object is rotated (I know you’re aware of this). Have you tried placing a separate eye object (actual geometry) inside the fetus? It should prove to be more accurate.
BTW, MetaEffectors are volumetric. The WeightSpot shader (really an operator) is passed a spot from the renderer, and that spot just happens to be on the surface of the object. To the point, the renderer (or target shader node) isn’t sending a volume-based point, in this case.
Looking forward to the next tests;})
-lyle
ThomasHelzle
#38
chikega,
I started yesterday with some procedural noises, and I will look what I can come up with - it will take some time though.
Most of the Lightwave-ones are possible, but the C4D stuff with the funny names is just about the same but adapted to the C4D-material system that didn’t support real layered textures up until the latest version. Bhodi|Nut, the guy who did them, sold those as seperate plugin-shaders called “Smells like Almonds” until Maxon bought them… They tend to buy half of their stuff from others recently
The main problem with procedurals in messiah is currently the bump channel, that is acting completely weird. The texture is visible on every other channel, but as soon as you plug it into the bump channel, it’s gone and does nothing…
Daniel, the guy who did the Darktree shader, ran into the same problem and Lyle gave him a hack-solution that I will try to implement too, but it is very strange and seems to me to be the main cause that makes bumps from procedurals in messiah look weird…
So I tend to wait for the next patch…
Labuzz
#39
Cool Thomas!
I am a big fan of procedural textures too!
BTW ( Lyle )the it would be cool to use those textures to drive some deformation ( mesh displacement )that we can tweak in viewports ( basically procedural modeling ) .
tangledpath
#42
I don’t have anything useful, but I think we need a sticky “Render Settings” thread. This is good stuff!
chikega
#46
FB_turbine: Thanks for posting those - I like the second one better - has a more substantial feel to it even though it’s not as transparent.
penny1: Nice maggot:) Looks like you’re using the old Luminosity channel trick.
For those that are interested - a new discussion group has been created by Glen Miller. It deals with just the rendering side of messiah:Studio. So, if you’re interested:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MessiahRender/
chikega
#47
I decided to get back to basics by doing some real world observations on the SSS effect … essentially an ongoing exploration of simulating reality with various apps including messiah:studio …
jimpajammer
#50
Nice render of the candle, but the hand looks totally fake.
wow… this message system made clones of my post, and I didnt even hit “send”…