In article <3f124882$1@news.povray.org>, "Slime" <slm### [at] slimelandcom> 
wrote:

> I can see the difference when dense media is used within an object, but is
> this really the same exact effect?

Not exactly the same effect, but very close. POV media doesn't simulate 
secondary scattering...a bright light scatters light to the camera, but 
not to other media. Something like photons may make this possible, or 
have scattering media use radiosity, but you can guess at the CPU 
requirements...anyway, for most purposes, media will work fine. Since 
subsurface scattering is usually limited to the near-surface, you might 
get render time and quality improvements by using an opaque core with a 
media shell.


> And why would human skin have it? *My*
> skin certainly isn't very transparent.

Your skin is perfectly opaque? You should probably see a doctor about 
that...
Flesh is normally fairly translucent. You can see veins under it, softer 
terminator lines on shadows, and reddish coloration of light filtering 
through it. There are images demonstrating this pretty well...an image 
without subsurface scattering looks like the skin is coated with a layer 
of paint when compared to one with subsurface scattering. Or like 
really, really thick makeup.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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