What is a shader?

Super cheese sandwich

What is a shader, Sub-Surface and a texture map? I'm looking for a dirty muddy skin effect for a G3F.

 

Thanks! 

mjc1016

A shader is a small program that extends the abilities of the renderer.  It is often used do specifically define the properties of the object being rendered. It can also define the light properties, volume or other properites.  In the Daz Studio community, it is often what a shader preset or material preset is called.

Subsurface Scattering is a property of surfaces like skin...they are not completely opaque but are too 'thick' to be translucent.  Some amount of light will pass into the material and bounce around before being relfected back out.  The SSS shader adds the needed algorithms to be able to render that effect. 

The texture map is the basic color map used for a surface, also, commonly, the diffuse color map...the image that is in the Diffuse color spot in the Surface tab for a particular surface.

Super cheese sandwich

Thanks mjc!