bagginsbill opened this issue on Jan 23, 2006 · 71 posts
bagginsbill posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 3:18 PM
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)
bagginsbill posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 3:19 PM
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)
bagginsbill posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 3:22 PM
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)
Gareee posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 3:23 PM
mathman posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 3:29 PM
bookmark
williamsheil posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 3:44 PM
I use a technique which is to subtract the output from a diffuse node from the output of a clay or toon node driving the SSS effect in the ambient. My reasoning is much the same as yours, i.e. that it doesn't require specific linking or setting of the keylight position and reacts to all lights. Looking at your nodes it looks like the principal may in fact be a similar but simpler to the diffuse driven (non-linear) colorramp gradient feeding the clay node. The right arm glow in the first image maybe due to too high a value on the translucency. You could reduce this for selective body parts selectively by connecting an intermediate texture map. Nice work, though, I'll definitely give it a try. Bill
Robo2010 posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 4:07 PM
BM, :-)
warpo posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 6:39 PM
Did something similar, but with 30 nodes instead.
What its really cool about this node setup is that once its done, you get incredible results no mater how many lights, camera views, ect.
Its cool that it works everytime! pluss it works on every figure!, just save the scene, load your characters and lights and render!!!
no more re-runs or node tweaking hazzles!
warpo
lululee posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 6:47 PM
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xantor posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 6:50 PM
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infinity10 posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 7:06 PM
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odf posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 7:58 PM
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-- I'm not mad at you, just Westphalian.
PabloS posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 8:48 PM
.bm.
face_off posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 9:16 PM
Very cool technique. Excellent stuff. IMO, the image in #2 has a slightly hollow/glowing look that often accompanies translucence SSS systems. However #3 is really great. Also, there are green bands on her stomach that look a little odd - present on both images.
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Farside posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 9:44 PM
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operaguy posted Mon, 23 January 2006 at 10:54 PM
Thank you for detailing and organizing your shader setup, that is a great teaching help. It's probably the texture...she feels too smooth and monochrome to me. This is not a criticism of the SSS exploration. Excellent contribution, the march to conquer the shader room continues! ::::: Opera :::::
4blueyes posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 1:37 AM
asbesti posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 2:02 AM
Sings "bookmark, bookmark, bookmark, lal-lal-laa!"
snakepit posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 2:07 AM
bkmk :)
artdude41 posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 2:11 AM
thanks for posting this , brilliant work
artnik posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 2:16 AM
bookmark
barrowlass posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 3:01 AM
bmk
My aspiration: to make a decent Poser Render I'm an Oldie, a goldie, but not a miracle worker :-)
barrowlass posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 3:03 AM
warpo - can u PLEEEEZE do a screenshot of the nodes u used - the effect is awesome! I'm just learning about nodes n stuff and want to improve on my basic textures - Thanx
My aspiration: to make a decent Poser Render I'm an Oldie, a goldie, but not a miracle worker :-)
lindans posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 3:06 AM
I wonder if someone could do a step by step version of this tut ...for us Nodophobes it looks terribly complicated in the image tho no doubt much easier than it looks ....but where to start etc..
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barrowlass posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 3:32 AM
I agree. I've a hazy idea of how to apply certain nodes, but some help would be invaluable :-)
My aspiration: to make a decent Poser Render I'm an Oldie, a goldie, but not a miracle worker :-)
Dead_Reckoning posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 6:23 AM
These are very nice. Question: Once I get the Nodes all setup, How do I Save this as a Material File or a Shader Spider File???? Cheers DR
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warpo posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 6:30 AM
Just follow the above example and you are ready to rock LOL my node setup is about 30 nodes per material and a real pain to get started with, but fear not! cause I'm writing a Phyton script as times allows, to load the nodes automatically and will be happy to share it as soon as its finished Good thing is that once the nodes are loaded you don't need to touch them again if you make changes to lights, cameras, ect. For now, just follow the above example and you can't go wrong! o_~ just add some extra blinn nodes for highlights here and there and you'll get similar results as mine. warpo
warpo posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 6:37 AM
Mariner: Go to the materials tab in your library and add it as a material collection by pressing the + icon warpo
warpo posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 7:25 AM
Larry F posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 7:38 AM
You guys are great for sharing all this stuff! I like to putter around a lot - try settings, render, save, try different settings, AD NAUSEUM - but have no trouble letting someone else do the work if they want - like you! This is great! Thanks a bunch! Larry F
warpo posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 7:54 AM
Lower the Back Light and Fastscatter node intensity to taste that will give you a more subtle SSS effect warpo
Dead_Reckoning posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 10:05 AM
"That government is
best which governs the least, because its people discipline
themselves."
Thomas Jefferson
bagginsbill posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 10:12 AM
Mariner - that looks terrific! How about a test render bypassing the front-side SSS part so we can see what the contribution is? Just connect the top clay node to the simple color next to it. This will remove the color ramp and just use the straight texture. I'm curious about how this is working with other textures and characters. I don't have many good ones.
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)
Dead_Reckoning posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 1:36 PM
Bagginsbill Could you give me a quick pick of how you want it disconnected connected???? Cheers DR
"That government is
best which governs the least, because its people discipline
themselves."
Thomas Jefferson
bagginsbill posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 1:58 PM
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)
semidieu posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 2:33 PM
Looks great... Thanks for sharing.
bagginsbill posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 3:36 PM
Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=1142123
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)
operaguy posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 6:59 PM
that render certainly has my attention. thanks for continuing the thread
BonBonish posted Tue, 24 January 2006 at 11:41 PM
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Indoda posted Wed, 25 January 2006 at 6:22 AM
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and new found ideas so generously.
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
- Albert Einstein
Indoda
jediclone posted Fri, 27 January 2006 at 5:51 AM
Hi, yup! thank you for sharing the technique. Ive figure it out what it will be... cool technique! BOOKMARK this guys!
operaguy posted Fri, 27 January 2006 at 9:52 AM
bagginsbill, a couple of questions.... 1) in post 37, you say it is the original from post 1, but "modified a little". Is the arrangement in post 1 still your latest and greatest, or are you posting the definitive final somewhere else? 2) some models have many groups. is it necessary/good to apply the full material to all groups, like eyelash, pupil, toenails, etc.,? 3) if applying this shader tree to all/many groups, is there a hit on render time? 4) i use face_off's shaders, and there are several settings he has that I would not want to be without. a) "oiliness" b) skin highlight strength c) granite displacement/bump strength and a few others if one where to build the tree in post1 here, and save as a material, and then apply it to many parts of a model, I can't see where the gain would be. Everytime you needed to tweak, wouldn't you have to open the tree on every body part (group) and change settings on various shaders? In other words, how is this tree practical without a universal "top-level friendly" setting controller? I am not dissing your work here, only seeing how it would be practical in production. Thank you ::::: Opera :::::
bagginsbill posted Fri, 27 January 2006 at 11:25 AM
Hello operaguy! 1) Well nothing is ever final with me. In and of itself, the shader in post 1 works pretty well when it works. However, tuning and tweaking this shader is a pain. I like to be able to change one number and have it produce a single, conceptually simple effect. So for example, to get make this model more or less tanned, you have to change several of these settings. I started down that path when I posted the render #37. And then face_off so nicely critiqued my render and I wanted to address those points. To my mind, his crits should each have a simple obvious knob in the shader. The way it is built right now they don't. So I'm redesigning the whole thing. Unfortunately, the result is about 3 times as many nodes!!! The math isn't complicated, its just that if you want a single knob to alter 5 other settings in non-linear ways, you need a node for each math operator. I wish Poser had a Python shader node and I could just type in expressions like: out = bias(in1.red, in2) + bias(in1.green, 1-in2) + bias(in1.blue, 1-in2) That fairly simple formula requires nine nodes. Bah! When I get the next version suitably tweaked so the obvious controls are independant, I will publish it. It will be a couple weeks though. My "real job" is interfering and I have to go to Stockholm all next week. Meanwhile, all I really did for that pickture was tone down the specular node (I think the value was .15), make it white (which was a mistake), and I made the pink colors in the colorramp more red and changed the zone it affected by reducing the colorramp input. (I think I made it .7) 2) If the nails are not "painted", then yes apply the shader there too. Especially if you are going to back-light the hand or foot, you need it. If the nail is painted, then no. For non-skin material zones, this one doesn't apply at all. It is a very poor workflow to have to edit skintorso, save the mat, then apply to the other 6-7 zones. Then do the same for head zones. Totally bad. I found a "MatClone" python script by Kenneth Mort aka TromNek that helped. It never got past "beta" but I tweaked it to work for me. 3) Well there is always a small increase in render time with each additional node. But it is small. Really small. Nothing compared to changing render settings or going to a higher shadow map size. Remember, the shader for skin is only being evaluated where the renderer "sees" the skin. So if the figure only takes up 20% of your image, this shader only affects 20% of the render time. 4) Absolutely right. It is a huge waste of time to tweak each zone or even to save and load for each zone. But I'm going to make a Python script that I think will come in extremely handy. Not just for my materials, but any materials. The idea is this: Use the script to label certain nodes in a special way. For example, suppose there is a math node that controls the amount of front-side SSS. We change the node from "Math_Function" to "Math_Function[Front-side SSS]". Now the other part of my script would know (because of the bracketed name) that it needs a slider for "Front-side SSS". For a given figure, you would move the slider and it would adjust ALL INSTANCES of this specially labelled node in all the material zones throughout the figure, or even the whole scene if you wanted it. This opens up unbelievable possibilities. For example, you could take any material you got from anywhere (free or pay), mark it up as described above, and then my script would present you a global dialog that could control all the marked-up materials wherever they are in real time. Also, since such parameters can be animated, you could get them to be altered through an animation and easily control these effects from one place. The mind boggles! I don't know why Poser doesn't have such a feature. Seems obvious to me. It's going to take me a while to write it because I don't know TK well. But I do know Python really well. Once this script is available, you wil be able to use it to control really complex materials like mine or face_offs with ease. And nobody will need to do any more coding like face_off had to do. (I've never looked at his scripts - don't have them - but they must be a bitch!) Coding this will take quite a while and if somebody wants to help with it, I'd love that. Well like I said, gotta do some work over the next week. But we'll talk again when I'm back.
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)
operaguy posted Fri, 27 January 2006 at 7:08 PM
darn those day jobs and trips to scandanavia! Good luck on this ambitious project, will look forward to seeing your progress. Thanks for the detailed response. ::: og :::
nruddock posted Fri, 27 January 2006 at 8:02 PM
"... if somebody wants to help with it, I'd love that."
Just post in the Python forum if you want help with something specific.
face_off posted Sun, 29 January 2006 at 3:24 PM
Baggins.... The script you have described 4) of msg #43 is pretty much exactly the way the RealSkinShader and Unimesh scripts work. They place nodes for each material, name them appropriately, and as you tweak the settings through the dialog, the script changed all the nodes for all the materials.
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bagginsbill posted Sun, 29 January 2006 at 5:43 PM
Face_Off,
I'm not sure what you're getting at. I agree that your front end to your shader system rewrites parameters in your shader tree. However, it doesn't LEARN them from your shader tree, it already knows them, right? I'm talking about a script that, given ANY material, is able to detect control nodes that are meant to be tweaked THROUGH THE SCRIPT itself. In other words, you hard-coded things like "oiliness" and "blush" or whatever in your script. If you change the material nodes, you'll have to change your script. If you add new features to the nodes, like "pimples" or "tan lines", you'll have to add new sliders to your dialog box.
If this is not the case, please educate me because I've never known any of your scripts to be applicable to other people's shader trees. If there is some way of arranging my nodes in my shader, such that people who have your python scripts could control my shader through your scripts, that would be interesting. However, I don't recall you publishing that compatibility with your front end derives from merely having certain agreed upon node names in your material. As far as I know, your scripts WRITE the materials. Your script causes the materials to be in the form you have pre-defined it to be. At least that's my understanding.
The python script I'm describing would be able to tell from the names of nodes alone, that they are useful control points to be presented to the user. Further, that these control points are common and to be shared across material zones, so that moving a slider for a given control parameter must be updated in every material wherein that control parameter is defined. It doesn't require any pre-agreement between the script and the shader tree.
The idea here is similar to the full body morph dials on a figure. If you load the morph, the UI presents a single dial for it. The fact that to implement the morph requires altering a partial body morph in twelve different body groups is completely hidden from the user. Similarly, for the materials in a figure, if you suitably mark a bunch of math nodes (using the square brackets) then the script presents a single dial for the complete set of nodes.
It is enough, for example to define a math_function whose name is "math_function[Tan Lines]" in a material. The square brackets would be picked up by the script and presented as a slider. Even if other materials are completely different in layout and content, if they have a node with "[Tan lines]" in the name, then those nodes get included. The script doesn't know what the control parameter really does, it just knows to present a slider called "Tan Lines" and when you move it, update every node in every mat zone that has a node with that substring in its name.
A more general approach would involve more that just the math_function node, but I think I could accomplish a tremendous amount of generality with that alone.
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)
odf posted Sun, 29 January 2006 at 5:58 PM
bagginsbill, splendid idea! I only see one problem: most nodes have more than one parameter, so how would your script know which one to control? Or are you limiting this to a certain type of node, say only math nodes, where you always change the same parameter?
Message edited on: 01/29/2006 17:58
-- I'm not mad at you, just Westphalian.
face_off posted Sun, 29 January 2006 at 6:04 PM
Ah, ok - I'm with you. I originally coded the system to be similar to what you describe, however in practice some issues came up. The main one being if the user tweaks a particular material (say SkinHead), but not the other materials, you'll get a seam at the neck (since the materials are different) - so there became a need to enforce a certain node structure. Also, it's possible for the user to corrupt a node setup by disconnecting something, so any script that changes the nodes needs to be able to "fix" the node network. So in the end it becaome an impractical solution, and I went with a system with enforces a particular node setup, and allows the user to change the node values via the python interface. The next version of the system (which I am working on at the moment) allows a bit more flexibility, in that the user can change the node network, and as long as particular ndoes are present, and connected, the script will assume the node network is valid, and just change the values.
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bagginsbill posted Mon, 30 January 2006 at 7:33 AM
odf - That's the only problem you see? Fantastic :) I'm sure more problems will reveal themselves once it come into being and starts getting used. In the first version, I believe that limiting it to math nodes or color math nodes is reasonable. Here's why. Every node parameter is connected to another node or it is not. If it is connected, its value is multiplied with the connected node's output. If its not connected, its value is used directly. Suppose you have an unconnected parameter you want to control with the script. Set it to 1, or white, and connect that to a marked math node. Now you apply your setting in the marked math node, and it works just like it was in the parameter itself. Or suppose you have a connected parameter. Insert a math node between the parameter and its node input. Move the parameter value to the math node, and set the parameter to 1. Works the same. One variation would be to let you use the math node second value. Use a second set of subscripts. For example, if I want to tweak the exponent of a "power" node to control "fall off", I'd call it "math_function[][Fall off]". The empty brackets just mean skip the first value, we're controlling the second. I could use both, too, as in "math_function[Strength][Fall off]". This would be perfect for a lot of nodes. It's a bit of a waste to plug into math nodes instead of making settings directly, but it sure simplifies the script. SO I was thinking that the first version would use only those nodes. Finally, in order to maximize the maintainability of your shaders, I think it makes sense to only put controls in separate nodes that don't do any work. For example, if you decided to replace a controllable specular node with a combination of blinn and phong added together, you'd have to do some node node renaming to keep your ability to control "Total Specular" with a knob. IF you had the knob node by itself, it would be simple to just rewire it into the new subtree.
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)
bagginsbill posted Mon, 30 January 2006 at 8:20 AM
Face_off - I totally get that you wanted to make your system as foolproof as possible. Its a classic tradeoff. The script I'm intending to make is no substitute for a well-crafted integrated solution like yours. For people who make new shaders, like me, my proposed script will get around the editing/tweaking problems. All I want is to be able to quickly manipulate some key parameters in a complex shader tree on many zones. If those zones don't agree or are corrupted, so be it. I also think the script will make it easier for me to share my complex shaders - having obvious knobs is important. People will have more fun with them if they don't have to understand and navigate the nodes to make adjustments. BTW: Face_off, did you know that the three parameters of a Normal node can be used to compute the dot product of a particular vector with the normal directly? I was reading your shader thing and you extract each component of the vector, then multiply. That's a waste of effort. Just put the 3 coefficients into the normal node directly. The only problem with it is that the normal node is interpreted as a "color" and gets converted to a scalar by summing the 3 components and dividing by 3. But if you premultiply your coefficients by 3, or multiply by 3 in the next stage, you are good to go.
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)
bagginsbill posted Mon, 30 January 2006 at 8:39 AM
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)
odf posted Mon, 30 January 2006 at 12:02 PM
bagginsbill "That's the only problem you see? Fantastic :) I'm sure more problems will reveal themselves once it come into being and starts getting used." Yes, that's a sure thing. Everyone who developes software that other people use knows that. Anyway, using math nodes to control input values and automatically generating sliders for these math nodes sounds like a promising idea. Let me just mention one alternative approach that I used in a data visualization package. It's more or less a compromise between plucking all the information from the graph and handcoding it: use a tiny configuration file, one line for each slider, button or whatever. In that line, specify a node name (or a pattern that may match various node names), a parameter name, the label to use for the generated control element and possibly other things, like the lowest and highest allowed value for that parameter. This can be very flexible if you use Python's regular expression library, and your angular bracket approach could be coded as a special case. Oh, well, maybe that's an idea for V2.0. :-)
-- I'm not mad at you, just Westphalian.
takezo3001 posted Fri, 03 February 2006 at 11:37 AM
THANKS ALOT! Baggins, I'm glad that you were able to extend what I started! You mastered the Front FS/SSS really well! I'm gonna try it out right now!
ice-boy posted Fri, 20 February 2009 at 12:07 PM
anyone found a way to make bagginsbill's SSS work with raytraced shadows?i am playing around but no luck.
bagginsbill posted Fri, 20 February 2009 at 3:24 PM
What SSS are you talking about? I don't use any of these anymore.
Are you referring to the FastScatter node? That stuff was a dead end, even if you use depth-mapped shadows it still blows.
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)
Shadow_Fyre posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 1:01 AM
Your input on nodes is always helpful bagginsbill, thank you!
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ice-boy posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:04 AM
Quote - What SSS are you talking about? I don't use any of these anymore.
Are you referring to the FastScatter node? That stuff was a dead end, even if you use depth-mapped shadows it still blows.
what do you mean?
its a good way to get some glowing ears when using a light behind the figure.
i really dont know why would it be so bad?
bagginsbill posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:19 AM
Because it doesn't stay on the ears. It lights the entire head. All the tricks we tried (Takezo, face_off) amounted to multiplying the fastscatter with other things. In the end it was the other things that were actually the effect. Basically the fastscatter is always full on or nothing, which amounts to an ambient effect. You can see it if you look closely at any of the renders where the FS was emphasized enough to see it clearly. There is always a hard line at the terminator. Every time I see that hard line of pink/not pink, I know there is FS being used. Combining it with Diffuse basically means you're using some arithmetic involving a constant and a Diffuse node.
Which is why in my latest VSS shader, there is a term that has 1 - Diffuse() in it. You can make it FastScatter() - Diffuse() if you want, but it amounts to the same thing pretty much, so why bother?
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)
ice-boy posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:28 AM
then we make a matte for the ears.
it doesnt work like ambient because if you have no light behind then there are no glowing ears.
bagginsbill posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:44 AM
You seem to think you understand it. Did you do the experiments I have done? Perhaps not. Let me do one for you again.
Then you should experiment yourself and learn why it sucks.
If you do all your experiments with a light from straight behind, you will be fooled into thinking it is pretty good. You must try other angles.
If you do all your experiments without any IBL, you will be fooled into thinking it is pretty good. With IBL it glows like ambient in all directions. It becomes uncontrollable. And I refuse to render without IBL.
It is only when you try to use it in a shader and you want it to work in more than just one tightly contrived scenario that you discover it is useless, or that you can get a better effect through other means.
And your suggestion to make a matte for the ears is amusing. That is what Mec4D did once, and she declared that the FS node worked great. In reality, she had drawn, by hand, exactly where the SSS should be and how much there should be. Feel free to draw whatever you want, but when you multiply your drawing with a constant, you can't claim the constant had something to do with the beautifully modulated effect.
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)
bagginsbill posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:46 AM
This is just 10 degrees from the side, and 80 degrees from the rear. I would not call this back lit. Would you? Because it isn't anywhere near behind the ear. Not even a tiny part of the back of the ear is lit from this angle. Is that clear?
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)
bagginsbill posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:47 AM
Why is the entire side of the head lit, and uniformly? I agree only one side is lit, but how it is lit is identical to ambient. Useless.
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)
bagginsbill posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:49 AM
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)
ice-boy posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:54 AM
could we maybe do a trick only with the difffuse node?
bagginsbill posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 9:10 AM
The Clay is a diffuse node - it just has a slightly more complicated response curve than the normal Lambertian calculation. With Roughness set at 2 it produces a very uniform response to light, regardless of angle of incidence, like ambient, but only where light reaches.
Look at the combination: FastScatter - Clay. The Clay with such a high Roughness acts like the light-facing side of the FastScatter. By subtracting it, I remove the uniform glow from the light facing side, leaving only the true backlit parts.
Still this combination was not enough to make the thing work right.
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)
ice-boy posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 12:07 PM
then i guess we have to tweak it for specific lights.
subtle glow in the ears can make the render better.
Helgard posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:05 PM
I am a little confused. In the first post the Diffuse_Value and Specular Value are 0 (zero). Is this not the same as switching them off. Why plug anything into the Diffuse_Value if the value is 0 (zero)?
Also, if my model has a specular map, how does this affect the structure. Do I plug it into the alternate specular or the Specular Color?
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bagginsbill posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:53 PM
Yes it does switch them off, for rendering. However, preview ignores that, and tries to show what is in the Diffuse_Color. Preview makes no attempt to display what is in Alternate_Diffuse.
However, that doesn't fully explain it either, because lately I think preview only shows a texture map if you plug it directly into Diffuse_Color, not indirectly through other nodes.
All I can say is I made this post 3 years ago when I knew nothing.
If you want to use a specular map, you'd plug it into the specular nodes in the lower right, into specular color channels. However, if the map is largely gray, and has little white in it, this will significantly decrease the amount of specular effect. You'll have to compensate by increasing the reflectivity.
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)
Helgard posted Sat, 21 February 2009 at 8:55 PM