specular_shader

Shader Family: Surface Material

Output: Color

Related mental ray shader: misss_skin_specular

This is a Softimage spdl-based version of the mental ray component shader used in the SSS shader compounds.

The specular_shader recreates the peculiar specular characteristics of skin. It provides two specular highlights and glossy reflections with edge enhancement.

NoteNote that fast subsurface scattering effects are not included in the maps generated by the RenderMap tool.

Overall Weight	Controls the overall level of specularity and reflections. This is where you would connect a specular map, which will affect the primary and secondary specular highlights as well as the reflections.
Edge Factor	Controls the width of edge reflections caused by the Fresnel effect (skin reflects more when viewed from a perpendicular angle). Higher values cause the edge to become thinner and vice versa.

Primary Highlight

The primary specular highlight defines the skin's top layer of specular highlights, which are most visible where the skin is wet or oily. Normally, the primary specularity should have low Shinyness, low Weight, and a high Edge Weight.

Color	Controls the color of the top-layer specular highlights.
Weight	Controls the base weight of top-level specular highlights.
Edge Weight	This value is added to the specularity's overall weight to produce the top-layer specularity at the edges.
Shinyness	Modifies the size and sharpness of the top-layer specular highlights. Higher values cause smaller, sharper highlights and vice-versa.

Secondary Highlight

The secondary specular highlight defines the skin's second layer of specular highlights, which are typically wider and softer than the top-layer highlights. Normally, the secondary specularity should have high Shinyness, medium Weight, and little or no Edge Weight.

Color	Controls the color of the second-layer specular highlights.
Weight	Controls the base weight of second -level specular highlights.
Edge Weight	This value is added to the specularity's overall weight to produce the second -layer specularity at the edges.
Shinyness	Modifies the size and sharpness of the second -layer specular highlights. Higher values cause smaller, sharper highlights and vice-versa.

Reflection

Weight	Controls the weight of reflections. Reflections are added to the object as soon as the value is set to something other than 0.0.
Edge Weight	Controls the edge-weight of reflections.
Shinyness	When this value is set to 0.0, normal raytraced reflections are used. When the value is greater than 0.0, glossy reflections, which take longer to render, are used.
Environment Only	When enabled, no raytraced reflections are computed. Instead, reflections are generated using an environment shader applied to the render pass.

Render Tree Usage

This shader can be used anywhere specular highlights are needed. It has no diffuse component, and therefore needs to be layered together with another shader that provides the diffuse shading. Usually, this shader is connected to the specular_illum input port of the mtlsh_shader.