Has anyone actually got any of these to work for them yet? I've been messing around with all of the new nodes for SSS and all I get is either black or white. I can't seem to get the texture I'm using to show up.  I have gone over the whats new manual and that explains them all but evidently isn't helping me much.. :-)

Well I'm back to messn around with it and watching lightwave preprocess the interpolated preliminary solution for radiosity before it actually renders...... :-)

Well, I feel a bit silly now. I had to start with a new object and scene to figure it out though. I had previously setup the surface using the G2 shader and forgot about it being there. Evidently it doesnt play nice with the new nodes.... :-)

 

cool, post  a skin render when you get a good one, I want to see. :)

Here's where I am at so far. This is using the new kappa II . There are textures for color, spec, and bump.  I'll be glad to post settings if anyone is interested.
No radiosity and AA was at 1 pass. took about 10 mins to render with two samples for kappa II.Without using kappa it renders in about 1.5 mins so its a big hit in render time.

hmm didn't take the image.. lets try again.. :-)

I.m interested, ive been playing with the settings but but could never get good results.

You have to really play around with the lights and the scatter distance settings to get something good out of it.
Paying attention to your object's sizes and the grid size is a huge thing with the whole node system in general, as many of the nodes, particularly the SSS and Material nodes depend upon scale.

So true MikeJ. I noticed in the whats new manual they mention that you can get good results using backward along with a strong backlight and thats what I tried to do. I used three lights total. Two area lights and a point light. One area light on either side and the point light was above leaning torwards the back.   The range I used is about 1/3 of the width of the object I used. 

Well I hate to point it out but your use of the SSS node here is completely wrong. First off, the distance, or range setting is meant to be set to the (virtual) skin thickness... meaning if ur model is to real world scale, a range of 2-10mm max, otherwise u would get backlighting shining through limbs and so on. Secondly... and most importantly is teh way u have the node connected... having it plug into the colour channel will basically give u no effect at all.... just a slight alteration to colour. The SSS, and other shader nodes need to be connected to the diffuse shading input of the surface, otherwise ur just getting the same effect as if u used a single block colour in place of the SSS node, wasting rendertime to get, basically, no effect.

Furthermore... u will find that if u do connect kappa to the diffuse shading input that it works fine with traced shadows off, though u lose all surface shape definition due to the flat, unshaded lighting, and if u turn tracing on... well, check it out for yourself... it goes totally wrong.

anyhow, there u go.

thanks for the heads up.. Wouldnt be the first time I did somthing wrong. So from what your saying (if I'm understainding correctly) then the kappa II is pretty much useless, at least for what I'm using it for. If thats the case, then having it not really work like it should just lends to people setting it up wrong in trying to get it to work right.

well... tbh, ur right... kappa (1and2) are basically crap (and omega aint a huge amount better given the poor documentation, and the very strange setup needed for it).... Kappa'd be fine used in a setting where u needed to render something like marble, or milk... where shadows on the surface aren't necessary, and where ur able to set up to composite in layers (or use an object/material ID pass). Try the simple skin material node instead.... remember to coonect its output to the surface material input.

I'm really confused with Lightwave, and i'm not sure if anyone can help - but i'm looking to create realistic skins that i can take into photoshop and make different makeup shades, then bring into second life.  I've looked for tutorials on youtube, but it doesn't seem that anyone has step by step instructions. In college I used to use Cinema 4D, which, since college has slipped a bit from my mind, but I know that Lightwave works very well with Second Life.
Does anyone have tips/tutorials/bases (i'm willing to pay) that i could use?  As long as the skin fits the layout on second life.com/downloads i'd be happier than a pig in....mud. :)
Thank you!

Quote - I'm really confused with Lightwave, and i'm not sure if anyone can help - but i'm looking to create realistic skins that i can take into photoshop and make different makeup shades, then bring into second life.  I've looked for tutorials on youtube, but it doesn't seem that anyone has step by step instructions. In college I used to use Cinema 4D, which, since college has slipped a bit from my mind, but I know that Lightwave works very well with Second Life.
Does anyone have tips/tutorials/bases (i'm willing to pay) that i could use?  As long as the skin fits the layout on second life.com/downloads i'd be happier than a pig in....mud. :)
Thank you!

We might be able to help here depending on your level of understanding of the Node Editor in LW.
How familiar are you with adding nodes and connecting them? just trying to see how much you know before I can advise myself of where to look.

i'm not familiar at all. i'm a complete beginner :(

 Get LightWave 3D 9 Introduction to Node Based Texturing from kurvstudios or amazon youll learn how ot use it then.

Thanks