Hi! I started working on some skin materials and I have been wondering if using only the Principled BSDF would be enough to get a photo-realistic result, instead of creating fancy over-complicated node-trees (maybe they are necessary, idk, thats one reason for this topic). I`ve downloaded a model from https://cgblender.com/, and I rendered it with two different materials: on the left it is using the material provided by CGBlender.com that uses a custom node-tree for the skin. On the right is my simple material based on the Principled BSDF and its own Random Walk SSS options.
Note that it is a VERY simple material, I just did a little color correction to get the same skin tone for a better comparison and I didn’t even use the correct normal map as I was more focused on the SSS and the overall look.
IMO, my result using the Principled Shader was better than the one provided by the CGBlender, but even so, I want to get some feedback about photo-realistc skin and the correct pipeline for creating PBR Skin in Blender. Is there something I am missing, should I be using more complex materials or the new 2.8 Principled is good enough for achieving photo-realism regarding human skin?
Posting a few more shots with different lighting conditions, different HDR enviroments to test the consistency of the material. Also, couple of close-ups shots.
to judge the result,we have to know the reference for comparison.we dont know how much light was used ect.
if you look at real life photos,then mostly no one has that red glowing ears,only with sun as backlit maybe.
there are bright lines on the nose at your render.i would try to put your sss map into the sss color,and start with sss amount at 1 and scale the radius for fine control.
that sayed ,i dont know the sss map, if its the sss color map or a map for sss amount.
and one important point is,that the sss radius is in blender units.or roughly 1 blender unit equals 1 meter.
now,you have to look at the head model dimensions.if its in blender units or cm …skin scattering however is only a few milimeter ,depents on what kind of skin,how much blood ,how thick ect.
you have to fit the sss scale, of the sss radius, to the proportional dimensions you model has.
You are totally right. I tweked the settings and reduced the intensity of the SSS and it looks way more realistic now. Also, the SSS map is the following:
Now that I have the SSS quite figured, I am wondering how can I improve the reflections of the face. Does anyone has any idea on how to achieve better skin reflections using the Principled BSDF?
Skin has a IOR around 1.4 .the basic specular value with 0.5 is IOR of 1.5 you can lower it to 0.4 for more skin water sweat like IOR.the roughness is best at 0.5 .if you have a map then 0.4-0.6 are good roughness values
your map seems a sss amount map to be.you can control it, with a multiply math node between the input too.you can try use it for the roughness too,with a color invert and multiply node around 0.5
wow nice. please how can I download the blend file with the node, am working on a project, which I need realistic skin but I need the node system as a base to start
