aimixshader vs ailayershader?

[ian.bercov.ross]

Hey peeps,

I'm v confused about the pros and cons between the aimixshader and ailayershader. Could anyone share some wisdom?

It seems that the aimixshader is the same as the ailayershader with the only difference that the aimixshader has a max of two shaders. I must be missing something as it seems that the aimixshader is newer tech than the ailayershader?

Ultimately i'm interested in layering more than two shaders for the purpose of adding makeup on top of a human skin shader. I believe it's no problem to chain multiple aimixshaders, but why not just use the ailayershader?

[maxtarpini]

one is for textures and one is for materials. however for makeups I would discard both and just paint on top of the skin textures 🙂

[ian.bercov.ross]

@Max Tarpini that can't be right. Both accept shaders and say so in the Arnold docs:

https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AFMUG/Layer+Shader

What makes you think one is for textures and the other materials? All my testing demonstrates they both work with materials all the same (aistandardsurfaces)

P.S.

painting on the skin is not an option - gold foil for example.

[maxtarpini]

ouch I thought it was 'layer rgba' 🙂 looks like mix has blending modes btw.

[Stephen.Blair]

• layer_shader lets you mix up to 8 shaders
• mix_shader can mix 2 shaders, or *add* 2 shaders (eg volumes or emitters)
• mix_shader and layer_shader (aka aiMixShader and aiLayerShader in Maya) take closures as input and output a closure.
• They both blend shaders the same way, except layer_shader blends with the accumulated blends of the previous layers.