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SSS in 4.8 is a major bug; it is correct in 4.9 and was fixed by Nvidia.
I haven't forgotten about this - unfortunately it's not something I can just make a material shader file without images for...you'll need to put images where there were none and take images away where there were ;). I need to get all the visuals and info down and then I'll post the info with images...somewhere. Maybe ShareCG where I can zip them up and keep the images nice and large.
Laurie
Nope me neither.And I rather like the new diffuse layer in the Uber shader.
Yeah, that's a common rumor, but it's just that. If you follow the connections of Translucency Color and Transmitted Color in the Shader Mixer, they don't really come anywhere near. Translucency Color goes via "Translucency Color Map" brick into the "PBR Metallicity (or Specular) Base" brick, where it meets with Base Color, while Transmitted Color goes via "Transmitted Color Map" brick into the "Uber Add Volume" brick. That's where the "Base", already modified by Translucency Color, will get mixed up with transmission.
The thing on the Iray Uber that works as multiplicator is SSS Reflectance Tint, which is connected to the "Direct Scale" parameter on the "Base Color Map" brick, affecting Base Color. For the screenshots I disconnected any irrelevant parameters and removed irrelevant bricks for simplicity.
I was afraid to update to 4.9 because I heard horror tales about it, but I wanted the new features so I gave it a go. Ever since I use 4.9 it didnt crash once and I hadly ever shut down DS unless windows have to update. Iray is faster too. People are just afraid of DRM but you can disable it at first startup if you dont want it.
Let me put it this way.. When there is a new "shader" being sold every other month in the shop.. And everyone has their own shaders and still its near impossible to really make them look good... You know your program is lacking a very important aspect. Skin Mixing sliders that are specifically designed for skin...
I would love a saturation and contrast slider too. Some skins are so bland, while others are heavy and/or super saturated... Like how the diffuse color has a slider for for intenisty. Why no Saturation and contrast intensity sliders?... =[
I would have had a slider for that 5 years ago if I were a programmer for Daz3D
Looking forward to your settings!
http://www.sharecg.com/v/86100/gallery/21/DAZ-Studio/Iray-Skin-with-Backscatter-Tutorial
This is just an image with the settings on it that you can follow. You will have to set up each material zone...
The shader isn't even near perfect, but since there's much smarter heads than mine in this place, it might be a starting point. Do what ya want with it and have fun.
Laurie
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can't wait to play with these!
Snagged. Thanks so much Laurie!
Thanks for sharing. I see you have a diffuse map plugged into the Transmitted Color texture slot. I'd really wish DAZ would remove it, for that parameter doesn't work with texture maps, it has to be a color only.
Since DS 4.9.3.64 a map in there will be ignored, so it would work on the current Beta, but on the General Release 4.9.2.70 you'll effectively disable any transmission effect.
I think I forgot to mention you can use the settings on every surface that's "skin", including lips. For shiny lips, change the top coat to reflective instead of fresnel and adjust the roughness to about .22-.28 It's not something ya wanna put on fingernails tho.
Laurie
By all means, do what you think is best. We want nice skin, right? :D
Laurie
WOW thank you Laurie! Going to try it right now <3
Is this node indicated as a scalar in the MDL specs, or is it an issue with Iray Uber MDL definition? Recall a while back we were talking about putting maps into these slots for "texturing" volumes, and it didn't work. I think it even crashed Esemwy's Mac at one point. The MDL specs specify a scalar for a few of these nodes, and so, maps aren't supported.
As for a skin-specific MDL with rational names for the settings: I think we all want this. Iray Uber does a fine job as an all-purpose solution, but it is incredibly convoluted, and rightly so given all that it does. I imagine Daz doesn't want to reinvest in a skin-specific MDL shader, though I personally think people would line up to buy it. It would be a number one seller for a long, long time.
Laurie, add me to the list of those thanking you for your Iray shaders on ShareCG. You're one of the only artists there that I follow.
No Iray Uber issue, that's a genuine Iray "feature". Yeah, I remember the "texturing volumes" attempt.
We're not alone on this matter, a while ago I went looking if for 3ds Max or other PBR renderers a specific skin shader exists to farm some data from. But all I could find were some custom user-creationes, more less than more Physically Based. I just discovered that MEC4D is working on a skin-specific shader for a while...
Ohhh, I bet that will be awesome :).
Laurie
..I have the beta as I can run it concurrently with 4.8. Never installed the "stable" release of 4.9
On the render front, doesn't look like any improvement with the latest version of Iray with regards to CPU render times. Haven't tried rendering with SSS yet as I only have the base G3 and Josie 7 figures. (waiting on Skin Builder Pro 3)
...it would be really helpful if we had an Iray SSS utility like Age of Armour developed for 3DL with a number of basic presets that could be modified.
To me the shader mixer looks like a basket of tangled yarn.
Was able to make some use out of Lauries settings. I know geometry is geometry but for some reason Genesis base shaders do not translate to the Hivewire ones very well so had to tweak the settings a bit but pretty happy with my Bruna skin for Dawn at this point.
OK, it's a hot day today, I'm out the door to the local air conditioned cafe' to hang out. Not even 4 PM here and my apt is 90 degrees and climbing... No thanks! lol
Oh and a question to Laurie. Did you make this tutorial using the beta DS or an older DS? I notice that there are quite a few of the Surface bits that were not present in your PNG when scrolling down. And yes, I did have it set to Weighted from the Base Mixing drop down.
I came home. There was a Chinese celebration downtown and the cafe' had allot of very loud folks talking in other languages that got to me very quickly. So I'm home sitting in the heat but it's so nice and quiet. *sigh* I guess I'd rather be hot than cool when it comes to noise.
Thanks for the tip for lips. Now what would you suggest for the nails then?
Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but the "thin walled" parameter also changes the appearance of skin *dramatically* too...
It's the newest version of DS. I just hid the sliders that had no value in them so I could fit the whole stack on the image ;).
Laurie
Ah, OK. I thought perhaps the newest beta has some changes or something!
Hm, I guess you didn't understand what I meant. It's more about "what works" than "what I think is best".
I can understand what you want to achieve by plugging in the diffuse map there. I guess you belong to those few who know that a material's Transmitted Color is actually it's base color. And the easiest way to get that would be simply using the diffuse map. But even if DAZ equipped it with a texture map slot, the data the Transmitted Color parameter is transferring to the Iray renderer can't be taken from a texture, any texture.
What does happen when plugging a texture into the Transmitted Color texture map slot, even when a color would be defined (let's say RGB 205-144-110), is that the parameter value used will be its default (RGB 255-255-255) instead.
And having 0 or 255 in one of the Transmitted Color channels will effectively disable any distance-based change for this channel. For larger Transmitted Measurement Distances it will look too red, too green or too blue, and that does not change anymore even if the material's thickness changes. Light will shine right through an object like it would have been made out of a vacuum, 100% of the light entering the backside will be coming out at its front. In scenes with strong and bright backlights f.e. that will be more noticeable.
Your pictured tutorial suggests to use a texture in the Transmitted Color texture map slot, and those who doesn't follow the forums here won't get the knowledge why it would be better to avoid doing that.
I'd suggest taking Arnold's advice on this. He's been talking to Nvidia directly about this stuff ;)
I pulled the download until I can do more testing and fix what needs fixing...not sure when that will be. I don't have a lot of time to work on it.
Laurie
After going back and forth with different settings and removing the map from the translucency (which looked awful) and adding colors to the translucency and transmission (which look good depending on the color), I decided that the shader I'm gonna use will have a color map in the translucency whether wrong or right. And because I don't want to confuse anyone by showing them the wrong thing and because the shader needs to be adjusted for each and every character skin, I won't be putting my settings back up on ShareCG. But, while my shader may be technically wrong, it LOOKS a lot less wrong than most characters defaults (that is Lee 7's default shader in the back) ;). So, for me, it's all good. LOL
Laurie