Problem with Mari Displacements

Kgizzi

Hey guys. I'm using the method I've learned from Tom Newbury's skin texturing tutorial to apply skin textures in Mari. I'm now trying to do the same thing to a cloak, and it's not working correctly. So here is what it looks like zoomed out.

Here is what is going on in the Hypershade. This first image is just using a displacement tileable duplicated 15x15 in the X and Y.

Will continue question in next post.

Kgizzi

Now this is the second image is using the Mari displacement instead, where I used the Mari UDIM map I created from the tileable.

Now this is comparison of the results.

So it seems like using the tileable displacement is working and the mari displacement isn't. Anyone know what is going wrong here?

2bytes

I assume you are using Arnold?  Mari just spits out a texture map, so what you see is what you get. It looks like texture filtering or a low resolution texture map that are giving you this error.  You will have to verify inside Mari.    Make sure you working in 16bit as well.

Personally,  displacement maps are overkill for this asset,  and bumpmaps will suffice.  Arnold by default uses Autobump....which converts the high frequency details to bump map so you are not rendering a 30million polygon mesh.  Also,  the math nodes are entirely unecessary,  all they are doing is a color correction of the texture,  which you should be doing in Mari to begin with.  The subdivision tab of the shape node will give you enough fine control  and will do what the math nodes are doing (if you are using Arnold). 

Kgizzi

2bytes said:

I assume you are using Arnold?  Mari just spits out a texture map, so what you see is what you get. It looks like texture filtering or a low resolution texture map that are giving you this error.  You will have to verify inside Mari.    Make sure you working in 16bit as well.

Personally,  displacement maps are overkill for this asset,  and bumpmaps will suffice.  Arnold by default uses Autobump....which converts the high frequency details to bump map so you are not rendering a 30million polygon mesh.  Also,  the math nodes are entirely unecessary,  all they are doing is a color correction of the texture,  which you should be doing in Mari to begin with.  The subdivision tab of the shape node will give you enough fine control  and will do what the math nodes are doing (if you are using Arnold). 

Ok thanks yea that seems to be working better. So why is it that we use displacement for skin textures and bump maps for fabric etc? They seem to be around the same level of detail. Maybe the SSS and stuff wouldn't work with a bump map?

2bytes

Microdetails.....wether it is fabric or pores on skin  do not really need displacement.  Displacement is needed for details that will change the profile of the character,  such as wrinkles and warts.  The micro details are critical for the specular shading, which is incredibly important for skin.  All of that can be done with a bump map.  SSS alone is a very subtle effect,  but Specular is a dramatic effect that will read far more strongly and therefore should get more attention.