Fastsss2 glossiness

[Jiri.Matys]

I am a little bit confused. There is no way how to set transparency glossiness to anythink but 1 or am I missing something?
I didnt use fastsss2 for long time so maybe I just dont remember something. Long time ago maybe dont need it so this is why Iam so confused now. Is there any way?

[vlado]

For the moment there is no way to set the transparency glossiness. It is on the "to do" list and will be implemented.

Best regards,
Vlado

[simmsimaging]

I remember running into this once before and trying a really fine-grain noise map as a bump, and then layering in cleaner reflections with another material. Can't remember which project it was, but pretty sure it worked okay, but I think the render times were slower.

b

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

Is this still on the to-do list or is there a way to achieve the refractive glossiness?
I tried to blend a VrayMtl with FastSSS2 Mtl to get a subtle effect of glossy refraction but the blending doesnt seem to work (the glossiness of the SSS mat seems to stay the same, no matter how much percentage I lay the normal Mtl over it)... Really troublesome getting the result I am looking for.

[bennyboy]

You doing a translucent plastic? A little trick with that is to use a combo of refractive exit color (like 200 gray value) with a very shallow refractive depth of like 2-3, and a very, very small bercon noise bump map (with strength of like 1%). Can get similar results as translucency, or even refractive gloss, but a ton faster (and it'll work in GPU).

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

You doing a translucent plastic? A little trick with that is to use a combo of refractive exit color (like 200 gray value) with a very shallow refractive depth of like 2-3, and a very, very small bercon noise bump map (with strength of like 1%). Can get similar results as translucency, or even refractive gloss, but a ton faster (and it'll work in GPU).

ActuallY I am working on a Smirnoff Ice Material
And this drink is interestingly enough translucent but also very foggy. Refractions are not so clear so I am trying to simulate that with a glossy refraction.
I thought that using noise would make the render slower than glossy refractions so I never got that idea until looking at this thread. I would like to have the option directly in the material but for now its a good workaround. thanks!

[bennyboy]

Yeah, for some reason the bump method is lot faster (at least on my system) than refractive gloss...the only thing is trying to get the scatter look...bump tends to be very surface looking, effecting the reflections. But it's kind of a minor problem compared to the benefits. The thing to remember about your bottle is that at the shoulder the camera angle to the glass changes...in that area having a shallow "max depth" (and perhaps using a subtle exit color) will give the frosted/translucent look you're going for.

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

What do you mean by shoulder? The part facing away from the camera?
So setting that materials max refraction depth to something like 2-3 along with exit color would give me "fake" bright refraction around edges, right?

[bennyboy]

What do you mean by shoulder? The part facing away from the camera? So setting that materials max refraction depth to something like 2-3 along with exit color would give me "fake" bright refraction around edges, right?

Shoulder: the part of the bottle that curves to the neck. This part of the glass is slightly thicker to the camera angle (i.e., glass gets thicker the more you look at it from the side) - if you have a shallow depth, the glass will appear less refractive (like in real life) in that area. BTW, I'm just assuming you're using a solid model (the glass has a thickness dimension).
Disclaimer: this method is just a hack and worked good for me doing a translucent plastic product (as I stated at the first); never tried it as frosted glass myself, though I can see it working pretty well. However, the bit about the depth remains true, either using a noise bump or glossy refraction...it's a handy tool for creating shallower refractions...the exit color bit is really more the hack part...I used that for an object that had lots of varying thicknesses but all one plastic: using a shallow depth in combo with a light gray exit color was a fairly good alternative to translucency. But frosted glass really isn't translucent, in my subjective opinion, so I'm not sure it would look good this way...I'd have to play around with it to know.
I took Grant Warrington's course on materials, and one of the best things I learned is that you just have to really look at the sample object or picture and observe EXACTLY what it is you're seeing and make some notes about the physical characteristics. Separate out the elements and then attack each one individually. In the case of frosted glass, I see bump mostly...physically. The surface of the glass has microscopic hills and valleys that is catching the light and not allowing the light to completely pass. That's a perfect opportunity for a bump map...microscopic noise. Gloss would work too, but bercon noise would give you more control. And, in my experience, it's faster to render.

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

Shoulder: the part of the bottle that curves to the neck. This part of the glass is slightly thicker to the camera angle (i.e., glass gets thicker the more you look at it from the side) - if you have a shallow depth, the glass will appear less refractive (like in real life) in that area. BTW, I'm just assuming you're using a solid model (the glass has a thickness dimension).
Disclaimer: this method is just a hack and worked good for me doing a translucent plastic product (as I stated at the first); never tried it as frosted glass myself, though I can see it working pretty well. However, the bit about the depth remains true, either using a noise bump or glossy refraction...it's a handy tool for creating shallower refractions...the exit color bit is really more the hack part...I used that for an object that had lots of varying thicknesses but all one plastic: using a shallow depth in combo with a light gray exit color was a fairly good alternative to translucency. But frosted glass really isn't translucent, in my subjective opinion, so I'm not sure it would look good this way...I'd have to play around with it to know.
I took Grant Warrington's course on materials, and one of the best things I learned is that you just have to really look at the sample object or picture and observe EXACTLY what it is you're seeing and make some notes about the physical characteristics. Separate out the elements and then attack each one individually. In the case of frosted glass, I see bump mostly...physically. The surface of the glass has microscopic hills and valleys that is catching the light and not allowing the light to completely pass. That's a perfect opportunity for a bump map...microscopic noise. Gloss would work too, but bercon noise would give you more control. And, in my experience, it's faster to render.

right. the shoulder of the neck of the bottle.
yeah, the shallow depth option along with exit color is a nice option for a generic look but if you are going for studio lit objects then its not enough.

how would you go about making the noise for a bottle of glass that still reflects hard light as hard light and not diffused by the bump map? we are talking fine detail for closeups here, right?