tebop opened this issue on May 12, 2007 · 170 posts
bagginsbill posted Fri, 08 June 2007 at 6:54 AM
Hi ice-boy.
That tutorial is not called "realistic", but rather "ultra basic" as in - this is the smallest possible number of nodes to get a reasonable implementation of skin that doesn't look plastic.
If you want realistic, you have to use a lot more nodes.
Anyway, probably what is wrong is that the shader is primarily using the difference between specular and diffuse calculations to produce a smooth change in hue of the skin. Because of this, you want to tune it or your lights - take your pick - to get the effect you want. You need more specular light to offset the orange. Try increasing the Specular_Value - you can raise it above 1. Try 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, etc.
Also, as I pointed out in the tutorial, the peach color that is being applied to the texture has to be chosen again for each texture. That color I showed was a reasonable one to adjust the V3 texture I was using to get a nice tanned skin look. The color of your texture will dictate the color you should use to modify it in the shader. The closer to white you make it, the less the shader will darken or re-hue the texture.
No shader perfectly mimics real life. Instead, it consists of a bunch of approximations and cheats that need to be adjusted in connection with the situation you have. The range of conditions for which an approximation works is always confined somehow. If you move outside that range, you must adjust the approximation so that it produces its best results under the current conditions.
So the color and brightness of your IBL (if you have one) and your other lights, as well as the basic skin texture you start with - these are going to dictate changes in the shader to bring its best performance in line with the current conditions.
The point of the UBSS was that there are only a few colors and parameters you have to modify - so it should be easy to tune it to work under your desired conditions.
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