Weird Patterns on Genesis' skin using SSS?

DrowElfMorwen

Usually I use Genesis with omnifreaker's Human Surface Shader. Today I decided to put AoA's SSS shader on a figure instead. Now I have my Na'vi rendering with an odd pattern on his chest and arms and neck I cannot seem to get rid of--you should be able to spot it below. Any ideas? Also, is there much of a difference between omnifreaker's shader and AoA's? Is one better for skin than the other? Thank you for any help.

Richard Haseltine

You probably need to lower the shading rate in the shader - you need to do that for all surfaces with the same Group ID so right-click with the Surface selection tool, and from the context menu choose Select Surfaces with Value... and then pick GroupID from the list.

DrowElfMorwen

I think I had the shading rate really low already... or at least it was either at 1.0, or 0.010... I have to reapply it and find out. Although, I still don't get the point of the GroupID at all... I get how different IDs will render differently, but no one says what settings those IDs should be at. For example, what should the difference be between the chest, and the arms, or the face? A higher shading rate, or lower? And does a group ID only affect shading, or other things too?

Scott Livingston

DrowElfMorwen said:

I think I had the shading rate really low already... or at least it was either at 1.0, or 0.010... I have to reapply it and find out. Although, I still don't get the point of the GroupID at all... I get how different IDs will render differently, but no one says what settings those IDs should be at. For example, what should the difference be between the chest, and the arms, or the face? A higher shading rate, or lower? And does a group ID only affect shading, or other things too?

Generally, you should use the same Group ID for all the figure's skin surfaces, and make sure that no other surfaces use this same number for Group ID. Doesn't matter what the number is, just use it to identify groups of surfaces.

For shading rate, you'll want to look both at skin shading rate (surfaces pane) and overall shading rate (render settings pane). I think Richard was referring to the skin shading rate...try 1.00, but you may be able to get away with a higher one.

DrowElfMorwen

Thank you, I got the pattern to go away and a lovely render came out of it. I have to say AoA's shader gave me better results than omnifreaker's... I think I'm going to use it for skin from now on. :)

Scott Livingston

DrowElfMorwen said:

Thank you, I got the pattern to go away and a lovely render came out of it. I have to say AoA's shader gave me better results than omnifreaker's... I think I'm going to use it for skin from now on. :)

Glad you resolved the issue. I must say that's shaping up to be an awesome Avatar render.

Preferences vary as far as skin shaders are concerned. Personally I use AoA SSS most of the time, but I also use omnifreaker's UberSurface. UberSurface comes free with DAZ Studio and is an updated version of the Human Surface Shader. There's also UberSurface2 which is sold in the store...I haven't tried that one, but there are some who prefer it to the AoA shader.