when I import a V3 figure from poser. Is this a bug? When it came in at default 7% it was plastic looking and shiny. So I took the advice given in another post and upped the shinyness (how did anyone ever work that out) and low and behold the shiny skin went away. Is this a bug do you think? Love esther

Esther, I don't think so. Shininess can seem odd. It really has to do with the surface highlight. I more focused surface highlight looks more plastic. I more spread out less focused highlight looks more natural, less plastic.

Hmmmm - still seems oddish to me. Love esther

I would think that you should set shininess to very low and then reduc the hilight. Skin is very flat. I would even consider setting shininess to 0.

the highlight is black - is that a high highlight? Love esther

Black would be a low hilight. -Kix

so if the highlight is already black then i would have thought 7% shiny shouldn't loo so shiny but it does, love esther

It is the mix of highlight w/ shininess. Not saying it doesn't seem odd, but that from what I have seen it's not unusual. Actually, I generally use shininess on maybe eyeballs or lips.Black appears to be very close to none whether you use it in glow or highlight.

definitely low settings of the shinyness dial look more shiny than higher settings, surely this is a bug, love esther

maybe it's different on a mac computer - it really is very shiny at low compared to high shiny settings - even when i tried black and then a light brown hi-lite. love esther

no , it's not different on a mac, it is very confusing to me too, you would think turning it down it would be less shiny, not turning it up, getting used to it though

I wish using point at w/ eyeballs worked better. In D|S it works great even in realtime OG preview, but in carrara doesn't seem to work well for that.I don't know if say adjusting the hot point for something might help there, but since I can't seem to get the eye to follow an obj well I haven't been able to get it to work the way I would like.

Here's what the manual says. The shininess channel controls highlight size.A high value produces small highlights;a low value produces large highlights.Then it says defaults are 50 for both and white is the default highlight.

Decrease the highlight size a bit on the eye and add a little reflection to it and you're done. But you need something to reflect on it though, not just the black voidness.

Oh, thanks shonner this isn't really for a render tho, just a quick example for skin shininess.Yeah, reflections aren't any good w/ out something to reflect. I was playing w/ reflection and refraction in the cornea tho awhile back.Are you talking about percentage for the highlight shader added to the color? I think the highlights are set to different shades for diff parts of the eye, like black and a darker gray.

The eye is always wet. So the entire outer part uses the same shine, highlight, and reflection.

Right,unless you have dry eyes :D I think the cornea is the only settings that are different, but did you mean to add a percentage to the highlight or just up the shininess to decrease the highlight?

To me everything, but the cornea is less glassy and reflective, a little more soft highlight.Getting the cornea to not be too glassy is also important.

Esther, Change the highlight to white and you will see the shininess work like you think it will.

Up the shine to decrease the highlight. I'm talking about the wetness of the entire eye. Each part of the eye under the wetness will have its own reflection and highlight values, though. This makes the eyes look more real. But if they are not the focus of the render, don't bother with them so much.

Esther, On the eyeball I found white highlight made a difference in how shine worked on eyeballs, but w/ white it was worse on skin...seemed harder to control. I know specular controls can be a bit more mysterious to understand than say diffuse.So what I said earlier probably doesn't hold true. Tho I didn't get a plastic look at 7% shine w/ black highlight.