>But seriously, I thought SSS on Poser figures wasn't possible.  Is it
>something that only appears to work with certain body-parts (like arms)?

SSS on Poser characters or even personal characters is not really easy,
specially with the head due to, as anyone knows, the little inner parts
(mouth, nostril etc.) and some elements which are half-in half-out like
eyeballs or teeth.
Unfortunately, the more the shape is complex (with deep cavities) the more
it's a difficult thing (translucence problem with objects into the media).
Many Pov'people had the double mesh idea (as the real skin): one translucent
and one opaque. Great, but doesn't work with complex shapes.

>care to share the technique?
>I'd like to see more, and feel free to post some source code.  :-)

hmm.. I'm not a scientist mind but a poor ignorant, learning slowly step by
step. My method is very very empirique, so my code is quite simple.. no
secret in there.
Big difficulty is to balance correctly the main light flow, textures
blending (filtering/transmitting), scattering media density, media sampling
etc.
Also, it depends on what situation or maybe I'm just a lucky guy...
One day, I hope someone will bring up to us the real right technique for
making easier SSS on skin with Pov ;-)

Here is the Wet_hand.pov script to play with (the Poser mesh was smoothed in
Wings3d) :

//Subsurface Scattering Test (SSS) with Pov-Ray 3.5/3.6
//The Wet Hand - Rene Bui - November, 2004
global_settings {
  adc_bailout 0.003922
  ambient_light <1.0,1.0,1.0>
  assumed_gamma 1.9
  hf_gray_16 off
  irid_wavelength <0.247059,0.176471,0.137255>
  max_intersections 64
  max_trace_level 10
  number_of_waves 10
  noise_generator 2
  charset ascii
}

//-------------------------------------
camera {location <0, 2, 10> look_at <0, 0.0, 0> angle  17}

//Main Light---------------------------
light_source {<0, 3.5, -3> rgb 1*10}

//Sec. Light---------------------------
light_source {<2, 0, 3> rgb <0.90,0.88,1.0>*0.7}

//Material-----------------------------

#declare Map1=pigment {image_map{jpeg "Poser_hand_map.jpg" interpolate 2
transmit all 0.3 filter all 0.0}}

#declare Skin=
texture{pigment{rgbf <1.0,0.5,0.48,1>} //Mimic blood/derma
        finish{ambient 0.0 diffuse 0.6 specular 0.2 roughness 0.05 }
        }

texture{pigment{Map1} //Mimic epidermis
        finish {ambient 0.0 diffuse 0.4 specular 0.01 roughness 0.05 phong
0.1 phong_size 30 brilliance 1.0}
        normal {bump_map {jpeg "Poser_hand_map_BUM.jpg" bump_size 2
interpolate 2 }}
        }

//Object-------------------------------

#include "poser_hand_msh.inc" //Where "texture {Skin}" is
object {Hand
rotate y*-90
translate y*-0.6

hollow
interior {media  { scattering {1, rgb 32} method 3 aa_level 4 intervals 1
samples 200 }}
}

//EOF----------------------------------


Rene
(the old newbie)

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