Metal cladding effect...how?

[Teo Sartori]

Hi everyone.
I'm in the final stages (7 days left) of my project and I need to find out how to give my building a surface so that it appears like metal cladding. Ideally it would look something like the included image once rendered out in Maxwell.

I don't absolutely need to be able to get close enough to see the seams but detailed enough to be able to see what it is. I have lots to do still so ideally it would just be a question of a texture. If so, where would be the best place to look? Similarly I have some panels that are of the same material but perforated such that renders would let light through it.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
Teo

[Matt McDonald]

looks like a fairly reflective material with fractal noise in the bump map. Make sure you have something in the scene for the panels to reflect.

[Teo Sartori]

It is lead which, alas, is illegal to use in Denmark. I had hoped to find a suitable replacement but so far have only managed to find a dark zinc which doesn't shine as nicely. As far as reflections go I have a nice HDRI image that should give a similar effect...
At the moment though, unless I find a solution here, it looks like I'll have to fake it in Photoshop after rendering.

[Tom Livings]

? I dont think the illegality of a material extends to rendering......
I would model the panels, then apply a (small) noise modifier to the vertices to offset the reflection. I would then give it a grey material, a noise bump and see how it looks. The key here is to make sure it has something decent to reflect.
If youre seams are not showing how you would like, then use an AO pass to get a dark recess. Post your progress, its much easier to steer a moving ship.

[Teo Sartori]

Hi Tom.

Thank you for your reply.
The trouble with rendering lead is that it will be assumed that I intend to use it, when in reality I'm actually looking for an alternative non-fictitious material with similar visual qualities.

Modeling and applying the panels so that they fit properly, sounds a bit more time consuming than I had hoped for, but if I do try it I will post the results.

Teo

[Tom Livings]

If they are curved, yeah, modeling could be time consuming. If they are as the image you posted, it should take around ten minutes, maximum.

Zinc maybe? What is the Guggenheim (Bilboa) made of?

[Teo Sartori]

Titanium I'm afraid. Very expensive and, as a material, rather demanding.
Zinc was also the closest available alternative I could find.
As for taking less than ten minutes to model what I expect would be a GDL, I'm afraid you overestimate my familiarity with ArchiCAD. I got on well with a video tutorial of curtain walls earlier, perhaps there's a similar one for modeling. I'll have a look.

[Tom Livings]

My apologies, I didnt realise this is the Archicad forum. I was thinking about modeling it in Max.
Good Luck!