Help Request: AoA SSS Shader, UE2, and Reflection on Skin

Visioneer

Hello all! I am attaching an image that falls under the "Acceptable Ways of Handling Nudity" policy. If I am incorrect, please remove the image or advise me so I can remove the image and correct the issue (if it exists.)

I'm working on an image, and I seem to be running into a couple issues with AoA's SSS Shaders (which are incredible, btw) My ambient light is by way of UberEnvironment 2, and I am using a lighting set-up similar to Slide3D's. The most significant issue I have run into is the flesh on the character's inner thigh appearing reflective (like a shiny coat of massage oil has been massaged onto it, but the skin is not absorbing it.) It is most apparent on the left inner thigh, but underneath the right arm on the right thigh, it can also be seen.

I have tried everything I can think of, including switching Pre-Post SSS, turning SSS On to .50, dropping the surface reflection for the afflicted areas down significantly, then for the entire surface area, placing a Spec Only point light near the afflicted area, decreasing surface spec, and I am continually coming up short. The images are taking a significant amount of time to render, and I have been working on this issue for roughly the last 2 days. If anyone can shed some light (lol!) on my problem, it would be much appreciated!

frank0314

It's fine. Your using elements within the scene to cover and it's not showing to much of certain areas

Visioneer

Thanks for letting me know! I was hoping that would be the case, based on the ToS. That said, do you have any idea about my render issue?

frank0314

No, sorry. I know nothing about SSS

Visioneer

Would this be better off in the Daz Studio Sub Forum?

jestmart

Skin shouldn't have any Reflection unless the intent is oily or sweaty skin, even then the strength shouldn't be very high. The first Specular is better for glossy surfaces with sharp highlights. Specular 2 is more diffused therefore better for skin. The color is also very important, for skin it should be much darker than you would think. The following is my latest experiment and the specular settings for the face. Because it is slightly toony the specular colors a bit brighter to make it 'pop'.

Visioneer

Thanks a bunch, I'll give it a shot. Part of me thinks that it may have something to do with the direction of the lighting, but I can't be certain. I'll look into what you suggest right now.

Rifful

Looks like a reflection or refraction problem.

I find that the AoA SSS usually needs to be tweaked when applying it to character textures. I usually use cntrl-clik to ignore maps, change the SSS setting to Skin-A or Skin-B. Use a Specular map on specular1 and turn up specular2. Turn Displacement setting to zero if you dont have a map.

Then I load the diffuse texture into the SSS color, set it to a peach color. If you look at the newer textures from Daz (Girl6), the diffuse is set to 50% and the SSS is 75%. But they also have Normal maps.

Then there's lighting, which can make or break the SSS look. All of it works together, so it's not just 1 setting that can affect it, making it a little complex.

Visioneer

Thanks for the input to both of you. I didn't turn the Spec nor Reflection to zero (since skin has a bit of reflection to it) but down to like 3-3.5%, which worked wonderfully. I also darkened the Spec 1 channel color, which seemed to work at a level I am comfortable with. When I dialed those settings down before, I guess I hadn't dropped them enough, and a render that takes roughly 45-50 minutes to sit through can be a bit frustrating to tweak. But it's paid off pretty well, not perfect, not yet, but pretty well. I want to thank you for your help. If you have any additional tips about SSS, regardless to the relevance to my image, I would love to hear (read) them!