Transparent material based on thickness of mesh

Support Materials and Textures
1

I am trying to create a material (with cycles) that becomes more transparent where the mesh becomes thinner. I plan on making the material to be applied on splashing paint to get a similar effect as this:

splashing-paint.jpg1920×1080 393 KB


Notice that where the paint is thinner, you can see through it more than where it is thicker. How can I make this type of material? I have tried experimenting to get this type of material, but haven’t gotten the right result.

Thank you for any help.

2

In the cycles node setup, try plugging a ‘Volume Absorption’ node into the ‘Volume’ of the material output.

This alone creates a basic transparent material with more transparency as the object is thinner (the absorption effect)

edit: here is an example of a node setup that creates that sort of look

transparent_thickness.jpg1282×452 82.3 KB

3

Something as radical as this?

upload.png509×750 255 KB

4

Thank you both for the help! The volume absorbtion node is currently only in the daily build of Blender, right? I will experiment with this to try to get the right result. Thanks again.

5

Or u can use the Blenderdiplom technique:


It can be faster.