[Toward a more life-like SSS]

First look at "Stan" with SSS

Another Steve Shelton model.

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

This version has almost no shading of the wrinkle in the color pass. The shape of the wrinkle is suggested by the specular pass.

 

 

 

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

I've used OpenEXR quite a bit and gotten good results. It's the only way to not have the stair-stepping on large displacements. The down side is there aren't many paint tools for it. Most of my OpenEXR maps are renders of spline models.

 

New attempt. I made the wrinkles extra huge. If the light catches them just right they look like a shape but otherwise they look like a gray line.

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

Wider wrinkle still not right...

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

If I craft a displacement map for a wrinkle line it has an unappealing grayness to it on an SSS surface

 

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

I don't think Displacement maps work right in SSS.

When this rectangular map is applied to a surface it seems that the 50% gray is being interpreted as negative displacement instead of zero. Ouch!

Edit: this appears to be problem even without SSS

Edit edit: It's a problem with PNG! If that decal is saved as a JPG the 50% displacement works correctly. Must be something to do with the weird way PNG makes its alpha channel.

 

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

Here are some frames from a spin-around of the light...

I put a gradient on the specularity so it is stronger on edge than flat.

 

 

 

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

Quote

Indeed, setting the SSS properties on a material is not designed to work and will be disabled in future releases.

That was the problem, David, thanks!

After transferring my SSS settings to a regular group I was able to render in v15.

render times...

v15  177 secs

v19   39 secs

That is a substantial speedup. Thank you, Steffen Gross! (@yoda64 )

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

When I try rendering this working PRJ in v15 or v16 to compare render times I just get black for SSS.

Any idea what's up with that?

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

However, here is the same SSS settings but with a much wider light.

 

Either the softer light or the lack of sharper specularity has made it look maybe too gelatinous.

 

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

I think, for animation, you have to go bigger rather than smaller for the SSS to register. When I look at commercial movie characters they are usually making sure you see it.

Something I wonder is, why do the small SSS setting take longer to render than the big ones? That makes no sense.

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

A few more Loyd experiments...

 

 

 

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

19 hours ago, itsjustme said:

I'll have to do more testing, but here is a composite of two of the images I rendered.

It's still a bit dry. Can you make it warmer?

I like those eyebrows. Is that standard hair?

[Can't Unhide]

It is possible to hide multiple objects by selected them and changing that icon to hidden. Possibly you did that by accident.

Objects hidden that way will ignore the H key.

[Can't Unhide]

Can you post a screenshot?

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

A few more variations...

 

 

 

[Toward a more life-like SSS]

A few experiments toward getting a nice human Sub Surface Scattering result.

"Loyd" model by Steve Shelton.

 

Default surface (no SSS) render...

Sub Surface Scattering renders. Pink and less pink...

I've turned on some Surface "noise" to suggest the pores in the skin.

SSS with Ambient Occlusion...

 

Separate AO render...

 

Curve-Adjusted AO...

 

SSS render composited with adjusted AO...

 

Separate specular render...

 

Composited SSS+ AO +Specular...

 

[WIP - Pennsylvania Station (sort of)]

Great models!

These would sing with radiosity!

[Zachary Brewster-Geisz sighting]

Now appearing as Duke of Cornwall in Boston Shakespeare Factory's original Shakespearean pronunciation production of King Lear...

[Any Tutes on Threads/Cloth texturing?]

Sorry to hear you've been sick!

I hope you are mending!

[bitcoins...what the heck]

China has banned cryptocurrency transactions and mining

https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/24/china-says-all-cryptocurrency-related-transactions-are-illegal/

 

More graphics cards for the rest of us, i guess!

 

[Any Tutes on Threads/Cloth texturing?]

How are the books? Do they seem useful?

[Soviet-era special effects]

 

Soviet film from c. 1940 explaining how a number of special effects are done with practical miniatures and big-atures and other clever stuff.

The narration is in Russian but you won't have trouble following the demonstrations and breakdowns.

A Google translation of the YouTube page says...
 

Quote

How were special effects created in cinema when there was no computer graphics at all? We bring to your attention the documentary film "Perspective Combination" (1940, dir. Renkov NS), in which, using the example of film fairy tales by Alexander Ptushko, tells about the technique of perspective combination and how combined filming in cinema was done in the first half of the 20th century ...

 

 

[Filter Forge textures]

Here's  a FilterForge "tweed" with some multiple-frames-on-one-frame noise added to the displacement map to make a fuzzier appearance...

 

[Noise animated]

A couple of experiments with animated noise.

 

This is A:M Perlin noise, animated by moving the noise material (set to be a displacement material) vertically through a plane.

 

This is noise made in After Effects and rendered out as an image sequence  to apply as a displacement decal on a  plane. I'm not sure what causes the white flecks.