Why does it need a backlight?

The effect is only visible where light passes through a thin part of the form. Front lighting hides it completely, so the material reads as ordinary matte plastic.

Which materials use it?

Skin, wax, marble, milk, jade, leaves and most food. Anything soft and slightly translucent, which is a large part of everything alive.

Easily. Too much and the figure looks made of jelly, which is a look in itself but rarely the one intended. Keep it to the thin parts.

Subsurface Character

subsurface scattering
translucent character
jelly render
wax render

A figure made of something light passes through, so the edges glow from inside.

Draw this style

Opens an image model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.

What it is for

Light entering a surface and leaving somewhere else is what separates living material from dead material. It is the single cue that makes skin read as skin, and applied to a whole figure it makes anything look soft and alive.

How it works

The material lets light travel a short distance inside it before scattering back out. Thin parts such as ears and fingers glow when backlit. Thick parts go deeper and more saturated. The specular highlight is small because the surface itself is soft.

When to use it

Use it for anything that should look soft, edible or alive. Avoid it on hard surfaces, where it reads as a rendering mistake.

Told apart from its neighbours

Stylised PBR uses this on the skin only, as one material among many. Clay Render is completely opaque. Felt and Fabric catches light on fibres at the surface rather than passing it through.

Where it is used

It suits confectionery and cosmetics advertising, a character close up and any product that should look soft.

Character rendering in features and games
Product and confectionery advertising

The prompt

Replace the blanks with your own character, keep the rest. Then run it on an image model.

<character>, subsurface scattering render, the whole figure made from a soft translucent material that light passes through, a warm glow coming through the ears, the fingers and any thin edge with a strong light behind, colour deepening toward the centre of each thick form, a soft waxy surface with almost no specular highlight, a dark background so the internal glow reads, shallow depth of field

Run it

What goes wrong

A flat matte figure comes back with no glow. Add a strong light behind the subject and a dark background, or there is nothing for the scattering to show against.

Leave out

opaque surfaces, a hard silhouette, strong specular highlights, a bright background, flat frontal light

Watch for

Put the light behind. Subsurface scattering only shows where a thin part is backlit, so a front lit figure in this material looks like ordinary matte plastic.

Questions

Light entering a surface, bouncing around inside it and leaving somewhere else. It is why an ear glows red against the sun and why skin never looks like painted plastic.