If that sounds somewhat similar to the DSO method, it is! This is really just an expanded and improved form of the DSO. Because this difference is usually small, a lot of space can be wasted on the Color Ramp this can be fixed by multiplying the subtracted value by a large number.

This difference is used as a factor, after being run through a Color Ramp, to mix the base color with a darkened version thereof. The theory is like this: by subtracting the base colors from the shaded colors, we can find exactly what the difference is between them. It’s more complicated than that, but ultimately, CVO takes care of it. You do have to worry about that problem otherwise: the human eye can see more shades of green than any other, and so the value of shadow you use for green shouldn’t be the same as the value you’d use for a red or blue in the same lighting.

You don’t have to worry about getting the value of shadows right for the color, because that is calculated by the subtraction. The upside is that you aren’t limited to just one method in a project generally, I use DSO for metals/glossy materials and CVO for everything else.Īnother huge benefit of this method is that it takes care of the luminance problem automatically. I feel that it doesn’t look quite right on metal or highly glossy surfaces, which I would consider the only major downside. It also adds color to shadows without having the SSS glow of the DSO method, so it allows for even sharper boundaries where that is called for stylistically.

Blender 2.8 matcap download