Deliver me from SSS - Illuminated signs in C4D

[planetfour 0]

Hey all! I'm trying to make some signs like the ones below in c4d. I'd like to be able to get a translucent material for the letters, so that i can get the subtle variance in the luminance that I can't really get from a flat luma channel.

 

So SSS seems to be the answer, but the issues I'm having are...

 

1) When I make my SSS material and place lights inside the models, it seems that the corners/outline edges of the letters are brighter than the flat faces facing the camera, while I would expect and desire the opposite.

 

2) rendering SSS to 5K plates is NOT giving me good times, regardless of how I tweak settings.

 

Wondering if anyone has had to do this and has had any success with any workarounds, or knows even more ways to optimize. I'm bumping down samples and bumping up smoothing, cranking up my path length in the SSS settings, still can't get a 5k render under 5min/frame

 

Thanks if you have any ideas (he said at 5:40 PST on a friday before a holiday...)

 

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2013 by planetfour

[Cosmo Ray 0]

I could be wrong here but I feel like SSS is total overkill. You can't get the same result using gradients in the luma channel or by some clever glows in compositing? Video co-pilot just did a tutorial about selective glow that might be applicable here:

 

[planetfour 0]

Yeah, I've given up pretty much on SSS. Would love for it to work but def overkill.

 

I thought of gradient lumas, but it feels like such a specific gradient, maybe the best thing would be to render out a matte for the faces that can then be choked and screened or something.

 

I wish I was doing the composite, but its all Nuke, and some other guys are doing it. I would totally be just glowing up the selected elements.

 

But ultimately I think you're right and at this point I think we'll have to

 

DUN DUN DUNNNNN

 

Fix it in post.

[vozzz 2]

use proximal shader in luma channel to drive the falloff around the edges of the letters.

 

so the splines that are extruded, should me aligned with the surfaces. and then its like using AO in luma channel, but faster.

[tezuka 0]

Paint a nice glow texture and use real world snippets.

Or use an Area Light with a Spline as source.

Edited November 23, 2013 by tezuka

[planetfour 0]

Thanks for the additional replies. I've tried the spline area light and it wasn't really doing it, and I'd rather not use cinema's glow when it can be done in the comp for more control, but I'll try out the proxima shader, thanks!

[planetfour 0]

Proximal shader is certainly getting me very close. The only problem I'm having now is that I can only get it to work off the verts of the spline while I'd like something more uniform.

 

Checking use edges or polygon radius doesn't seem to do anything. I'd love to have it recognize the entire spline.

 

Going to try to make some dummy faces to maybe drive the falloff.

 

Dummy faces are getting me closer, but still getting weird splotches in the middle of the text when the edges of the faces are what should be driving the luminance.

Edited November 24, 2013 by planetfour

[Davor 0]

Did you try playing with "Intermediate Points" on the spline? If not give "Uniform" a try and play with the Numbers.

[sbmotiondesign 0]

Try the backlight shader in the luminance channel set to simple mode. Then throw a light inside your text, area light set to a custom spline or a few strategically placed point lights.