SSS
I've been investigating node-based materials. I especially want to map out where subsurface scattering takes place on my model, rather than have it everywhere or nowhere. I used Tony Mullen's book Bounce, Tumble, and Splash as my main reference, because it has the best section on node-based materials in Blender I've yet found. However I did have one problem, and emailed Tony for some advice. He got back to me pretty quickly with an answer to my problem, and I now have a lot more sophisticated control over materials than I had before. I love the internet.
My primary reference for this project is Creative Essence: The Face by Ballistic Publishing. However the various authors of that book use Maya, Max, Mental Ray, etc, and it's a bit hard sometimes to work out how to do equivalents in Blender. I am getting there though. I hope to understand 3D enough one day that translating is relatively straightforward, but I ain't there yet.