How to get Translucency node set up/to work in Shadermixer?
IceEmpress
Posts: 639
The only example I've ever seen of it is in ACD's anime translucency mixer, and it doesn't appear to work.
So how would I set it up in a mixer?
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I think I combined the translucency and diffuse colours with a screen or add operation in the past - certainly you want to mix them somehow as translucence is the diffuse from the other side of the mesh, so they are equivalent in type.
Okay, that's a start anyway. I'll have to see if that works...
Problem is, what do I connect all of that to, then?
With most of my mixers (except for the Lady Frostwhisper one), I go the lazy route and just Binary Operation Add two default setup nodes (renaming all the sliders from the 2nd default node) and go from there.
The only thing I can think of is a sum node, but then the translucency set would be more powerful than the default nodes, which makes things a pain in the ass (yeah, I'm still no good at the math nodes other than Binary Operation and Mix)
Edit: Nope, neither Add nor Screen works (at least not with alpha being used as the translucence strength toggle). It only shows the diffuse.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Are you trying something like this? With Screen or Add.
So, will that overwrite diffuse with translucence, or will it allow me to use both? Because the problem is, with the setup I'm working on, I already need two diffuse color nodes.
Just feed your current diffuse settings in where I'm feeding the Diffuse brick in above and it should be fine.
^^I did exactly what your screenshot shows, and it doesn't work.
Plugged in everything exactly, exact same settings-- no matter what I toggle the value to.
It does work for me - to the extent that there's light on the facing surface of the item. That clearly isn't how one would expect translucence to work, but I'm not immediately seeing where to go next.
OK, I was getting muddled - you need to combine the colour output from the DAZ Material brick with the colour output from the Translucence brick and then feed that into the colour input of the root brick - then it does work (I thought I'd tried that initially, but I did keep adding another Diffuse when I wanted Translucent so that may have been the problem)..
Wait, what is the DAZ Material brick and the root brick?
Default Material in my screen shot is what I meant - you should take the output from that and combine it with the output of the Translucence brick, then plug the result into the final brick that is currently receiving colour (and Opacity, which you leave alone - at least assuming that the surface is essentially opaque) from the Default Material.
if you have the pwSurface2, more translucence - http://www.poseworks.com/shaders/pwsurface2/pages/translucence.html
Still doesn't work. Anyone else have any ideas? I did everything exactly and toggle the translucency value up and down-- it's no different than the effect in your first screenshot-- can't see the object behind the translucent object at all. Will I ever be able to get this working? PwSurface and Ubersurface are not an option becqause I need an edgeblend node.
You do have a light casting a shadow of the item onto the back of the translucent surface? With a shadow casting distant light shining from behind the figure and the above network applied to a plane infront of the figure, Translucence Strength set to .6, I get this:
^^Nope Can't see the object behind the translucent object, at all. Oh, one thing I just thought of-- I don't need to have a light in the scene, do I?
Wait, let me test and see what happens if I use the UbS instead...
Edit: Translucency doesn't work in UbS, either. What's going on? Actually, I don't remember translucency working on my other computer too, so it's not an issue of my Daz Studio being corrupt. I don't need a light in the scene, do I? Because that would be annoying beyond description.
What are you expecting it to do? Translucence is being able to see the effect of light shining on the other side of an object, like the screen in a shadow play, so yes you need a light (probably a shadow-casting light) in the scene. if you want an item to be partially see-through just lower the opacity.
I thought translucency in Daz and Poser was when you can see a shadow of items behind an opaque object... I had no idea it had anything to do with light.
Ugh, this is going to be a huge pain in the ass. I hate having lights while testing materials, they always turn render times into monsters, even at low render settings...
Besides that, I don't think I have any shadow catcher lights.
Still doesn't workj. I get the shadow catcher working, then move the lights around-- in front, behind, there's no translucency anywhere. I try it with Ubersurface instead, NO TRANSLUCENCHY.
I'm really getting pissed off with this, here. There is NO TRANSLUCENCY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I even put the shader on both spheres-- they dcast sdhadoews but no trandluvcerncy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I AM SICK OF THIS! HOW DO IU GETRI TI TO WQOLRK!@?????!??!!??!!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!!?!?!?!!??!
Great. so now I'm being ignored as usual.
Not being ignored by me, I was just in bed.
I'm still not sure what you mean - in order to have a shadow you have to have a shadow-casting light, and if you do (as my render shows) you will see the shadow of the object behind the opaque surface cast onto the surface (or more accurately you will see the light on the back of the object where it isn't being shadowed).
In DS, if you want a quick idea of how things will look you can use the Progressive Render option - it tends to be slower to reach the final result, at least with relatively simple scenes and lights, but it gives you a quick, coarse preview that is refined by later passes so you can check where light and shade are falling and then cancel it rather than having to wait on a full render. You can also use the Spot Render tool to check localised areas.
Some useful information might be exactly what effect you are after. I don't understand what you mean by " see a shadow of items behind an opaque object" In the render you posted, you were using genesis, yes? Translucency's main use if for things like fabric, or paper, that are translucent, but only really one dimension, so subsurface scattering makes no sense.
Do you have a picture of what you're trying to emulate? That's probably the easiest way to explain.
If it's not the translucency effect that Richard showed, is it a sort of frosted glass effect you're trying to get? Where you see a blurred image of objects behind the 'translucent' surface?
Here's a very quick one I did using the 'Reflect and Refract' brick to get blurred refraction ... I'm not sure if I got the connections right.
Yes, I've used the sample cone setting to get the effect of frosted glass, with the blur increasing with distance. I also used a dots (?) pattern brick to give it clearer parts, like the glass used in doors sometimes.
Sorry about my outbursts-- they were directed more at the rest of the community than at you, in fact.
My descrip0tion was simply showcasing my misunderstanding of what translucence in 3D is. I just want the normal definition of DAZ translucency.
Here is my exact problem:
--I create two spheres, one behind the other
--I use a shadermixer or Ubs and kick up the translucency of the object in front
--I use either of the two free shadowcasting mixers out there, on the plane that comes with one of them.
--I add a light to the scene.
--Shadowcasting now works as it is supposed to-- shadows are cast on the ground and other objects. However, no matter which light I use or where in the scene I put it, there is no translucency.
I cannot see the shadow of the second sphere through the first, no matter what color I make either. It's just an opaque sphere.
Why is it not working? No matter if there are diffuse, specular, or AO lights, they don't help translucency show up. No matter where I put the spheres in the scene in relation to the lighting direction, no translucency shows up. I can't see the shadow of the second sphere behinf the first (translucent) one.
Does it hurt that I use the default render settings because otherwise render times take too long? Because I don't feel like waiting 3-6 minutes just to find out if translucency is working, or not.
Sorry, I can't really visualise what you expect to see - am I correct that you want two spheres casting shadows on a surface (do you mean a shadowcatching shader surface? Likely is irrelevant for the simplest case?) and you want to see through the front one? Do you expect to see the back sphere or only the shadow it casts? Do you expect to see the front sphere or only it's shadow?
If you just want an invisible shadow casting sphere, have you tried the 'Fantom' setting in the omUberSurface shader?
I simply want it to do what the translucency setting is supposed to do. You said that I need a shadowcatcher in order for the shadow/light of the sphere behind the translucent sphere to show up.
I just want translucence as what the UbS shader provides, but I can't get it to work even with the dial at 100%
Some tests with translucence.
Another one with two planes. The first plane is casting shadows on the second plane.
Wait, what? I thought it made a silhouette of other objects behind said object visible. So what the UbS shader's translucence does is creates a cast shadow projection through the surface? That doesn't seem very realistic...
The problem is that the cube and so on are not single solids as far as the render is concerned but just two (or however many) planes. You see the light falling on the back of a surface, but with the cube or the two planes or your spheres you need light to pass through the back surface so that it can then cast a shadow on the front surface. You need to lower the opacity for that to happen, either across the shader with the global opacity control or by turning cast shadows off or, a trick I have used, by using a ray test brick in Shader Mixer to make the surface less opaque to shadows than it is to other rays so that light can pass through but you can't see through, as with many real-world substances (for example, most lamp shades let a fair bit of light through without enabling you to see the bulb or supports inside the light -something that's not really possible with the basic shaders in DS/Poser). I don't know if this is going in the direction you want: