Vray Snow
Material
Here I will show you what I learnt from creating the Ski Chalet.
Vray FastSSS2
This tutorial is assuming that you have some basic knowledge of material creation in 3ds Max.
There are always multiple ways of creating any material but when creating snow, there is one component that is a must, Vray FastSSS2.
Vray FastSSS2 (subsurface scattering) is a material that can give you the ability to control how much light passes through an object; whether that's Skin, Juice, Water or in this case Snow.
Lets get started!
This material has been created for a sphere with a radius of 200mm, so consider the size of your object your applying this to when we come to add the displacement detail.
We will be starting with 'VrayFastSSS2', this will need to be applied to the object you require.
For a more in-depth verview of how this material works and what each setting does, then head over to Vrays website.
Set sub-surface scattering
Firstly we will set up the how much light is able to pass through the object and what colour is scattered once the light hits the object. In this instance we will be setting the colour of the object to near white and the colour of the scattered light to blue.
Scale - 8.0
IOR -1.3.
Overall Colour - 250.250.250
Diffuse colour - 212.250.250
Sub-surface colour - 200.254.255
Scatter Colour - 25.153.172
Scatter Radius - 600
Phase Function - 8.0
Add specularity and large detail
Specular colour - 233.233.233
Specular amount - 1.0
Specular glossiness - 0.2
Specular subdivs - 8
Trace reflections - ✓
Reflection depth - 5
Plug in a Noise node via a composite node into the displacement slot. Change the displacement strength
to - 20.0
Noise Type - Fractal
Noise Threshold
High - 0.6 Low - 0.4
Size - 10.0 Levels - 3.0
Colour #1 - 0.0.0
Colour #2 - 188.188.188
Add smaller detail
Add another noise node into layer 2 of the composite node.
Set this to an opacity of 32. This noise map will give you all of
the little specular flakes and highlights dependant on the angle of your light source.
Noise Type - Fractal
Noise Threshold
High - 0.55 Low - 0.45
Size - 0.0035 Levels - 3.0
Colour #1 - 35.35.35
Colour #2 - 210.210.210
From here, make it your own.
You can do so much with this material. Try adjusting the scale and size of the scatter radius. On the render on the right, I doubled the size and scatter radius which means more light can pass through.
Play around with the noise size and levels, consider how fresh the snow is; has it been there long, has it started to freeze over?
Or remove the noise all together to finish off an ice material with more light passing through it!
If you followed the settings correctly and the displacement looks to big or too large, try changing the UVW map settings for you object and the strength of the displacement.
Please leave any feedback and if I missed anything please leave a comment and I will help where i can!
