So many kind comments, thank you!
@ Old Blaggard: You're right, I employed a lambert shader over the ice.
@ Tangled-Universe: Yes, the first image is more articulate and has many elements on it. It's the real scene. You can consider the second as a "technical" closeup
. Overdisplaced features are not necessary to get a stasfying icy appearance, I've just employed them following a personal choice.
@ Inscrutable and calico: Don't be afraid
Me too I'm continuously learning new things from the node network. The key is to experiment again and again. I never wrote a tutorial, and just don't know if I'm able to organize it correctly. Plus, my english is also very poor.. However my ice shader has a pretty simple structure indeed; it's a default shader with colour and displacement function defined by two powerfractals, a lambert shader to set the translucency and high reflectivity values. Here's some capture from my node network
Structure of the shader
Specular values of the default shader
Overall settings of the Lambert shader
All pretty simple, as you can see. If the resulting ice gets a convincing SSS look, I think it's depending also on color choice and their balancing over the scene
In my opinion the best way to get results with the node network is approaching with a clear idea of the result you want to get. Using real photographs as references may be also very useful. Then try to think how you can get that result with the instruments you have. It's very logical and powerful. And, main requirement, a lot of patience
