Click to view attachment
While testing the new SSS render option, in A:M14 Alpha3, I was drawn to the patches around Woot's eyebrows. I have been noticing the prominence of the patches in that area for some time but have never had the opportunity to look at them properly until recently. On closer inspection I noticed that there is a group called "brows" which has the specular values set in the group's surface properties. This seems like it was a quick test that someone setup and left.

If a specular value is going to be used it would be much better to control it with a map and avoid following the edges of the patches.

Link to a 360 degree render of Woot's head which displays the current untidy specular affect around his brows.

There is a specularity map for the face - not sure why or how the spec got set on the brow group - might have been when I was playing with the hair material for the brows - but that spec color doesn't look like one that I would have chosen - so ...again not sure how or why ...

Thanks, Nancy!

I have set the specular values for "brows" to Not Set and have dragged the "skin" group to the bottom of the groups list, so that it overrides any other group that affects skin such as the lips.

Muuuuuuch better!

Click to view attachment

Now I feel that I should update the SVN but as this is an ammendment made in A:M14 I am not sure if it will load safely into A:M13. Is it safe to update TWO models from A:M14?

No!

Never use an alpha or beta version of A:M for finished work. Never!

That's what I thought.
I will leave it to the texturers to make this ammendment in A:M13.

Thanks again for this amazing enhancement, Yves!

I think that was my fault (the brow spec), thanks for catching that Paul, it's been in there a while now. Nice test BTW, but what's up with that black mark on the left side of his face?

I'm not sure what the dark splodges are. Probably because there is no back lighting and a black background.

I think that there will be quite a bit of experimenting with textures, lighting and sss settings before a perfect balance is found.

Early days yet.

Will you make the alterations to the groups for the Woot model, Kevin?

That quicktime turn around showing SSS is one of the best things I've seen (technology-wise) ...Ever.
I am so very happy. I really can't put it into words. Kudos!!! How do I get my hands on that?

Frank Silas
http://www.franksilas.com

HI Paul,

Could you post the Woot Turnaround as a project? I've tried SSS in v14a3 but can't get it working on my own models.

Cheers

Looking at a fully textured and costumed character along with the SSS skin... it sets A:M yet another step higher than some production animation that I've seen in the theaters.

Kudos to Yves! A master at work...

Hi, David.

I will post a simple project on the SVN later if you like. As Woot is TWO property, and the whole project with maps is over 30MB it would be better if it went via the SVN and all you will have to do is download the model and choreography and, if asked, point the program to your TWO folder for Woot's maps. I will save this model as "WootAM14SSS_A00.mdl" so there are no conflicts and the project will be in a similarly named folder in side the data/Testing folder. That will be a little later.

I have been getting mixed results and have been reading other's findings so I started to doubt the render times. Here is another 360 render that I just tried to confirm the results that I had last time:
Click to view attachment
And here is a screen grab. You'll just have to trust me about the z-buffered shadows for the moment. I have been experiencing sporadic crashing when using a raytracing klieg with this project so I was happy to see that these results were achieved without them.

Click to view attachment

David, the choreography and model are in a folder on the SVN at: data/Testing/AM14SSS_TestProjects/WootSSS.

I've got a 4 second walk cycle of Woot, with SSS, rendering at the moment and it's coming out at an average of 31 seconds per frame at VGA resolution and with far less blotches. I haven't changed the SSS settings. Only the lighting and camera distance have changed, and of course there is more motion.

Slightly off topic here, but I wish Woot's upper lip area was more expressive without looking stupid but I guess the poses have been created to give him a monkey like expression. I wonder if it's too late to add a forward/backward pose slider for the upper lip area? Hmmm. New topic I guess.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the 360:

Click to view attachment

and a screen grab:
Click to view attachment

This has been buried in woot for a while. I've also just added it into his smile poses. Update your woot! Feel free to edit any poses that don't look natural. Just let us know.