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If we want to make chrome look slightly used, we need to add on a few more things. Metals often have a subtle glow in their reflections, For example, take a look at the reference photo below. It looks like the light is bleeding a little bit around the edges of the highlights. This effect is caused by micro-scratches and…

To make an aged version of the galvanized metal shader, we will have to make some changes and create some custom textures. Let's start by looking at a reference photo. As you can see, the reflective flakes are still there, but they are duller. The Diffuse color seems to be some shade of gray or blue. Start by reducing the reflections…

Let's take a slightly aged galvanized metal a step further and make an old, worn, slightly rusted version. The effect we are going for is caused by prolonged exposure to elements. Most likely, there would be some leaking rust from the top edge and some moisture coming up from the ground. Look at the reference photo to get the general…

Galvanized metal has a very specific look that can be a bit difficult to recreate in CG. The best way to describe it is that it looks as though the metal is covered with random flakes that reflect the light at different angles. This is caused by the zinc coating forming a crystallic structure on top of the base metal.…

Push a bit further and make a more worn version of your chrome, as in the reference photo: There are three more things to include in the shader: 1. Notice that there are some deeper scratches that also catch and reflect the light; a custom Bump map is necessary for that effect. 2. There are some darker and dirtier spots that…

Like most metals, chrome is highly reflective and its appearance is determined almost strictly by its reflections. The Diffuse component in this shader needs to be very dark. This means that we can start by setting the Diffuse color of our VrayMtl to almost black (1;1;1) and the Reflect color to a high value like (230;230;230). All materials exhibit some…

This tutorial will deal with the creation of basic steel. Most metals are defined by their reflections, so the Diffuse component is quite weak. This means that, for most metals, we need to use dark diffuse colors. For steel, it can be a near-black gray. The reflections need to be fairly strong, so set them to something like 160~220, depending…