Working with subsurface scattering

The new material we’ll explore in this recipe is going to be wax. Wax! So, what is so interesting about it, you might wonder? Isn’t it just another opaque material, something we already covered before? Well, no! It’s a good example of the new Shading Model we’ll be using next, the SSS one – short for Sub Surface Scattering. This is different from the other ones we’ve seen so far, as light neither bounces completely off the objects onto which materials that use this Shading Model are applied nor does it go through them; instead, light penetrates their surface just enough that we can see its effects in the actual exterior, changing the color of the final pixels that are being rendered. It’s an interesting effect that affects multiple objects, such as the candle made out of wax we’ll see next to snow, skin, or thin opaque curtains. Let’s see how it works!

Getting ready

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