Skin Shader study

#11

Hey Tjync.

I would suggest the following for you ambient occlusion pass… Set it to linear burn at 15%, create a copy of that layer, set it to multiply at 90%-95% or something… Now go to curves for the multiply layer, and for the R channel set the blackpoint to 128, and for the green channel the black point can be 64 so it get a nicer brownish tone… This way you dont end up with the “grey/black” shadows that usually is obvious with just a regular multiply. I atleast find it much better looking.

/Regards Peter K

#12

Peter,

Thanks for the suggestion. The grayish issue was bugging me as it doesn’t look right in an outdoor setting, but fine for indoors.

Cheers,

#13

Another update, higher-res version than the last ones.

Changes:

  • Followed Sniffet(Peter)'s suggestion
  • Created a better specular pass, really like the way messiah handles specularity, it usually is a b#tch in other apps to get it looking right.
  • Brought out the vein pass more.
  • Added freckles, subtle, but if you look around you will spot some.
  • Got rid of the over wet/waxiness look.
  • Slight PS glow.

I am pretty happy were this is going, need a texture map, some eye balls and teeth and we are almost in business.

Cheers,

#14

I used the St Peter’s probe HDRI map, but I think you could use any HDRI map and still get the same quality of “warmth” illumination. If I went with a sky, I would add a slight blue on the occulsion pass or create an ambient pass with a slight blue and multiple it with the occulsion pass. For the beach HDRI I would use it in my indirect illumination pass. If you know of a good beach HDRI map, I would like to try it out with this series of test.

Cheers,

#15

Looking Great!

#16

Getting close, Tony … getting real close… :slight_smile:

#17

http://debevec.org/Probes/

Go here to get your beach hdri map…

Julez out.

#18

Here is what I got from the beach hdri. It was abit overcast, so I raised the brightness a little bit.

Cheers,

#19

I thought I’d keep things tidy by posting my skin studies here with Tony’s. And it’s also a way of bumping up his very informative thread. Julian posted a Maya SSS shader here which prompted me to investigate the subject matter using Taron’s Basic Shader. This is the Butch character with a little more sweat applied, this is a straight render, no post work:

#20

Looks good! How many lights are in there?

#21

Hey David, the scene has one spot light and it was rendered with GI. :slight_smile:

#22

From what I have been able to play with the Basic Shader is better than the Maya plugin and is very robust for all kinds of SSS skin creations. You can also mix SSS effects by applying more than one Basic Shader to a Final Radiance node to get some very interesting skin effects like the creature Gary posted on the other post. For example one SSS can be used for the inner sub-dermal skin with Extend-Shade or whatever and another SSS is blended in for the outer dermal skin with Extend Color. You could also use weight spots to define areas like the ear with a SSS to get the redish-vein shading, freckling and so on. Doing SSS skin shading with messiah I have found compare to others, C4D, XSI and Maya far simplier, better and faster.

Cheers,

#23

One thing that the Basic shader doesn’t do, that the built-in native translucency does, is show light falloff within the object. The whole object is lit uniformly whether the light has fall off or not. I’ve brought that up to Taron’s attention. But, it can be faked to a certain degree using meta-effectors. See Julian’s tutorial. It would be great if messiah had weight maps to define areas of translucency as well.

#24

Gary,

Faking can be accomplished in post, but have you tried blending a translucency standard material with a Basic Shader+SSS custom shader material to see what would happen?

Cheers,

#25

chikega, where did you get that pic of my girl? :smiley:

#26

I dunno about that girl, she was with this guy ;). Just testing out variations of the above shader - this being the less fit, more sun-starved version of Butch.

#27

Nice pic Gary but i find Messiah lacking in the lighting bouncing inside look that it kinda need.
Its really hard to get that look, The translucency effect is powerful but it doesn’t play nice wih basic shader.

#28

We’ll have to hook up Julian and geek out a bit, err, I mean, brainstorm. :smiley:

#29

No problem but my main focus is figuring out how to get the light to bounce inside the body accurately

#30

Didn’t Taron mention he was out to hook up the translucency channel?

Here’s hoping…

At any rate, Chikega - that looks like a neat claymation style already. Me likes!
And I get that stuck-in-the-corner feel when you guys talk of getting together. Your last session bore the subsurface candle scene, right?
Last question: chikega, what render times do you have there with GI and I assume a decent AA level?