Subsurface Scattering (SSS) Materials

Command entry: Material/Map Browser

Materials

mental ray

SSS Fast Material, SSS Fast Skin Material, SSS Fast Skin Material+Displace, or SSS Physical Material

NoteThe SSS materials appear in the Browser only if the currently active renderer supports them.

The subsurface scattering (SSS) materials are intended for modeling skin and other organic materials whose appearance depends on light scattering among multiple layers. 3ds Max provides four of these materials. Each is a top-level wrapper (a “phenomenon”) for shaders whose controls are documented in the Standard mental ray Shader Libraries document. Click a link to see the mental images documentation for the shader.

TipWhen you follow a link to the documentation for mental images library shaders, scroll up a bit in your browser. The links tend to go past the title of the section, and there might be introductory content above the link location. If the link goes to the beginning of a section, scroll down instead.

Material Name	mi Library Shader Name
SSS Fast Material	misss_fast_simple_phen
SSS Fast Skin Material	misss_fast_skin_phen
SSS Fast Skin Material+Displace	misss_fast_skin_phen_d
SSS Physical Material	misss_physical

Also see Subsurface Scattering Shaders and the topics that follow it for more general information. See Physically Correct Subsurface Scattering for background information and tips about the Physical material.

NoteThe SSS Physical Material can also be used as a shader for the Surface and Photon components of a mental ray material.

For a downloadable tutorial offering a practical demonstration of using the SSS Fast Skin material, see this Web page.

Light Controls for the SSS Physical Material

The SSS Physical material includes light controls that correspond to the lights array in the parameters for the misss_physical shader.

Lights

When on, the material is illuminated only by those lights specified in the list. When Lights is turned off, all lights in the scene affect the material. Default=off.

The remaining light controls are available only when Lights is on.

List of lightsDisplays the lights you have chosen to illuminate this material.
AddAdds a light to the list. Click Add to turn it on, then click the light object in a viewport.
ReplaceReplaces a light in the list. Highlight a light's name in the list, click Replace to turn it on, then click the replacement light object in a viewport.
DeleteDeletes a light from the list. Highlight a light's name in the list, then click Delete.