Specular map doesn't show up on SSS.

[tvholicjames]

Hi,

I just put the specular map into the Primary Specularity and Specular weight and so far after many test renders, I couldn't see the shiniess of the specularity at all. I am texturing a human character.

And everytime, I plug in a map like bump and specular, I get an error message, even though the bump map shows up...

Please help. Thanks.

Jamie

[Jak_Carver]

what format are your maps in? BTW, u go to full sail?

[tvholicjames]

All targa files.

Do you go to that school?

[Jak_Carver]

All targa files.

Do you go to that school?


Targa should be working fine, double check your shader network setup again.

I would never waste my money going to that school; you can learn more as a self taught animator.

[glick_c]

Haha, you better watch what you say about Full Sail, Jak. :wink:

Although I technically agree with you there are people who got a lot out of that school.

[tallacus]

dont forget to use maya tiff files as well and i dont quite fully understand but if ur want to have the look of SSS u could also increase the eccentricity node on ur blinn shader all the way this will enlarge the specular highlight giving u a fake kind of SSS

[Jak_Carver]

blinns dont work well as SSS shaders, but then again you can fake it pretty good if you combine it into a massive shader network using some of the hypershade nodes. Just better to use mr SSS shaders though.

[tallacus]

or dont forget the scattering attribute in maya 8 and Jak what nodes are those, i can never find them in the mental ray shaders to simulate SSS

[Jak_Carver]

scattering attribute is really cool in Maya 8, thoguh some people seem to hate Maya 8 simply because they're fan boys of Alias. The MR SSS shaders come in 2 flavors, fast and physical.

Fast: SImpler to use, renders faster, doesnt require photon mapping

Physical: physically accurate, difficult to use, takes MUCH longer to render, longer to setup correctly, requires photon mapping

Both shaders are found in the hypershade under the Mental Ray nodes section. I recomend using the fast shader for skin since it provides great result and renders fast

[tallacus]

thanks Jak

[pablete]

Hi guys.
I know this is a somewhat old thread, but I'm having a specularity map issue and maybe you could help me.
The thing is I'm almost done with a character face I'm texturing in maya, with the sss fast skin shader, rendering with MR, FG on, and I'm having some problems with my spec map.
If I turn the specularity overall weight to 0, there's obviously no specular highlights in my skin. But when I plug a spec map (tif format, also tried tga with same results), I don't get the expected specularity. For example, my spec map has the area between the nose and the upper lip completely black (for testing purposes), but I still get specularity in that area when rendering. I have tried to plug a 100% black tif image onto the overal weight slot, and I still get specularity!!! I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if there's a glitch in my software, but I've come to the conclusion that my sss skin shader completely ignores the pattern of my spec map, it just adds specularity but ignores the black and white areas in the map.

I'd be really grateful if anybody could help me with it.
thanks a lot

[vishwas.g01]

hiii i am also facing the same problem as like" PABLETE " can any one help us please . any help will be appreciated !!:bow

thanks

[chrisg]

Hi Everyone,

A common issues when connecting maps is that Maya assumes you want the alpha channel, when instead you want one of the RGB channels. So go into the connection editor and connect OurColor.R into the specular weight attribute.