Mental Ray Skin Phenomena
I just wanted to share a cool new Shader Phenomena put together by the very creative Tony Reynolds, for 3DSMax2010 and Mental Ray. It also renders damn fast!!
This new Skinshader for MR is an update to the Advanced Skin Shader by Zap Andersson. This new Shader has more accurate Skin depth shading as well as some much needed (life) shadow bleeding from lights, that gives that nice life like authentic glow that was missing from the original and advanced version.
Now in my mind this Shader doesn’t quite match the quality of Arnold’s skin shader but it’s pretty damn close, and hey, it’s available now in Max for Mental Ray. I rushed these tests and slapped them together but I am sure other people could produce far better results.
There is also a version that includes a transparency slot, if you want to get creative with it, eye’eye!
Download Now (10 KB) Tony Sculptor Simple skin (mi)
Copy and paste to –> XXX:Program FilesAutodesk3ds Max 2010mentalrayshaders_autoloadinclude <–
or for 2011 Max Design+ –> XXX:Program FilesAutodesk3ds Max Design 2011MENTALIMAGESshaders_autoloadmentalrayinclude <–
26 Comments
Hi, for some reason i’m unable to use this shader. I’ve copied those 2 files into the directory as described above, but i can’t see the shader into the material list. I’ve tried both on max 2010 design and max 2011 design. Also I don’t understand the shader node image, because as you mentioned in the article, this is a shader for max 2010, and as far as know, max 2010 does not support slate material editor.
Ty. Best regards.
Hi Maynard, I can verify it works in Max2010 as others have used it fine. Just make sure you copy it to the right directory. It also works with Nodes in Max2012.
The shader should appear in the Material list.
That’s strange, the path is correct. The only thing that could be wrong is that i have an italian Windows xp version, so the folder Program Files is Programmi for me.
Anyway i copied those file in the zip into XXX:ProgrammiAutodesk3ds Max Design 2011mentalrayshaders_autoloadinclude.
Same path for 1010 Ver.
Perhaps create a folder for C:Program FilesAutodesk3ds Max 2010mentalrayshaders_autoloadinclude and see if that does anything? I don’t know much about Max. Can you get the old Zap skin shader to work in that folder?
http://mentalraytips.blogspot.com/2008/04/beauty-isnt-only-skin-deep-combining.html
Ok, that’s not an issue anymore.
I think there’s an error in the path u’ve provided. The right folder is XXX:Program FilesAutodesk3ds Max Design 2011MENTALIMAGESshaders_autoloadmentalrayinclude
It is “mentalimages” folder not “mentalray” one. At least this worked for me
Also could you share that scene?? Or share some details about illumination and GI parameters.
Anyway ty for the shader. Great stuff.
Ah OK thanks. I will add that info. Must be a folder difference between each Max version.
The shader comes with some pretty good built in settings. I might share something soon. Best to experiment for now : )
Ok, thank you again Infinite! Waiting for more stuff!
Bye
Yo Lee, you must have seen this video. If not skip to 1:10.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkpjPVvHDQI&feature=related
Hi Seb, yeah it’s very cool. Amazing what they were able to do back in the day.
Cost $1,000,000′s to do back then. Now you can just about do it on a budget in your own bedroom! if you have a few $10,000′s that is.
Thanks for the link again, always inspiring to see.
Does this shader work in 3ds max 2009?
I’m not sure. Try it : )
Awesome work. Does this work with Maya at all?
Hi Nate, you should be able to find some more info on the Maya set-up here. Tony is the man you need to contact – http://www.cgfeedback.com/cgfeedback/showthread.php?t=751&page=45
Cheers,
Lee
Hi, Lee! It’s really cool shader, but i have a problem with it. Mental ray always crashes when I try to render it with transparent shadow maps. Maybe you know how to fix it?
Sorry can’t help with that. Maybe someone on CGFB can help?
Is there somewhere we can download a sample file with the head and shader? Thanks.
No support is offered for the shader sorry. Some setup examples are seen above in the screenshot and the shader comes with some default settings you can use.
Ah too bad. Wanted to compare rendertime with lightwave skin.
http://forums.newtek.com/showthread.php?t=122729
Wonder how lw compares to mr nowadays.
I don’t know how LW compares to MR. I don’t actually use MR for rendering nor LW, I prefer to use XSI/Arnold which has an open architecture when it comes to skin shading and rendering in general. Something I recommended to Newtek a long while ago but it went unnoticed. LW’s “new” skin is pretty locked off. Arnold Skin shading is wide open to customize.
This MR solution was just a band aid to fix the previous Skin Shader which didn’t have that Red colour bleed in the shadow region. Perhaps contact Jamie at Ten24, he has experience with LW and MR. Hope that helps.
isn’t this you using lw?
http://forums.newtek.com/showthread.php?t=105896
It was, nearly 2 years ago now
Hey Lee,
The link is broken to the shader, any chance you can reup it at some point ?
Cheers
Joe
Hey Joe, the link is now back up and should work.
Cheers
Lee
Thanks Lee, Much appreciated.
Joe
Great shader. Got some ok results not knowing what I’m doing any change you can post your scene setup?
Thanks. I haven’t used the shader for a long time, you might find some useful information deep in this thread over at CGFeedback – http://www.cgfeedback.com/cgfeedback/showthread.php?t=751 sorry I can’t help further.