Subsurface scattering refers to light penetrating an outer surface and then being scattered diffusely beneath. This creates the look of a soft surface, often with a very subtle glow. An example of subsurface scattering is human skin, where the soft, porous quality and semi-translucent glow are essential to achieving a realistic look. Other surfaces that require scattering are leaves, wax and gel.
Scatter attributes are available in the Anisotropic, Blinn, Lambert, OceanShader, Phong and PhongE surface material nodes in the mental ray section. By tuning these attributes, you can blur the diffuse component of that particular shader creating the look of subsurface scattering.
These attributes are for use with the mental ray for Maya renderer only.
Using Scattering on Maya materials is an easier alternative to using the native NVIDIA’s Subsurface Scattering shaders. For more information, see the mental ray for Maya Shaders guide.
