USE WACROS
Connecting most nodes to create advanced materials is easy to do with a little experimentation, but others can be down right tricky. To help you with these trickier materials, the Wacros palette includes several predefined scripts that can quickly add and connect the nodes needed to create certain effects. The Wacros palette is a pull-out panel located on the right side of the Material palette. You can open and close it by clicking on the panel handle, shown in Figure 8-29.

 

Wacros are PoserPython scripts that deal specifically with materials. They are typically used to add certain nodes needed to create a specific type of material such as a Toon Render or a Shadow Catcher material. You can access them from the Wacros palette located to the right side of the Shader Window. Clicking a wacros button executes the script for the current material and Shift-clicking on a button executes the script for all the materials that are part of the current object.

 

Adding Reflections and Refractions
You can add reflections to a material using the Simple Materials panel, but to enable true spherical reflections and to be able to configure the reflections, you also need the Add Reflection button. This button adds several nodes to the Shader Window and connects them to the Reflection Color value, as shown in Figure 8-30.

The Add Refraction wacro works in a similar manner, adding the nodes needed to create refractions through transparent surfaces. Refractions work only through transparent and semi-transparent materials.

Adding Subsurface Scattering
Subsurface scattering spreads reflected light across the surface of an object creating the effect that the light can shine through thinner parts of the model. For example, lights shining behind a character’s head will illuminate the ears as if they were translucent. 

The Add Subsurface Scattering wacro adds three nodes[md]Edge Blend, Fastscatter, and Blinn[md]to the Shader window and connects them to the Alternate Diffuse and Alternate Specular values, as shown in Figure 8-31, to increase the color around the edges of the object.

Enabling Shadow Catcher and Toon Rendering
The Shadow Catcher wacro makes the current object completely transparent, but enables the ShadowCatchOnly option, which lets it display shadows that are cast onto it. You can use this option to give shadows the ability to be expressive and positioned independent of the floor.

The Toon Render wacro adds a Toon node and connects it to the Alternate Diffuse value in the root node, enabling the material to be rendered as a cartoon. It is used in conjunction with the Toon Outline render option in the Render Settings dialog box.