I just wanted to share an attempt of mine to capture the look of Parthenon-esque marble, which as I understand it is quite an unusual (and therefore hard to imitate) type of stone due to its relative softness and subtle sparkle.

This is NOT the final product, since for one thing, I'm not very fond of the persistent gray outlining that seems to be happening for some reason, but it's a good start!  Any feedback will be greatly appreciated as I continue to tweak the shader.

My goal is a newly sculpted look (i.e. how the Parthenon would've looked in its heyday).  Once I perfect that, I might try my and at a more aged version for ruins.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2745545&page=1

Another nice addition to my ever growing folder of BB Materials :o)

Perfect as always, BB, and thanks for sharing!  Just for the sake of the learning experience, though, I've kept working on my experiment.  I figured out what was causing the outlining, for one thing!  Here's the latest version!

Quote - My goal is a newly sculpted look (i.e. how the Parthenon would've looked in its heyday).  Once I perfect that, I might try my and at a more aged version for ruins.

Not many people are aware that the Parthenon, along with other well-known ancient Greek monuments and statues, was not just white marble in its day.  Most times plant-based dyes were used to paint statuary and structures.

http://www.livescience.com/649-parthenon-riot-color.html

http://www.decodingtheheavens.com/blog/post/2009/06/15/The-Parthenon-in-colour.aspx

Of course there is something to be said about the minimalist white under a glaring sun and juxtaposed with the blue sky and sea that Greek islands have adopted as an aesthetic image.  However, ancient peoples loved colour and used it extensively (e.g. the Minoan Palace at Knossos)

The painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema has portrayed how the Parthenon may have looked as it was being constructed in this painting:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/1868_Lawrence_Alma-Tadema_-_Phidias_Showing_the_Frieze_of_the_Parthenon_to_his_Friends.jpg

Historical facts aside, I prefer the white marble myself and BB's shader is the closest approximation I have seen.  It worked wonderfully for my Winged Nike here:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2105086&user_id=2482&np&np

Ok, enough of the history lesson and the profusion of links :)

Yes, I've watched a couple of documentaries on YouTube about the Parthenon, and all of them mentioned the fact that the original was most likely painted in vivid hues.  For now, at least, let's stick to with slightly-off-white until I'm sure I've nailed the overall texture.  I believe that's the color of freshly quarried marble, and I can easily add a color-painted effect into the shader by simply editing a one or two node inputs.

I've added a bit more turbulence to the veins and increased the SSS.  What do you think?

This looks much better and closer to the real thing than the first one.  Are you using a specular light and raytraced shadows?  If not, maybe try rendering it with those to see the result?

yeah, i was gonna mention they painted 'em back in the old days.  then some guy bought an house in beverly hills and painted his statues - everybody freaked out about how vulgar it was, but that's the way they did it.  the guy was rumoured to be a saudi prince, but I doubt it.  they've got all kinds of proscriptions against idolatry, graven images et al., meaning fahd would have had his head on a platter.

p.s. the outlining was likely edge blend.

Kalypso, on that last render of the statue I had one fill spotlight, one main spotlight, and one back/rim spotlight.  I'm glad you think I'm on the right track!

As a further experiment, I tested out the latest draft of the shader on a simple pillar.  The shader is pictured here in combo with procedural crenallations (what the heck is the proper term for the wave-like circumferential contouring of classical columns, anyway?)via displacement and trig functions.  I used a single infinite light this time, just to see if the shader held up under different lighting and also because the typical colonnade is outdoors and would therefore be lit primarily by sunlight.