fake sss workflow question
polycounter lvl 11
hello folks, i was looking for to find a way to create a good Translucency map for faking SSS with marmoset toolbag, unfortunally, it have too much confusion about SSS render and SSS ingame which i didn't managed to find a good one. but i luckily found this interesting article : http://zigguratvertigo.com/2011/03/07/gdc-2011-approximating-translucency-for-a-fast-cheap-and-convincing-subsurface-scattering-look/ and http://zigguratvertigo.com/2011/04/04/approximating-translucency-part-ii-addendum-to-gdc-2011-talk-gpu-pro-2-article/
once again, there is a problem that i can't do it properly : i don't have 3ds max studio because it was far expensive for my current budget... all i have as softwares is silo 2.2, blender, marmoset toolbag, UDK, cryengine, photoshop, gimp, xnormal and zbrush 4r1
so, my main question is : how can i do the good fake SSS map workflow ?
once again, there is a problem that i can't do it properly : i don't have 3ds max studio because it was far expensive for my current budget... all i have as softwares is silo 2.2, blender, marmoset toolbag, UDK, cryengine, photoshop, gimp, xnormal and zbrush 4r1
so, my main question is : how can i do the good fake SSS map workflow ?
Replies
reverse normals in xnormal
bake ao in xnormal
invert ao map in photoshop
=>
local thickness map!
oh, it's that way ? i see, i will try it out.
it does have but i noticed a weird problem like this :
so, not the best one, it's the reason why i'm looking an alternative workflow of it.
I will try with a custom mesh later and see what the answer is, it is strange though.
nice idea
Toolbag has ACTUAL SSS that can can be controlled with the skintone slot. using the alpha channel to control scattering.
yes, that is true but sometime, it was not enough for to make a good sss stuff like this one you can see :
so, it's the reason why it said it need a special texture like thickness map or translucency map.
Toolbag does not have ACTUAL SSS.
It has a simple gradient ramp, the effects of which can be masked with an image. Just to be clear, what toolbag is doing is far from SSS. But faking it in any pre-rendered sense is far from SSS too, as SSS is a dynamic effect. Its like specular, you can't really "fake" it.
There have been a few max shaders that do a pretty good job of dynamic "fake" SSS, like: http://www.jistyles.com/main.php?id=doc&page=hlsl
and probably a few othres since then, as this is pretty old. You wont be able to get this effect in toolbag however.
yes, that is indeed an intersting stuff and unfortunally, like i said in my first post, i can't use 3Ds max for an obvious reason. but thx for it !
aside that, after some test with the method that equil but i didn't managed to make a good texture.... someone could make a detailled tutorial about it ? it would rock like freddy mercury said !
UDK has a very flexible material system, you might try your luck there, and do some research to see if anyone else had made a decent SSS shader/material for UDK.
Or just start painting an SSS mask for marmoset by hand, you know it shouldn't be that complex, fingers, ears, nose etc are less thick.
It would also help to see what you currently have.