Glass block Texture

[frazer]

Hello was wanting to know if it would be possible to create a texture to give the effect of a glass block wall but not have to model each block indiviual. I am using Vray. Have tried at the moment to use a tile map for the reflection and refraction so that only the tiles let light through and the cement (not sure if thats right work to use) is not transparent however do not know if there is a way to have the non transparent lines continue through the material. The effect i am trying to get is similar to that in the link below at the top of the page.

 

Glass block Example link (what i want it to look like):

http://www.glassblocks.co.uk/precast/index.htm

 

My attempt is in the attachment.

 

 

Also how would i go about making the glass a little less transparent (a slightl milky colour) have tried changing the fog but end up with it been very yellow.

 

Thanks for your time and any help with this problem.

[AJLynn]

You'll need to change your tile map and copy it to color and bump, use the color slot to set the concrete color and in the bump slot make the lines a speckle and the parts between a noise to get the texture right. But a more elegant solution might involve a box and a plane, the plane is inside the box just on the inside of the edge away from the camera. The plane will become the concrete, it has the tile map for both opacity and its Vay Displacement modifier, which has its max value set so it comes in just inside the near edge of the cube. Its color and bump are concrete. The box is the glass, it has a Vray Displacement in reverse of what the plane has but with less value and a bump map to get the wavyness of the glass block surface.

 

Crap, that was complicated, I'd make you a file but I can't do one that would open in Viz. Also I've never done it so I have no idea if it would work

 

Edit: Oh, right, this is the Max forum I'll make a file later if you want.

[frazer]

Thanks for the quick reply Andrew. Havent tried what you said to improve the way in which I was going around things but was very impressed with your idea about how i could create the form. Think Ive been thinking about it for too long and narrowed my views on how it could be done, as your way does seem alot more obvious and would problerly produce alot better result.

 

If it is not problem would if be possible to make a file with a simple example, your discription seemed perfect to me but I never seem to get displacement modifiers to work properly (thinks its the slowness of my computer that mean im not able to test things out very quickly, not just my lack of experience honest!!).

 

If not then thanks once again, and I'll try post a more finished example.

[AJLynn]

I'll post something but not tonight - working late on some thesis stuff already.

[chutti]

This might be helpful....worked just fine for me....

[Gabriella_A]

Hallo...

 

This is a material that work pretty well in my opinion...

 

It's a vray blend material, no maps, only procedural.

 

I modified an old max standard material that someone shared (don't remember where and who ) .. so it's not completely made by me ...

 

I modified some parameter to fit in vray... perhaps some of you will need some changes, is not very fast...

 

Works well in straight wall blocks... with round blocks I never find the way to make only the "front" transparent and not the side... perhaps someone knows how to to that...

 

Here is the .mat file and a little jpg, hope it helps!

 

Gabriella

[AJLynn]

Okay, here's my attempt, the displacement is inelegant (could be done with 2 planes instead, or in Vray, but I'm tired) but you get the idea.

Max 7.5 file is here

[frazer]

Thanks for all the replies. Both materials worked great, a hell of alot better than my attempt.

 

Gabriella_A : the material is great tried having a look at it to understand how they made it but really dont understand all of it thinks its a bit to complex for me at the moment. It worked great in a test that i tried only problem was like you said it seems very slow (tried reducing the setting but still very slow) especially on my computer (over 4 years old now!)

 

AJLynn ; Thanks for the file have managed to reproduce the effect on my own file. It works great only problem I ve had is i have had to reduce the resolution of the meshes as once again my computer was struggling to handle the amount of polygons created. After reducing the quality tho the effect was still good enough and render very quick in comparison to all other attempts

 

Cheers , Frazer.

[AJLynn]

Yeah, it would be better to use a displacement like VrayDisplacement modifier that is done at render time, I just used Max displacement because it gives instant feedback.