How can I achieve this soft, glossy, translucent look in Nomad Sculpt?

[2092_Fuji]

Hi! I’m trying to recreate the soft, glossy, slightly translucent “jelly/glass” look shown in the reference image.

I made an outer transparent shell and a yellow object inside it, and I’ve tried using the Refraction material, changing the IOR and reflectance, adjusting roughness, and experimenting with different lighting/shading settings.

However, I still can’t get the same soft, glowing, milky translucent appearance as the reference. Mine either looks too transparent/glass-like, too dark, or too flat.

Does anyone know what settings or material setup would work best for this kind of look?

Should I be using Refraction, Subsurface, or a combination of multiple meshes/materials?

I’ve attached the reference image, my current result, and my material/shading settings.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[okimoku]

The best approach is to ask the tutorial’s creator.
I gave it a try myself, but I’m not very good at lighting, so I’m not entirely confident.
I believe the “Absorption” setting in the Refraction parameters is the key.

jelly.nom (9.6 MB)

[Combo_Jerman]

IMPORTANT NOTE.
This method is ONLY for Nomad. This does NOT apply to other render engines. Nomad is kind of different.

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If you can explain more about what exactly are you going to do with this, I maybe can help you.
I am a new Nomad user, but I know about rendering.

I reduce the size of the inside sphere so you understand what is going on with the gelly outside object.

TIPS:
1- Do not just pull the environment image value like 100. Leave always as much as low as you can.
First create some lights.

• Nomad is a bit different when it comes to rendering.

2- Place different lights in different positions. And see first what you like the most.
3- First look for colors that match what you are looking for.
4- Do NOT push the gelly material now. Look first for colors.
5- When the light and the colors are there, start to make your material. Your material properties in this case is the gelly looking.
6- So first colors and lighting, then after material properties. Itis important that you first do the material reflections, then refractions and then the effect and look you are trying to get.
7- Now, play with the environment image intensity and now you can go more aggressive with the values until you find your lighitng.
8- Another IMPORTANT point. Play with the environment images after you almost finish. They will give you the COMPLETELY LIGHTING and maybe you will prefer another environment image.

9- WHAT I DID at then after I got the looking I wanted, then I adjust the glossy and the roughness → SPECIALLY the interior which gives methe gelly looking as below.

10- After you have done all start to change the lights ONLY! See the very last image to this message

AH! And change the background so you understand what is happening!
I NEVER EVER use white! At least white confuse me a LOT to do my materials!

Enjo it!

NOTE: In my opinion the outside of the jelly looks too bright. That is the reason I do NOT like to push to high the values of the enviroment image!

This is the image yous hould look at at the end.

ATTENTION!
As I mention I never use white as a background, because you will get another undesirable results.
As you can see the white outside of the material and the lights surrounding the object get lost.

And this is the final result!

I hope I was able to help you!

CHEERS!

[okimoku]

Thank you for all the tips; I’ll give them all a try​
I’ve heard that colors feel richer in dimmer light, so what you said makes perfect sense to me. Thank you.

[2092_Fuji]

Thank you so much for trying this out and even sharing the .nom file!

I hadn’t paid much attention to the Absorption settings, so I’ll definitely experiment with them and compare your file with mine.

This is really helpful. Thank you!

[2092_Fuji]

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation!

I think I was focusing too much on the material settings and not enough on the lighting and environment. Your explanation of the workflow really helped me understand how I should approach this.

I’ll try starting with a darker background and lower environment intensity, then work on the lights first before adjusting the refraction and interior settings.

Thank you for taking the time to explain everything so clearly!