SSS Node

[Nangleator]

It was time for me to get an avatar, so I decided to revisit my signet logo and try my hand at good looking wax again.

http://home.comcast.net/~david.nangle/pic/Signet.jpg

[BigHache]

That's some really great surfacing. Nodal based I take it? Is your bump map an image?

[zapper1998]

cool, is it eatable .. ??

[JBT27]

That looks really good! :thumbsup:

Julian.

[Nangleator]

Thanks, all!

Bump map is Dented with an alpha layer over it of Turbulence. Yes, pretty basic. I used the SSS shader with a weight map on the inner, flat parts of the seal, going up the sides of the letter a bit. That weight map reduced the bump and turned down the "distance" setting in the SSS shader.

I discovered that when the distance is set too high, the bump kind of disappears, unless you have some reflection or specular to highlight it.

Not entirely happy with the global illumination, although it worked fast. I think I had Background radiosity with 300 rays. Still looks a bit blotchy to me, and the smaller beads look like they're floating off the surface.

[bobakabob]

Really nice work Nangleator! It does indeed look edible. Any chance of seeing your settings, I'm still learning sss.

[Nangleator]

Here's the material, if I can upload this correctly. Needs a weightmap called UnBump, for those parts you want smooth and more opaque.

[lardbros]

Thanks, all!

Bump map is Dented with an alpha layer over it of Turbulence. Yes, pretty basic. I used the SSS shader with a weight map on the inner, flat parts of the seal, going up the sides of the letter a bit. That weight map reduced the bump and turned down the "distance" setting in the SSS shader.

I discovered that when the distance is set too high, the bump kind of disappears, unless you have some reflection or specular to highlight it.

Not entirely happy with the global illumination, although it worked fast. I think I had Background radiosity with 300 rays. Still looks a bit blotchy to me, and the smaller beads look like they're floating off the surface.

Thats some nice looking wax there...

as for the GI, 300 rays seems quite low (for an object that looks small), does the blotchiness disappear when you turn it up? Also the shadows under the objects may tighten up if you raise it a bit?

[Nangleator]

I can see where I might have led people astray. My signet ring is rather large. The main blob is nearly 2 meters across. Adjust that surface appropriately!

I usually model to scale. Forgot to do it in this case.

I'll try it at a higher ray setting. Does the scale of the object affect GI in 9.5? There's no spacing number set in meters any more.

[T-Light]

When I think of wax, I always think of candles. We have all sorts, little ones huge ones, one of thems even full of seashells, but they're all mat. No gloss at all to any of them. This substance reminds me more of that fantastic kids slime stuff that did the rounds in the early eighties, can't remember the name of it. Please don't think think I'm taking away from the SSS here, I'm not, I think it's incredible. If it was mat, it just wouldn't be the same.

Cracking render, works really well :thumbsup:

[A Mejias]

WOW! That has the look of "The Blob" from the original version of the movie!

[T-Light]

A Mejias
WOW! That has the look of "The Blob" from the original version of the movie!
There you go, Beware Nangleator's logo heading to a small town near you :D

The more I see this, the better it gets.

[jameswillmott]

I can see where I might have led people astray. My signet ring is rather large. The main blob is nearly 2 meters across. Adjust that surface appropriately!

I usually model to scale. Forgot to do it in this case.

I'll try it at a higher ray setting. Does the scale of the object affect GI in 9.5? There's no spacing number set in meters any more.

GI is size independant now.

[Nangleator]

Beware Nangleator's logo heading to a small town near you
And no Steve McQueen to stop me now!

I think I've seen sealing wax with a bit of gloss to it. After it's hard. It's difficult to remember.

And remelted wax has all sorts of interesting textures to it. I thought about using a slight bump map of wood in the flattened area.

[T-Light]

You're absolutey right, just found these made in 'high gloss wax', sorry, I'd never even heard of the stuff :)