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left: diffuse with small and large smooth; right: glossy with
small and large smooth

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What it does: Simulates the scattering of light beneath the

surface of an object.

Use it for: Skin, wax, milk and many kinds of food.

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Falloff

Similar to the glossy's distribution function, this simply

controls which algorithm is used to calculate the gradual
falloff of light as it travels through the material. There is very
little difference between the two options (Cubic and
Gaussian), however measured data is usually fitted to the
Gaussian function (see: NVidia, Arnold, Matt Heimlich), and
Cubic gives us an additional "Sharpness" option.

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Scale

Controls how far light can scatter through the surface.

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Radius

An additional way to control how far light scatters though

the surface, only this time with separate values for the red,
green and blue channels. This means we can tint the
scattered light a certain colour, like how skin scatters more
red light. Note that you can actually plug a color into this
socket.

On the right, the radius is larger for red

Sharpness

This option is only available when using the Cubic Falloff. It

makes sure sharp edges aren't softened too much, and can
help reduce the appearance of dark edges.

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Texture Blur

Obviously this is used to blur the texture (whatever is

plugged into the Colour input), but it's probably not exactly
what you're expecting. The radius of the blur stays
constant, and is the same as the Scale input. What the
Texture Blur slider controls is how much of the blur is mixed
in with the original texture, so on 0.0 you have your ordinary
crisp clean texture, and on 0.5 you have half of your clean
texture, and half of the blurred version fading in on top. On
1.0, you can only see the blurred texture.

This means that it'll look like some of the texture's color is
bleeding into the surface below. You probably won't need to
use this a lot though, since skin textures are usually made
from photos, and thus already include the blur effect.

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What it does: Literally emits light and casts it onto

surrounding objects.

Use it for: Objects that need to cast light or appear bright,

like light bulbs, sparks, fire or even just as a light source out
of shot.

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Properties

Strength

The intensity/brightness of the light emitted.

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