Skin Rendering Tweet

[tonysculptor]

Hey all,

I'm a new user of Octane and I have been trying to figure out how to render a good quality skin. This is obviously a work in progress, but I think the skin is looking pretty good so far. Up until now, everything I have made seemed to look like plastic, but this seems to hold up pretty well.

[face_off]

Superb!

[xxdanbrowne]

Nice. What other maps are you using apart from diffue (if any)?

I take it you're using a mix material with diffuse and glossy nodes with scattering on the diffuse?

Edit: BTW you're not the pseudo famous (in the CG realm) SSS guy are you?

[tonysculptor]

Only diffuse plugged in to three specular materials. No glossy or diffuse. Those materials are what made it look like plastic. I will submit my macro version when I am done tweaking.
At first, I thought I would have to use a diffuse or glossy to make it opaque, but I found that if you make everything physically correct, from the modeling side as well as the absoprtion and scattering side, the specular materials work just fine.
And, yes I am the pseudo famous SSS guy. I did the Eat 3D portrait video and I have done a bunch of work in Mental Ray. I thought it was time to find another renderer to use.

[FooZe]

This looks a lot like Willem Dafoe

Thanks
Chris.

[xxdanbrowne]

Awesome: Welcome!

Octane is a superb renderer.

Most of the SSS skins on here seem to involve some kind of mix material with diffuse and glossy.

Three speculars sounds like a very different path than we've seen on here before.

I can't wait to see what an expert like you can come up with!

[tonysculptor]

I struggled with trying to use the classic diffuse layered approach to skin in Octane, but I have found that as in any renderer, you can get realistic results that way. even if you can getting it looking like skin from a distance, as soon as you zoom in it will always look like plastic. I tried the daz skin macro, and while it looks good from a distance it has the same problem. it looks like plastic up close.
So I decided to do what I ultimately did in Mental Ray, which is not to use diffuse materials at all. It is a three layered approach.

Layer 1, specular material, simulates the epidermis, high absorption(rgb), no scattering medium, color map goes into the transmission color, absorption scale is in the 5000 to 10000 range
Layer 2, specular material, simulates the dermis, low absorption(rgb), high scattering values(rgb), color map goes to transmission, scattering scale is the same as layer 1
Layer 3, specular material, simulates backscattering, same absorption and scattering coefficients as the dermis, color map goes to transmission, scattering scale is in the 200 to 500 range and the phase is set to a negative value

They are blended together with mix materials, the only thing to note is that the backscatter has a very small contribution to the overall material

I have read nearly ever skin paper available and have made some very informed decisions about all of my colors and values. I will post everything soon, along with the final skin macro.

Btw, this is a working model of Willem Dafoe circa his role as Green Goblin in Spiderman. The goal is to have it rigged and animated. Also, all sculpting and texturing have been done by hand, no photos other than to look at for refrence.

[gordonrobb]

Having done a lot of work on trying to get realistic skin myself, I'm very keen to see your materials. Particularly how you are mixing the different spec materials. Looks great by the way.

[Garrick]

Outstanding portrait!

I would like to see how you render his hair and eyes.
It seems to be a bit harder to get just right in new renders.
Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[Witpapier]

Very interesting approach. Ive been creating sss skins for the poser plugin since I got it. And ive been through many stages and effects. Surely gonna try this approach.