Question Why does VAM have bad lighting?

[Clyde Cash]

Without configuration or reshade, VAM's lighting gives away that it is VAM. I can always tell if an image or video is VAM based on the lighting. There is a fake, plastic look associated with VAM by default. The skin looks dead basically. What causes this, and is there any way to get rid of it without using reshade? There is no real subsurface scattering plugin either that just does not change the color of the skin and not where the light is exiting from.

 

[Deluxiouso]

I would look at the scene creation wiki for tutorials on lighting scenes, some helpful stuff there. Default lights//3 point light set ups always need a bit of tweaking to get things looking better. I would try setting your light sources to Force Pixel, seems to help in bringing out skin detail in many situations. I would also look into Post Magic by MacGruber, lots of cool effects in that plugin that make things appear much smoother and more cinematic.

 

[SlimerJSpud]

Look into some of the free lighting rigs that are available. The epiLight one, and the collection of community lighting rigs come up in a quick search. Searching for lighting rigs and sorting by the # of downloads is also a good idea. Lighting, skin textures, and hair can make scenes look a lot better, or a lot worse. You just have to fiddle with it till it looks good to you.

Also, remember that Vam is rendering animation in real time at (hopefully) over 60 FPS. Some compromises have to be made, unless all you're after is still image renders. Even in programs that have SSS, you have to be good at lighting, or it can look horrible.