Iray DS Base Shaders

[Miss B]

Gotcha! Thanks for the confirmation. I won't be playing with it today, but hope to in the next few days to see what I can come up with.

 

[RAMWolff]

Albedo maps are diffuse texture maps with no lighting information, shadows, highlights and AO. This is why procedural made maps that FilterForge and Substance Designer make are most often better than photographed made maps.

Hmmm, so skin maps would be a flat color with bits like freckles and moles but zero shadows or highlights? I wonder how one would create such a flat map?

 

[Miss B]

I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't think an Albedo would be used for a character skin. I'm thinking more like props or scenic environment setups. I'm sure Szark knows whether they'd work for character skins, but I don't see it.

 

[RAMWolff]

I'm sure it could be but that's where Specular, Normal, AO and Bump maps would fill in to make things more natural and lively!

 

[Miss B]

Very true.

 

[Szark]

Don't know RAM I don't do skin and to be honest I am not bothered with it at all these days

 

[tparo]

Have you looked into the extra diffuse slot that the latest 4.9 added to the uber irayshader, so far i've found that it can work like a mask if you use a black and white map in the strength and a colour or texture map in the colour it will mask of some of the surface.

 

[Szark]

Yeah I have, a bit limited for me, I would have liked separate bump channels but it is a cool feature nevertheless. I do like the 3 layered shader that Stonemason used on his Fern Lake terrain. But the extra slot could be good for freckle overlays, dirt etc etc

 

[Bejaymac]

Hmmm, so skin maps would be a flat color with bits like freckles and moles but zero shadows or highlights? I wonder how one would create such a flat map?

Without any light info you also wont have any translucency or SSS as it's the light penetrating the multiple layers of our skin that gives us that, which means you also wont see any blood vessels, nor any pigmentation so all skins would be pretty much the same color regardless of it's ethnic background.

 

[Szark]

Oh goodie someone who does skin...thanks Bejay

 

[Szark]

Well that job took me longer than expected. Just helping out a kindred spirit with some Iray stuff and then I am back on finishing this.

 

[Pendraia]

Without any light info you also wont have any translucency or SSS as it's the light penetrating the multiple layers of our skin that gives us that, which means you also wont see any blood vessels, nor any pigmentation so all skins would be pretty much the same color regardless of it's ethnic background.

I've been thinking about this Bejaymac and wondering if the thing to provide that would be those coloured subdermal mats you see sometimes subsurface texture maps - Google Search

 

[Szark]

yep I promised a tut but man if I had known how crazy my life was to get when I wrote that, well I wouldn't have posted it. LOL Since posting that my life has changed so much, with some ups and some serious downs and on the up again but more up than I was say 5 years ago. I do intend to finish it and I have been adding to it over the period. I have a feeling I will have some more free time soon. Well semi free...I am paying for Blender education, advanced stuff since I know the basics. Plus I will be starting to learn Substance Designer and Painter next month. Finally have the money to invest in the future. Been a long time coming.

 

[Pendraia]

Glad to hear that things are looking up Pete...no rush on the tutorial. I still haven't used the ones I payed for from Paul and Esha yet...need to find more hours in the day at the moment.

 

[Szark]

Thanks Pen. I think folks should do what I did, choose a program and stick with it. Concentrate on that one or two programs. I have totally dropped Bryce, Carrara and Poser in favour of DS and Vue. This leaves me more time to learn more.

 

[Pendraia]

My focus at the moment is ds and zbrush for the most part. I do flirt with learning painter as it is a beautiful program from time to time.

 

[eclark1894]

Thanks Pen. I think folks should do what I did, choose a program and stick with it. Concentrate on that one or two programs. I have totally dropped Bryce, Carrara and Poser in favour of DS and Vue. This leaves me more time to learn more.

I know the feeling, Szark. my apps of choice now are Blender and Poser. And frankly, I'm starting to spend more time in Blender than Poser.

 

[Szark]

Yeah Blender it big for me at the moment. I do miss rendering in Blender too but don't have time for renders much these days either. Can't wait to do my own promos though. I am going through the I am not worthy stage, that self doubt that has always been there but I think I am getting over it with each stage of learning and doing.

I am fairly sure I have Iray downenough to translate it in to plain English now. To be honest the General Concepts [Documentation Center] DAZ3D docs are very good for understanding the PBR Metallicity/Roughness mode which is the easiest shader of the 3 to use and get realistic results. I think Unreal4 uses the PBR Metallicity/Roughness as default. I just think it could expand on things more which is what I am aiming to do.

 

[Szark]

...so how do you do Iray SSS?

Pen to answer your Q, very difficulty. You need to place the diffuse map in to the Translucency Colour slot at about 0.10 weight and set to Scatter and Transmit. Then you need to Turn OFF Thin Walled which opens up the SSS properties. Then set the values (remember DS is in CM) according to the size of the object and the depth of when the SSS colour will take effect and choose a SSS colour. And it is all about this colour, too light a colour the more translucency, the more saturated the colour the more it effects the overall diffuse. Get is right and you should see the right balance but it will be overall darker. I would prefer to use a lighter version of the diffuse map as the translucency colour.

Also SSS direction, as far as I am aware for skin, should be in the negative. I used -0.50. I believe the negative donates the direction of SSS effect according to the direction of the light.

 

[Pendraia]

Thanks for this Szark...