Hi guys and girls,
Can anyone recommend some settings for subsurface scattering for human skin? I've experimented a little but to no avail. Thanks all for any input.

Namaste;-)
Shakti 

Hi :)

It largely depends on the lighting. I usually use a dark burgundy for color, intensity between 50-70%, Diffuse Reflection in the 90's, translucency 30-45%, refraction about 30%, Fresnel -- about 20%

But all that needs tweaking depending on the lighting. I also render SSS in the multi-pass layers, so that I can adjust intensity in postwork, and that takes care of a lot of tweaking.

Hope this helps.

DAZ Studio has a better renderer in that department.  I'm hoping for much better SSS in Carrara 8.

Quote - Hi :)

It largely depends on the lighting. I usually use a dark burgundy for color, intensity between 50-70%, Diffuse Reflection in the 90's, translucency 30-45%, refraction about 30%, Fresnel -- about 20%

But all that needs tweaking depending on the lighting. I also render SSS in the multi-pass layers, so that I can adjust intensity in postwork, and that takes care of a lot of tweaking.

Hope this helps.

For the scene I'm presently working on I have both Sky Light and indirectct using an HDRI map. The lighting settings are: Sky-189, Indirect-130. I'm also using one bulb light to light a fire with.

There is not a "perfect" formula for SSS and it needs to be adjusted for each scene. It's really just a ton of trial and error. This is true for all software, but I too would enjoy some improvements in Carrara's implementation. 

Post your renders so far so we can suggest where lighting and shader changes could be made.

 Thanks a lot guys. Food for thought! Will do Shawn.

Namaste;-)
Shakti

Also, Ringo is the master at SSS rendering in Carrara.  He has a very good background light that he uses to give the perfect illusion of human skin.  Keyword is illusion though because the skin falls apart when other lighting is used on it.  I'll see if I can find the link somewhere still.

ADDED:
Ok.  Found it.  If you have a DAZ3D account you can browse RingoM's settings at http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=110781&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

HEY!

Shawn is the SSS Guru!
Visit, study, all he has added to this aspect.

Vicky made perfect!
(And great files to add to your browser)
Brian

 WOW! Thanks again for the great info, guys. Very much appreciated. Will definitely be checked out!

Namaste;-)
Shakti

Quote - Shawn is the SSS Guru!

Not true.  I was not as sucessful at SSS as others have been using Carrara for skin shaders.  If Carrara 8 has improved SSS I will give it another try.

When you catch a good fish you kiss it!

(One upon a time I was really, REALLY brilliant---I keep teling myself!)

Brian

How times change!
I was commenting about how, in the 1940s, in the year I was introduced to Algebra, I was bottom of the class in first term, top in last term!
(For my sins, after leaving school at 14, I self studied Calculus.)

In MY real life I never actually made much use of those ideas and, now, I am about as dumb as I was in that first term!
All forgotten!

However, with the Calculus study I also self taught myself to use a Slide Rule.
I still have it—STILL USE IT!

The fun story-----Oh! Those were the days---

In the early 1950s I worked in a big metals merchandising organisation and regularly used my Slide Rule to help customers with quick calculations over the phone.
(The alternative was to get one of the Comptometrists* from the typing pool to bring her machine and sit alongside you.)

Everyone in the office was convinced I had a University education because I could use the Slide Rule!

Think about what grade 1—even preschoolers--- do with those –(1/20th? of the price of my slide rule)—calculators of today!

Brian
*--the spell checker does not even know the word!!!!!!!!
 

Anyway,

As Mark was saying,  SSS needs adjustment for each scene it's used in.  Any changes made to your scene lighting will affect SSS differently.

Note that sometimes you can use the glow channel as a cheat in addition or substitution of the SSS channel settings. Of course that requires a bit of manual finagling as well and there's just a hint of it, but sometimes the results are worth it. (I know glow channel plus Inagoni's fresnel falloff shader function can achieve some neat things, outside of true SSS.)

But like everyond said before, a lot depends on the scene lighting.

Paul

"Inagoni's fresnel falloff shader"
 
???????---appreciate from where to source please.

Brian

Quote - Hi :)

It largely depends on the lighting. I usually use a dark burgundy for color, intensity between 50-70%, Diffuse Reflection in the 90's, translucency 30-45%, refraction about 30%, Fresnel -- about 20%

But all that needs tweaking depending on the lighting. I also render SSS in the multi-pass layers, so that I can adjust intensity in postwork, and that takes care of a lot of tweaking.

Hope this helps.

Used your Settings and just tweaked from there and thanks everyone for all the great input. I'll post the finished product when ready and you can judge for yourselves. Cheerio;-)

Namaste;-)
Shakti

bwtr: Actually it's the Shader Ops fake fresnel. (Just haven't been rendering in a while, so I didn't get the name 100% right by memory.) But you can get some effect where if you set it up right the glow gets brighter as the angle gets more perpendicular. Which for some things like ears works fairly well. The glow channel can be used as a faking method for kicking up the luminosity where light penetrates the material, which what SSS does in a more properly simulated way. (Of course whether oor not to use it might also depend on the material zones of the model too, since you don't always want that effect in other areas where it'll look weird.) But it takes very little, and in some cases it's handy to nudge values on top of what SSS achieves without the time of higher SSS settings. (The way it works may also be one way of faking some translucency, provided you get the color right. Not that it's necessary in Carrara, but one of those goofy tricks to save on render time.) Just remember it's one of those things that works well but only to the point of pushing too far, and then the glow becomes obvious. This is because you don't want your object pushing much light into the scene, which is another thing glow can do depending on the render settings.

Think of it as another thing to think of in the bag of tricks if you need it, not as something to be used every time.

Thanks mate--sounds much better!

We are so VERY lucky with the Carrara Plugin makers.

Brian