basic parameters for physical (metal) material

[n_maasdijk]

Hi everybody,

Last week i followed a course on materials and rendering. Now i kind of know where to look for, but my "teacher" almost always worked with diffuse and bump maps so we didnt really dive all to deep into creating your own materials.

So would anyone maybe know a site maybe where the basic parameters of a material are already filled in?

Because after struggling for 8+ hours now all 3 of my metal types look the same and still dont look like metal. My toon shader might interfere with it but if thats the case im more lost then i was before.

Above, the structure is thermic galvanised, the plate is supposed to be aluminum and the fastners stainless steel but it does not work for a single bit.

It could be something supposed to do with this.

Or this

The material above is supposed to be stainless steel, the most glossy material.

I dont know it anymore, but you guys are amazing on this front and i hope someone can help me out!

Thanks already!

[muratcanyeniarascom]

Hello,

Can you render the Material in a room? If you render in space, you won't see the real effect.

Enjoy your work.

[n_maasdijk]

Hello, 

What do you mean exactly? For my end renders it is important that its rendered on a white background. 

Would love to hear from you back.

[muratcanyeniarascom]

You can render with studio lighting technique. Sample video is in the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPZvijDCV-M

[wernienst]

Ok, first, go to Render Setup: Arnold Renderer, scroll down to Environment, Background & Atmosphere and set Background (Backplate)  to Custom Color, set Color to white. Then go to menu Rendering/Exposure Control, set Exposure Value to 8.0 (higher values would turn the background color to grey).

Now you can experiment with illumination and/or environments without affecting the background color. For example:

Create an Arnold Skydome light and put a HDRI map to its Texture slot. Or create one by yourself, like this:

Save it as a 32bit Tiff.

[n_maasdijk]

Hi Wernienst!

Yes, there are the settings i have been working with tince the beginning, i also tried the solution of @muratcanyeniarascom with the youtuibe video. But sadly none of these seem to work, my materials still dont look like real steel bu these unrealistic colors i dont want to show. Sadly none of my materials look a little bit like their real life counterparts.

[muratcanyeniarascom]

The metal material you want to make may be missing or wrong. You can make similar metal material adjustments via the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R1VKR2ZVcA

[n_maasdijk]

Yes these are roughly the settings i have on my materials, but my materials do sadly not look nearly as good as those shown in the video.

[wernienst]

Try this: in the Reflection part of the material, change Glossiness to Roughness.

[wernienst]

Just to illustrate what I'm saying:

Both objects have identical materials and texture map applied. Only difference: left, Reflection set to Roughness, right, to Glossiness.

Then I removed the texture map. Again, left, Roughness, right, Glossiness.

Confusing, right?

[animator75Q89LC]

As said before try to render using a backdrop, since metal is reflective it won't look good or realistic without something reflecting in the material. Also if possible add chamfers to all your sharp corners so there is something to pick up the hilights. 🙂

[n_maasdijk]

Hi, thanks for the tip. My other 2 materials were already set to roughness, but now my last material is too, only it did not really work.

I tried stepping off my custom materials and tried some arnold pre-set materials, but this did nothing but take away all the color i had left.

I am using an arnold skydome, maybe thats a problem and should i light it with another light scourse?

Im really confused on why my renders never seem to work out.

[n_maasdijk]

Hi!
I followed the video you linked, but that simply was a white plane with a single snap in it. But the scene im working on gets looked at from different angle's with about 4/5 camera's, so i dont have a constant background to see. Also when i did have the angled plane it also sadly did not improve. Can you elaborate what you would do in this situation?

[animator75Q89LC · Accepted solution]

I read earlier that you use a skydome to lit the scene? Do have any bitmap (HDRI) connected to it? Otherwise I suspect it will just fill the scene with an even (white) light giving white reflections and very flat looking shading. I don't know Arnold but I suspect it works similar to V-Ray.

[n_maasdijk]

No i do not have an HDRI connected to it, should i just use an HDRI set as enviorment? i have used that once before so i know how to do that, do you think that might solve the isseu?

[animator75Q89LC]

Yes, I think that will solve the problem, giving the scene a more interesting lighting and also fixing the lack of reflections. Also, I would add some spotlights to the scene to get sharp highlights since HDRI light is quite diffuse.

[n_maasdijk]

Well, your advice did help a bit, i do get faint textures now. But it is still not as sharp as i would have hoped. Do you have any more advice? Or how would you encase a large object wich i have to look at from 360 degrees? since a backdrop would not suffice in that situation.

[animator75Q89LC · Accepted solution]

To encase the whole scene I would use an HDRI image in the enviroment slot and then render the image with an alpha channel, that way I can later use photoshop or in my case Affinity to add any backgrund I want, including a solid color.

[n_maasdijk]

Thanks!
I have been using an HDRI in the inviormeant slot since this morning and its a lot clearer then a skydome with HDRI. But i dont render with an alpha channel but can choose a solid color with the arnold renderer. Do you think this is the same quality or is your way a higher quality?

[animator75Q89LC]

I would sa that the quality is probably the same. Rendering with an alpha channel however makes it easer to change background if your client changes their mind about the color of the background. 🙂