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…
There are a few metals that are not very reflective, but are closer to dull gray. They are usually very soft and oxidise very quickly to form a thin, matted coat on the surface. Some of the most common examples are iron (not steel) and lead. Try using a lighter gray color, or even a mix of colors (blended with…
First determine if the metal oxidizes to a completely different looking material, and how much you want to age your shader. If the metal doesn't oxidise (rust) too easily, you can get by with some mix maps in the Reflection and Glossiness slots. It's also a good idea to composite some scratches, bumps, and other imperfections to the Noise map…
Making a colored metal is as simple as changing the Reflect color to whatever it is you are trying to simulate. One additional change that may be necessary is adjusting the Diffuse color to make it a bit saturated (Diffuse swatch on top, Reflect on bottom). Some metals that have multi colored reflections, like nickel, could use a Mix map…
Brushed metals usually have anisotropic highlights, caused by the microscratches in the surface. If the scratches are horizontal, the highlight should be perpendicular, or vertical. Set up the Anisotropy to -0.5 value to achieve this. If you need different scratch directions, try adjusting the Rotation value. To create good looking scratches, use a bitmap texture in the Reflect and Reflect…
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…
This liquid material exhibits a sub-surface scattering effect. The most difficult thing with this kind of shader is getting the colors to look right, and it can take a bit of fiddling and experimenting to get the exact look. The 'Whole Milk' preset works well, with a couple of important adjustments. Enable Trace Reflections and increase the glossiness. Change the…
