How can i have a softer Skin using BRDF

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18 comments, last by MJP 9 years, 9 months ago

Hi,

i implemented physically based shading, using the Cook Torrance BRDF Equation, with Trowbridge Reitz GGX for Normal Distribution, the Smith Schlick GGX for Geometric Shadowing, Schlick Approximation for Fresnel and for diffuse, Lambert.

All is working in Linear Space with pow(2.33) on Input and pow(0.4545) on output, and it looks good.

But the problem i have is for skin :

[attachment=22294:Skin harsh.jpg]

The falloff is too harsh, good for general objects, but the skin should look softer.

And it looks like cell shading...

So how can i make it softer like this :

crysis3-2013-01-22-10-57-22-06.jpg

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You probably want to look into subsurface scattering for the skin. Jimenez's screen space shader is the popular one. However, I'm concerned about how sharp your light-shadow transition is independent of the material being rendered. That does not look correct to me. You should check out what's going on there before doing anything else. FWIW, a cheap starting point with skin is to simply shut off specular entirely. This is a good sanity check.

SlimDX | Ventspace Blog | Twitter | Diverse teams make better games. I am currently hiring capable C++ engine developers in Baltimore, MD.

Why aren't you taking advantage of gamma corrected texture reads / back buffers?

Cheers!

You probably want to look into subsurface scattering for the skin. Jimenez's screen space shader is the popular one. However, I'm concerned about how sharp your light-shadow transition is independent of the material being rendered. That does not look correct to me. You should check out what's going on there before doing anything else. FWIW, a cheap starting point with skin is to simply shut off specular entirely. This is a good sanity check.

I think it looks right for a gamma-correct Lambertian diffuse falloff. Linear-space Lambertian is actually pretty harsh, especially compared to doing it in gamma-space. Obviously it looks totally wrong for skin, since the SSS will "soften" the falloff and avoid that "rocky" look that you would get otherwise.

So yeah, there's the screen-space stuff which has its pros and cons. At work we use Pre-Integrated Skin Shading (also has an article in GPU Pro 2), which has a different set of pros and cons. For some background reading, I would also suggest reading the skin rendering chapter from GPU Gems 3. The actual techniques it describes aren't really attractive for real-time rendering (texture-space diffusion is too expensive and doesn't scale well, and GGX is a cheaper approximation than multiple Beckmann specular lobes), but it's still a great article.

I think I accidentally down voted someone in this post. Tablet jumping around.

They call me the Tutorial Doctor.

@Promit Yes, the falloff is very harsh, and without specular too (it stay the same). Do you know another diffuse equation i can use to have something softer ?

@kauna It's because Unity Free have his inputs in Gamma Space, so i had to manually correct the gamma in shaders.

I will try Sub Surface Scaterring, but i cant' use a method in Screen Space or anything which needs a rendertexture : in free version, rendertexture are very expensive.

So i'll try the Pre-Integrated Skin Shading but i have some questions :

if i understood well, i need my usual textures :

- Albedo, Normal map, Specular Map, Gloss Map

and

- Curvature Map (Baked from the mesh) and BRDF look up

So this method only affect diffuse calculations right ?

I can keep my Cook Torrance Specular, i just have to modify classic Diffuse Lambert to add SSS ?

Will sub-surface scattering necessarily help the falloff though? You can however get good skin results with nice ambient occlusion, SSS, a subtle texture map, and a decent normal map.

They call me the Tutorial Doctor.


@Promit Yes, the falloff is very harsh, and without specular too (it stay the same). Do you know another diffuse equation i can use to have something softer ?
At risk of revealing my mountain man situation of being trapped on mobile ... I just like gamma space half lambert, as described in the HL2 slides.

	float ndotl = dot(N, L1);
	//compute half lambert term
	ndotl = (ndotl * 0.5) + 0.5;
	ndotl *= ndotl;
	ndotl = clamp(ndotl, 0.0, 1.0);

SlimDX | Ventspace Blog | Twitter | Diverse teams make better games. I am currently hiring capable C++ engine developers in Baltimore, MD.

I tested your half lambert, but the problem is the lighting looks flat : the falloff is very large, so it looks incorrect, especially with shadows.

I tried to downscale the normal map, and the result is a little softer, but it's still very harsh.

[attachment=22313:Image based Lighting Woman Harsh 2.jpg]

I'll try pre integrated sss too.

Someone knows where i can download the head scan all people use ? The Infinite site is down :(

So this method only affect diffuse calculations right ?

Yes. Current sub-surface scattering techniques only address diffuse reflectance, so you can leave specular alone.

Will sub-surface scattering necessarily help the falloff though?


Absolutely. Take a look at this image from Eric Penner's slides:

[attachment=22314:SSS.PNG]

Notice how the falloff becomes much softer as curvature increases.

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