Forum: Carrara


Subject: photorealism, main components?

ibm386 opened this issue on Apr 19, 2013 · 6 posts


ibm386 posted Fri, 19 April 2013 at 6:00 AM

I couldn't create the skin similar in poser gallery 

the real human has no self-luminescence, he not a mirror, and he not transparent, I don't understand that creates photorealism, the model just shines as plastic and it is translucent as a candle?


GKDantas posted Fri, 19 April 2013 at 8:31 AM

Hahaha, the problem is how everyone see those things. Ones use a lot of highlight that create a wet or plastic look. The candle effect is due to SSS effect. In Carrara we have a big problçem with it, because we cant control it using image maps, only colors, so sometimes we get the wax look based in the position of the maisn light source.

The real problem with realism is that you need to learn how to control the light as in real life. For me the good setup is using a spot source and a HDRI image, but in some occasions you will need more spots to get the right effect.

The second problem are shaders: you need a very good texture and setup your highlights based in your light setup.

Last: USE postwork! USE render layers! They are your best friends in CG world! Learning to use render layers can save you a lot of time and you can almost simulate SSS without rendering it!

Follow me at euQfiz Digital




MarkBremmer posted Fri, 19 April 2013 at 9:00 AM

Every scene is different and it is really difficult to have a 'preset' that works for all occasions. The DAZ Elite Series of textuers comes with some SSS shader and light settings. If you can afford to get one of those, it's a nice place to start and learn. 

Ideally, I'm still waitingfor SSS that can be controlled by a texture map. 






jt411 posted Fri, 19 April 2013 at 12:00 PM

We had this discussion a few months back, but I'll chime in anyway :)

Carrara gives you all the tools you'll need to render great-looking skin. Yes, SSS needs a mapping function, but there's quite a few solutions to achieve the effect. If I think SSS will make an actual difference to any particular image I'm working on, I'll either use Carrara's multi-channel mixer along with an image map to dictate where the SSS shows up on a model, or I'll just shut of SSS entirely and use the translucency channel to create the effect. (It's faster and still gives the illusion of in-scattering)

Like Mark pointed out, different lighting rigs will require different shader set-ups. Global Illumination, Ambient Occlusion, image-based lighting, or just plain old scene lights play an enormous role in the final product!


ibm386 posted Fri, 19 April 2013 at 1:10 PM

Thanks for your reply

postwork solves a problem but it doesn't solve the main problem to understand and realize

glass or car paint too has sss effect, but we don't use sss when we create a paint or glass shader (I must check it) but we receive quite acceptable result

yes I had opportunity to receive DAZ Elite Series, having studied the available sss settings and having a little experimented with them was convinced that it is a substitute only imitating subsurface dispersion, in any measure of translucency is more plausible

to adjust lighting it is really big work, it is possible to receive perfectly looking result even with very simple materials, I agree with it.


ibm386 posted Fri, 19 April 2013 at 5:50 PM

You were right, 95% of photorealism are phototextures, sss a little bit smooth details

I regret about spent your and my time.