Maya help with layered texture/ layered shader
So my goal is to do a very nice render of a character in Maya using mental ray. However Im dealing with some serious complications when dealing with layered textures and layered shaders. So the character that Im making is a Centaur. Meaning that He is half man half horse. However the only way that I could get this to look good is to make the Skin with a fast fast SSS shader and the horse part with a heavily tweaked Blinn. Then I will need to mix them with a mask, So that The hair and the skin transition well. So I try mixing them together in a Layered shader, but the sss always loses quality when I mix it with the blinn. The blinn having a transparency value of the mask.
Now this is the second part of the problem. The character has 2 separate UVs texture tiles. One for the body and the second is for the head. Both of which need to have an SSS and the only way I can figure out to plug in offset UV tiles is using a layered texture not a layered shader. The problem is that if I use a layered texture then I will have to funnel it through a blinn or lambert, and doing that ruins the quality of the SSS.
So to explain the hierarchy
Top: SSS mixed with blinn using a map
Bottom: The above SSS split in two different texture tiles one for the body one for the head
Now this is the second part of the problem. The character has 2 separate UVs texture tiles. One for the body and the second is for the head. Both of which need to have an SSS and the only way I can figure out to plug in offset UV tiles is using a layered texture not a layered shader. The problem is that if I use a layered texture then I will have to funnel it through a blinn or lambert, and doing that ruins the quality of the SSS.
So to explain the hierarchy
Top: SSS mixed with blinn using a map
Bottom: The above SSS split in two different texture tiles one for the body one for the head
Replies
In the meantime, could you give us a few screen shots of your hypershade/node editor layout?
So basically were I currently am at is that I decided to plug in the sss skin and head in to a layered shader. Then plug that in to the incondesence of a blinn, Then plug that in to a layered shader, With the other material in that layered shader being the blinn for the hair. The problem is that Since I have to filter the sss through the incondesense of blinn. It makes it look much brighter.
I Don't know how to do things otherwise, barbecue I don't think you can directly connect A layered texture in to a layered shader.