Getting a shear effect on curtains

[John.McWaters]

When trying to get curtains to have the semi-transparent shear appearance, I know you can set the opacity to be slightly below 1, but I’m wondering if there’s a better way to achieve the fuzzy look through the fabric. It’s almost like it needs to look like frosted glass, but I know it wouldn’t be right to adjust the refraction level on it. Adjusting the opacity usually doesn’t look right to me because objects appear too clearly through the fabric.

[jms.lwly]

You want to play with Translucency rather than Opacity for this sort of curtain - works a treat!

[John.McWaters]

You want to play with Translucency rather than Opacity for this sort of curtain - works a treat!

Thank you.

It looks like another key feature is using an opacity map plugged into a Fall-off map.

[maru]

Please post some real-life photo reference. This way it will be easier for us to understand what exact effect you are after.

[John.McWaters]

Please post some real-life photo reference. This way it will be easier for us to understand what exact effect you are after.

These images are good examples. You can see how not only they allow light to pass through, which I think the translucency parameter will provide, but you can also begin to see objects, although hazy, through the fabric itself.

[leon51]

I posted a short tutorial showing how to do it. There are other options, but this just shows a simple way to create the effect. I hope it helps.