Attached Link: InStudio

Did I do it justice?

Honey_ZA:

Wow - you sure did. The lighting worked really well. The subsurface scattering (red skin tones) and Blinn specular are reacting to that light setup exactly as I wanted it to. I really like the pose, and the floor material is fantastic, too.

Jestertjuuh:

Your figure looks great. Did you make those tatoos? They're terrific.

I'm thrilled to see all the great renders lately. To be honest, I didn't think VSS 2 was that good. I'm really blown away at the quality you guys are producing with the basic setup, even without special effects.

I'm swamped with my real work, and haven't had much time to do Poser lately. I have so much new stuff to publish, but no time. Meanwhile, tomorrow I leave for a vacation in the Dominican Republic for a week. So I'll be out of touch for a while. I look forward to seeing more stuff when I get back, and hopefully my workload will lessen so I can finish the new UI for VSS, publish Matmatic V2, publish my new stucco and plaster shaders, and publish the shadow catcher.

have fun!

Have a great vacation

Yes I made the tattoo's myself.
I used royalty free pictures of actual ancient Japanese wood prints.
It was quit some work to make the seems fit and deal with the stretch in some places, but I think they came out quit good.

For those who mised it, the model is P6 Jessi.

could i make a custom SSS map and then connect it in the material room where the red is? 

do you see the "comp" node?  that's sort of a faux SSS map.  it's returning the red component of the texture.

why have i problems finding the VSS thread? was it moved?

cobaltdream: thanks i found it. looks good

I have only stumbled into this rather recently and have found it rather interesting, and enlightening, to find such a remarkable piece of programming.  I went back into my archives and resurrected a piece to try this on.  WOW!  I was blown away.  However, I noticed that a part of the outfit which was turned invisible initially reappeared in the render as a close approximation of skin tone.  Unfortunately, I do not have the image available for posting, but my question is: how does the script hold up with outfits exhibiting varying degrees of transparency?  My work around would be to apply the script to the nude model, save the texture as a MAT Pose and reapply when creating the scene.  This is my best accessment, I assume.

hborre, my guess is that the part of the outfit that had the skin tone applied has a material name that the skin shader mistakes as part of the body texture for your character. I think the easiest way to work around this is to modify the shader rules of the VSS prop. Start in the material room select the VSS prop and select Apply Rules, you should see 2 rules. Delete the one labeled Rule . Go back to the pose room run the VSS script, and hit the Designer button, then select Add a Rule Node. You should see a popup with Choose... and a drop down menu. From the menu select  other-type it in.  The name you enter here should be the name of the character in the scene, eg Victoria4. This should  prevent the rules from being applied to any other figures in the scene. Hope this helps.

That should help.  It makes sense after reading the 'manual'.  Will try it tonight.

@ Holler, Thank you very much for your suggestion to correct my little problem.  I dusted off a recent avatar render and applied VSS with the recommended changes.  Even the Man of Steel would approve.

@ BB, LOVE THIS SYSTEM!!!!! 

you should apply the gamma corrected shader on the blue suit so that it matches with the skin

Well adviced.  Thanks for the tip.

When I applied my texture and synchronized, the eyebrows turned dark. They looked as if they were painted on. Her pupils and iris turned white, and so, I manually went into the material room and dettached the VSS nodes that were connected to those areas, and added the textures for them. When I rendered, I still got the white pupils, iris, and dark painted on eyebrows. FYI when I first saw that this happened, I went to the original figure with the mat (pre loading the VSS), copied all those parts, and saved them as material collections as to not get the settings wrong. After running the VSS script,  I then went to each of them and applied the settings still getting the above result.

A note: The image above was using a character set and texture.

Using Poser 6.

Note: The last two images were the DEFAULT Millennium girl with the  DEFAULT mats.

Hi BB... having a play with VSS - what an incredible piece of work.

Just wanted to run something by you... my understanding was that the shaders that came with VSS were really more of a starting point rather than the ultimate shader set: They're meant to be tweaked, right?

I think I've figured out how to copy materials - I felt I needed to do this so that I could specify parameters specific to the face. Please bear with me as I kinda go through this blow-by-blow... that way, you'll be able to tell where I stuffed up.

First, from the VSS Python script menu I went into Designer, and then, with:
Location: Material Room
Object: VSS_1
Material: Shader Rules
displayed, clicked on 'Add Material Zone'. In the ensuing Dialogue, I chose other - type it in, clicked Ok, which brought up another dialogue to enter the new Material Zone name. I called it "Template Face" and clicked Ok. This put the Material Zone into the Material menu ... selecting it from the menu showed it had nothing in it. Here's the cool bit: I went into the Template Skin thingie (from the menu), right-clicked on a node (any node) and selected Select all.

Not sure if this is necessary, but it's what I did. This is all very new to me... and I thought I could teach nodes. HA! One thing reading about them, but in practice...

In the Material library, I clicked the Plus sign at the bottom, which popped up the New Material Set dialog. I stayed with Single Material -- all those nodes and stuff make up only one material -- and clicked Ok, which added this shader to my material library. Then I went to my new Template Face material and dragged and dropped the new material set into the empty view area, or whatever it's called. Voila: a populated Material Template with all the default settings from skin.

Now, here's where I kinda get confused. I really want create a new material template for the face... the bump is set way too high. I wanted to manage any material close to the face slightly differently to the rest of the body, so hands, forearms, neck... all these zones would have somewhat different settings to the rest of the body. This is for close-up work, I'm thinking.

So, I'll let a picture tell it all:

I realize that I've got my ignorance on display here... but oh well. Thanks to any who might be able to point me in the right direction: preferably not to the exit... lol

By the WAY, I'm having way too much fun with this! I've shown a number of people - other character designers - the difference between not using shaders or the default stuff that comes with V4 hi-res and VSS and they all come away gob-smacked. There is no question: this is the concept to learn.
So, I sit and study those nodes. Follow the channel thread (I'm making up terms that is should be learning the proper terminology for) but when I go over to CastlePoser for instruction, I find myself unceremoniously dumped in the moat: get your head around this!
www.castleposer.co.uk/articles/skin_basics.html
Nevertheless, whether I can get my head around it or not - and believe me, it isn't for lack of trying - the results of running it are very, very compelling.

I did mess with the turbulence gain for when I do close-ups. Was that the right one to mess with?

That came out very, very well.  As you become more familiar with the node arrangement, be aware that the generic VSS and the Apollo VSS are quite different.  The Apollo VSS has been optimized, the only change that needs to be addressed is the background color in the Image_Map.  That should be changed to white to accommendate skin textures from other sets.  BB's tutorial outlines the nodes you would commonly adjust to change skin tones, AO, etc.

RV:

You're definately on the right track. Making a new template for the face+lips+nostril etc. is the right approach.

Saving the skin material to your library and then loading it into the new template is also correct. One step you did was not necessary - before saving a material, you do not need to select all the nodes. Regardless of which nodes are selected, when you save a material, all nodes in that material get written to the library. Another way is possible without using the library. Go to Template Skin. Right-click to Select All nodes. Right-click to Copy. Switch to Template Face. Paste. This would copy a specific set of nodes from one material to another. When you select multiple nodes and copy+paste, all that are already connected stay connected.

Either way works here.

Then your next step was also correct - you changed 3 rules to Copy from Template Face. I see that you added a Rule Template Face. Be careful. That establishes (potentially) a rule that says how to actually populate the Template Face material. I haven't taught anybody how to use that feature, but it is possible to automatically copy from one template to another every time you run Synchronize. This facility, in conjunction with another unreleased feature called an "effect shader" will let you create a template dynamically, by combining other templates. But that's a lesson for the future, as it is somewhat complicated to keep track of all the possibilities.

how its going with the new skin shader? will you post any new test renders?

Wow, thank you, BB! That was very validating. About that Rule Template Face - I wasn't sure how to proceed with that. I was kinda thinking class and sub-class (or perhaps super-class, where only those nodes that would apply to nostrils, face and lips (and potentially forearms and hands, since one does see them often in close-up portrait renders) but I think I would have to have a look at the actual script to see how the whole thing is built. So, I'll just leave it off, then.

Found a much-simplified tutorial by Sixus1 (Les Garner) which has helped support your discussion pdf (the one that came with VSS). Speaking of which, you'd intimated that you were going to sell the VSSPro program for little enough so that people would be enticed to buy any new shaders you might come up with subsequently. I know, you didn't exactly say that, but that was my interpretation.
I think that's an excellent strategy, BB. I for one see now (given the complexity of developing a shader) that putting one of these together - at least, one with this degree of sophistication - would be far beyond the scope of all but the most intrepid Material-Room die-hards. And, fair-enough, so it should be. This is your craft, your speciality (one of them, afaik... you would most certainly have others: you've built a consulting business around them) so it just makes sense that aspects of these shaders are going to remain enigmatic.

I've had to follow on fixing other people's code. In VBA. I know, nothing real exciting, but the code was complex enough that it took me a bit trying to sort out what the different function calls and procedures were doing. The so-called documentation... wasn't.
I find myself in the same frame of mind looking at a series of math-nodes connected to the alt_diffuse channel, then splintering off to affect everything else. It's all good, BB - don't worry about it - I'm going to leave this with you for now and just use your shaders, not try to figure them out. I'm currently setting up a website (store) for the PoserForDummies MSN forum members, so I've kinda got my hands full with tweaking php and css... you know how real life kinda gets in your way? lol I'd rather be spending my time truly understanding exactly what each node in your shader really does, how they all tie together, but duty calls. In the meantime, the more I contemplate them, the more impressed I am with how beautifully they are put together.

And the results speak for themselves.

I haven't worked on it in over 2 weeks. My job is overwhelming right now, and i took a week off for vacation, too.

While the implementation of the new skin shader is pretty different, the results are very similar. Mostly, I changed how AO is handled (recall our experiments with modulation based on whether the surface points up or down?), as well as how it reacts to darker skin.

For a comparison, here is a PR2 render.

interesting

I've been searching the thread and the VSS Home Page for the PR3/VSS3 prop, but I can't find it. Is it available for general download? If so, can someone repeat the link, please?

Thank you

I haven't uploaded it yet.  :)

Attached Link: http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/random-shaders

Anybody reading this way in the future, you should know I'm only putting this up temporarily. When the finished version is available, it will move to its rightful home.

The shader is one incarnation of my new "stacked layers shader" architecture. An SLS is built from individual shading layers that I can mix and match. I have assembled a basic set of layers here for you to play with.

Unlike the PR2 shader, which was built by hand, this one is from a matmatic script. So the nodes are all laid automatically. I wouldn't bother trying to understand them.

All the interesting "configuration" nodes are on the left side of the shader. I'll leave it to you as a fun experiment to figure out what they do.

Load your PR2 control prop, then load this material into the Template Skin of the control prop. Then you can adjust the parameters, and synchronize.

This WIP does not have the displacement layer in it, so just be aware of that. It should make all the "bloat" problems go away because I'm not even trying to do the displacement.

Thanks, bb.. you're a star. Now for the "fun experiment" bit...

I'm also keen to get Matmatic working on my Mac -- which is right back where I started with all this --in May, I think!

After I synchronised with VSS, there were no skin textures displaying in Preview, although it rendered okay.

To fix this, I just added the link shown in the attached piccie in the Template Skin shader, and saved the prop. Leave the diffuse value at zero.

Also, the eyes are showing just white. Although I have not seen this before in VSS, I can't imagine it's anything to do with the new material. Looking into it...

"Don't argue with me" LOL

I keep forgetting to wire the color map into the Diffuse_Color so you get a preview. I never get a preview anyway so I don't notice it. Must have something to do with my OpenGL driver or hardware. Sorry.

Anyone know why I get "insufficient privileges.htm"  while trying to redownload Enviro Sphere from Bagginsbill's google site?  Seem to be getting it on several of his Free downloads items from there though I did get to download the VSS_Template_Skin_PR3_WIP.mt5 file.

http://poserbagginsbill.googlepages.com/vsshomepage

Thanks :)

Attached Link: http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/environment-sphere

Oh thanks for trying to help  IsaoShi :)  I use Firefox but recently had to downgrade from version3 beacuse of probs. So maybe it mocked up my Orbit downloader, for this is what I got when clicking the above and some other urls from the free-stuff page:

http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/environment-sphere/EnvSphere.zip?attredirects=0

Who knows why.  For the possible benefit to others  I just changed the =0 to one and now downloaded successfully.

I hope you won't actually be reading this till you had your 3 hours sleep :)

laughs... I did!

Actually, that's my new tagline. Well, it's more often true than not!

I did some more skin shader tweaking. I was pretty happy with the new more subtle AO, but something about the sss still bothered me. It seemed too heavy in places. I did some more refinements to the parts that deal with conservation of energy - treating the arriving light in layers. I set up an energy model, where each interaction consumes some of the energy, leaving less for the next interaction. So first is specular reflection. Then comes diffuse. Whatever is left, SSS gets to use. This approach guarantees a balance. It is no longer possible to set up the parameters in such a way that something impossible happens.

I also added another calculation that harkens back to one of my very first postings here at rendo. When skin is facing sideways with respect to the camera, the epidermis effectively becomes thicker, and you see less SSS. Most people would never notice this, and maybe I was wasting time implementing it, but whatever.

So here is another comparison. First a PR2 render.

does anyone have any link so that i can see how diffuse skin looks like?

in theory it should not have any red in it right?  because sometimes skin in my render looks to red. i know that i can fix this in the shader but i think the texture should be fixed.

i really like the new AO settings. are they the same like in the other thread that we talked about?

can you post only the AO form the shader? i dont know what is to waht connected.
 thanks

this? 

Similar, but not the same. You know me - constantly improving.

Here's the AO calculation I'm using now. It works like this:

The N node calculates the dot-product of the surface normal with the vector value you type in, which gives you a value between -1 and 1 indicating how well the normal lines up with the given vector. I want to know how much it is pointing up, so I want the vector [0, 1, 0]. However, I need to multiply the vector by 3 because of how Poser converts vectors to scalars.

The next step is to re-scale the dotproduct using .5 + .5 * N(0, 3, 0). Now my value goes from 0 (pointing straight down) to 1 (pointing straight up). Any horizontal surface will generate .5.

The next step is to blend that with WHITE (really the number 1) using PM:YBias as the factor. This lets me adjust the strength of the YBias effect. If PM:YBias = 0, then the ybias has no effect (always produces 1). If I use PM:YBias = .4, then the ybias calculator will decrease the AO effect by up to 40% in the case that the surface points straight down, and 20% for horizontal surface normals.

Blender math is really amazingly useful. The math of a Blender node is:

(1 - Blending) * Value_1 + Blending * Value_2

For this case the inputs are:

(1 - .4) * 1 + .4 * dotproduct
= .6 + .4 * dotproduct

So now I multiply the dotproduct with the overal PM:AO Strength parameter. That drives another Blender which mixes WHITE (1) with the actual AO node.

Putting it all together, the PM:AO Strength will uniformly modulate AO influence, and the PM:AO YBias will non-uniformaly modulate AO influence, in proportion to how much the surface is pointing down.

There is too much AO everywhere.

Look inside the ear. Only the part pointing up is seriously darkened, as would happen in real life. The head blocks a lot of light from the sky, which is the dominant source of light. On the other hand, the shoulder is blocking light from the ground, which really should not make a lot of difference.

Makes sense?