Well..
There is no Color Map in the Skin material (as it is in some other materials).
Also I tried OGL Texture Layers inside the material on the corresponding node.
It works in viewport but doesn't in render. I mean material renders OK but texture doesn't appear..
Can't find any help concerning this.
Suggestions? or links?

There isn't meant to be a texture map in the skin material. It provides all the controls without the need for an image.

probbins
There isn't meant to be a texture map in the skin material. It provides all the controls without the need for an image.

I don't understand.
What about color variations among different body parts on human skin?
Anyway mental ray provides such functionality.
And I can't believe that it's impossible in Houdini.
May be some layering?

You know what? You're right! Skin shader shipped with Houdini doesn't support diffuse colour variation via texture (assuming that Hue Shift is not that thing). This is really odd. Mental ray supports this!

But maybe you can help us to improve it? Jump inside Material (press i) and again in inside Skin Surface Shader you''ll find there. You will see a number vop nodes.

Find a lambert node somewhere close to output. Add Texture VOP and connect it with proper parameters s, t etc (you have there already one texture VOP, so check the example).

Now all you have to do is to multiply lambert output with TextureVOP output and wire it in AddColors VOP.

You need another texture for specular, or to tweak any of your parameter? Proceed in the same way. Add as many textures and operators as you want.

Check available patterns for Vops and ready to use materials accessible via Tab menu. Add, mix, multiply, fresnel, trace them, go ahead, don't limit your self. Free your mind!

Congratulations! You've just made brand new & great SSS shader for Houdini. Share it with us! RMB on Material SHOP, press “Create Digital Asset”. Choose name and new file for it. Upload on Exchange. Be happy.

Now try to do the same thing with mental ray

cheers,
sy.

PS Seriously Houdini's default shaders quality is legendary bad (although they strike to make them much better right now). So if you see something is missing, post a RFE here or, even better, repair it and share with the community!

I didn't say it was impossible, just that this skin shader doesn't have a texture map parameter. Nor is it a blackbox, you can go inside it and make whatever changes you want to it, or as SYmek suggested, make your own.

Buddha

probbins
There isn't meant to be a texture map in the skin material. It provides all the controls without the need for an image.

I don't understand.
What about color variations among different body parts on human skin?
Anyway mental ray provides such functionality.
And I can't believe that it's impossible in Houdini.
May be some layering?

OK.
Going to learn VOPs.
In fact I was inside Skin Surface Shader but just wondered if there is simple predefined way to solve the problem.
Anyway learning VOPs should be useful.
Thanks for replies.

A straightforward way to do this is to copy and paste the nodes responsible for texture maps in the Basic material into the Skin material.
Substitute where the skin texture node plugs into the rest of the network, then Mix the surface color with the Mix1.

At the top of the material, promote the paramters and you'll have texture map parameters added to the skin.