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Hi guys,

I'd like to dive into a new Maxwell adventure this weekend, and would like to ask you what's the best approach to achieve a semi-translucent vinyl material that lets light get through it, exactly like in this photo:



I assume this will involve some serious SSS, but does an SSS material also let light emitted from within come through as efficient as in this real-life photograph? I'd like to recreate the effect seen in this photograph as accurately as possible.

Your feedback will be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

Do you know how is that object constructed?, I mean, Is that object solid?, or is it hollow?, to know that is important since the SSS will act the right way IF the object is modelled the right way also.

But Yes, I think Maxwell can handle this situation quite well, you only have to know how the real thing is done and replicate that in 3D.

Try with this one I made. Probably you'll have to change colors a bit and maybe absortion too. It's white if light hits from outside and turns a bit orange with light coming through (though it looks a bit pinkish with the test object illumination).

http://mxmgallery.maxwellrender.com/ran ... =31&id=328

Thanks for your reply Vortice3D. Yes, the figure is a roto-casted hollow vinyl figure. I guess the plastic is a few millimeters thick.

If anyone has suggestions regarding the right material parameters I'd be very thankful.

Thank you too Fernando! I'll check out your material.

Your material looks great in the preview Fernando. I'm definitely going to give it a try, thanks for sharing.

Welcome! I'm happy to contribute to your scene.

Hi guys,

Here's the result:



The render took 24 hours at a resolution of 800 x 800 pixels on a dual Xeon 2.8 GHz PC, and it is still quite noisy. But I am satisfied anyway. Fernando, thanks again for your great resin material!

That looks lovely Metin, interesting material

Thanks Tom! Yes, the material was created by Doctor Professor Engineer Fernando! It is exactly what I was looking for and I didn't know yet how to achieve SSS in MXED. Didn't know you have to add a special SSS layer. I still have to study the features of the new Maxwell materials.

By the way, I'm currently rendering the same setup with sufficient indoor lighting. I'll post that as soon as the render has completed.

Thanks for all those titles and degrees but they are too much!

Your Dolly is looking very nice.

I was checking that material and now I would change it a bit for a better control of highlights:

-at the BSDF I would check Lambertian;
-add another BSDF layer with roughness 10;
-weightmap the first one with 90 and the second one with 10.

I think it would generate less noise and would have a better control of the shine of the plastic.

Here's how it would look like at SL 9:



I will upload the material when the preview is ready.

Cool, thanks again Fernando! I'm looking forward to the final material!

By the way, do you think that checking Lambertian is a good thing? I thought that a purely diffuse Lambertian surface doesn't exist in real life, or am I wrong? But if it causes noise to reduce faster, then that's very welcome of course.

Yup, you are right but I'm adding a second layer to give the shine so the final material won't be really lambertian.

I use the lambertian only in the sss layer cause I think it reduces the noise. (Not sure but I've got a strong feeling about it)

Sounds good and it makes sense, as the more diffuse a material is the faster the noise is reduced.