Quote - OK, BB what do you think. I would like your critique. The top is straight out of the box using your Indoor Lights 2.

The middle is VSS2. No fiddling (because I wouldn't know where to begin).

The last is my custom shader that I normally use. Actually, its based on your earlier stuff and stuff I learned from face_off.

To me the top one is way off. Not good looking at all. The middle is quite realistic and I especially like the soft shadowing. But I still like the last one. I like the skin sheen (now you'll tell me VSS does skin sheen) and I don't mind the darker shadow either as I think visually an oily skin will produce darker shadows.

 
Hmm. The VSS render (#2 pic) looks really dark to me. I'm not sure why. Is that really the PR2 shader? It looks more like the PR1 shader.

The Indoor02 lights (which have too much IBL) are supposed to produce a soft, dark look - the main light is only at 30%. The resulting shading on the figure is completely incongruous with the stark white background. The combination just looks wrong - disturbingly out of place.

Of course #1 is terrible. #3 looks better than #2, but the background really throws me off in this case.

It would be a lot easier to judge if the background was consistent with the lighting style - Indoor02 is supposed to be an "underexposed" interior, where the "camera" was trying to deal with a bright light (perhaps an exterior window behind the figure) and as a result the figure is not lit very much.

Try using a photograph of an actual interior, softly lit with no single strong light source. Then the figure will look less out of place.

As to the desired amount of sheen - again we have to consider the situation. If you used a very strong main light, you'd get a lot more specular from the VSS shader. However, this shader is just one of thousands possible. I designed it to represent dry skin, not wet. If you want to set the material up for a wetter look, that is no problem. You would boost the strength of the Blinn node, and possible tighten up the highlight by changing the other parameters.

Remember, VSS isn't about a particular shader or even a set of shaders. The intention is that you have something good to start with, and then you really should be modifying the parameters, or even changing the nodes, to simulate the actual material characteristics of your figure. I will be putting more nodes and parameters together to increase the kinds of skin that can be simulated, but I haven't done that yet. For now, we have just the basics.

Shaders are only half (or less than half) of the equation. Getting the lights and environment to be consistent is very important.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)