We would like to render in mantra using sss but we are having problems with the mantra surface shdaer. Thin edges become transparent rather than opaque. Adjusting the attenuation improves the look at the thin tips of objects but we lose the overall look of sss we are after. Short of painting an attenuation map, we'd like to access the refraction angle while in sss.

Any ideas would be welcome.

I would guess you are only using single scattering which sometimes tends to look like some kind of transparency rather than SSS. Try multiple scattering instead and see if it provides the look you want.

-dennis

Unfortunately the multi scatter approach results in a much flatter look. It doesn't effectively convey credible sense of depth. Additionally areas on the front side of mesh will appear translucent while backlit. This shouldn't be the case. We can generate the correct look in Vray but are hoping to exploit some of the benefits of Mantra while in Houdini.

Any other ideas?

It would help if you posted a scene file, showing the difference between the two sss settings, plus a picture of the same geometry rendered in vray. As without the details everything is pretty cryptic.

rob