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Difference Translucency and Refraction index

Ralf1958Ralf1958 Posts: 688
in The Commons

Hello, is there someone here that can explain (for dummies) the difference in between Translucency and Refraction index? Trying to create a lamp shade with a nice texture, but somehow it goes lost turning the inside light on.

Thanks for your help.

Comments

  • cjmarshcjmarsh Posts: 62

    I'm not completely sure since they both are about how much light goes into a surface, but I think that the difference is Translucency also emits light while the Refraction Index just governs how reflective or absorbitive a surface is. Like in a skin shader where the Translucency map is used to give a darker color under the skin in certain areas, whereas setting the IOR would be to do something like give a watery sheen to a material. I could be wrong but there's a good article here with an explanation of the various settings they have if you're interested.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 108,785

    Translucency is how much light can pass through the surface without being absorbed, refractive index is how it bends at the boundraries.

  • Ralf1958Ralf1958 Posts: 688

    Thank you guys. So... if I understand right, to make a lamp shade look real, should I use the translucency? And should I load the image map in the translucency channel as well? Probably yes, ha?

  • Peter WadePeter Wade Posts: 1,673

    What Richard says is correct. One thing I'd add to it is that tranlucency usually describes light that has been scattered, so a parallel beam of light is split into rays of light going in all directions.

    You might want to try using subsurface scattering. This is really a form of tranlucency.

     

  • cjmarshcjmarsh Posts: 62
    Richard Haseltine said:

    Translucency is how much light can pass through the surface without being absorbed, refractive index is how it bends at the boundraries.

    If refractive index is how it bends at the boundaries, does it relate in any direct way to light passing through a surface?

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,090

    There are two ways you could do a lampshade:

    Set translucency to .8 or .9. I'd try this first.

    Or set Refraction Weight .5, set 'share glossy inputs' to off, and set refractive roughness to, oh, .3 or something (IE: some light passes through the object, and it's blurred a bit)

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