Bill Hails <me### [at] billhailsnet> wrote:
> Alain wrote:
>
>
> > The spheres are probably to transparent. Try with lower transmit or
> > filter. Try using blured reflection. Maybe for the inside sphere(s).
> > Try adding some scathering media, use a fairly large density, probably
> > >100. Try adding irid to the iner sphere(s). Keep it low (<0.1).
> > Use an ior in the interior block, something around 2 and dispersion around
> > 1.01 to 1.1.
> >
> > To help reduce the rendering time, you may increase adc_bailout from the
> > default of 1/256.
> >
>
> Thanks for the pointers Alain.
> I've switched to a HDRI lighting setup, and the previous texture
> looked awful in that light, so this is a second attempt using
> internal scattering media and a semi-transparent surface.
>
> http://billhails.net/Pearl-002.png
>
> There's no internal surface now, just the media, and It seems to me
> to be even less like a Pearl than my first post. I'm going to try
> putting inner semitransparent reflective spheres back in, but keeping
> the media.
>
> --
> Bill Hails
> http://billhails.net/

Well, this thread is a year old, but I found it and figured I'd offer my
advice anyway. Pearls are made up of multiple transluscent layers, right,
due to the way they're formed. So it was clever of you to form it in the
same manner.
One thing that occurs to me is that these surfaces would be transparent when
viewed straight-on, which, if you loook at photos of pearls, explains why
they often have a darker spot in the middle.
I think combining these tricks with varying reflections will work well for
you.

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