Wax Modifiers

The Material > Wax Modifier sub-pallette provides options for creating a wax effect for the selected material. This effect is visually very close to a Sub Surface Scattering effect, but requires less effort to achieve a nice result. Another advantage of Wax over SSS is that ZBrush’s Preview render can display this effect in real-time as you sculpt. Simply turn on the Wax Preview option in the Render > Render Properties menu. You can then adjust the wax effect using the settings located in the Render > Preview Wax menu in the same way that you would adjust the BPR Wax shader that is only used for a full BPR render.

Note : When enabling the Wax shader setting by increasing the Wax Strength slider, a note will be displayed informing you that you have to enable the Wax Preview if you want to see it in real-time.

Material > Wax Modifiers sub-palette

Material > Wax Modifiers sub-palette

Strength

The Strength slider defines the amount of wax effect to apply to the model. A high value will make the model appear to be very waxy while a smaller value will result in a subtle SSS-like effect.

Spec

The Specular Highlight slider will impact how much the wax material will affect the specularity of your model.
Note : MatCap does not have a specular component. Therefore the specular settings in the Wax modifiers will not have any impact if a MatCap is used. However, the standard materials do have a specular component and will be affected by the Specular value in the Wax Modifiers.

Fresnel

The Fresnel slider defines if the wax effect will be applied on the surface of the model that is facing the camera or on the surfaces of the model angled away from the camera. A negative value will affect the front of the surface while a positive value will affect the sides of the surface.

Exponent

The Exponent slider sets how fast the Fresnel falloff of the wax effect will be applied to the surface. In other words, how sharply a change in surface angle will affect the wax.

Radius

The radius slider defines how far the wax effect spreads out from the areas where your other settings determine should be waxy. A low value will reduce the area of the wax while a high value will increase the amount of wax rendered across the surface of the model.

Temperature

The Temperature slider affects the wax temperature, similar to the light temperature found in photography. A negative value will add a cold (blue) tint to the wax while a positive value will add a hot (red) tint.

 


Reference Guide > Material > Wax Modifiers