The Skin

The renderer I chose for this project was V-Ray, a long time companion.

The 1.5 SP3 version of V-Ray presents a new excellent shader, the Vray Fast SSS2. It was created to make subsurface scattering materials fast and easy. I have used this shader for the first time in this project and it is very similar to Mental Ray's SSS Fast Skin Material. I can confirm that it is blazing fast!

Subsurface scattering was crucial in this piece because I had set up a strong light from the back and it allowed me not only to emphasize the rabbit's silhouette but also to represent the characteristic translucent effect in the ears. You can check the used textures and shader settings in Fig.15, as well as the render result of the applied skin material in image Fig.16. You will notice, by examining the fingers on the right hand, that the subsurface scatter radius is a little bit exaggerated. However, the important parts were the ears, as the rest would be covered by hair.

The Eyes

For me, the most important part of a character is the eyes. Unless you are representing a dead corpse, if the eyes don't look alive, you will ruin the entire piece. People look at each other's faces all the time and the main focusing point are the eyes. We are so used to observing eyes that if something is wrong in their representation, we will immediately spot it.

I believe that there are the nine essential points in eye representations that have to be nailed in order for your character to look lively (Fig.17), as follows:

• A. Shadow line below the eye lid falling on the iris
• B. Bright highlight revealing the strong light sources - I used an HDR image on the environment to achieve this
• C. Highly reflective cornea (not forgetting the Fresnel effect)
• D. Reflection/brighter area on the iris on the opposite side of the main highlight/reflection
• E. Smooth dark edge surrounding the iris
• F. Recessed Iris - the iris is not so recessed in reality, it is actually quite plane. However, by pulling back the pupil we emphasize the refractive effect of the cornea and the liquid that exists inside the eye, instantly looking more alive
• G. Solid cornea - it is very important to model the cornea with thickness so that you can use an Index of Refraction and slightly distort what is behind it. In this case I have used an IOR of 1.4
• H. Milky sclera - the white of the eye has a milky look and shouldn't be represented as bright white. I used the VrayFastSSS2 shader with subsurface scattering to achieve that look
• I. Wet look - the tear line in the contact area between the cornea and eye lid. I created a spline with thickness, converted it to Editable Poly, and changed its shape in order to achieve a watery look

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