How to make perforated steel?

[Macpod]

I basically want to turn a warped plane into perforated steel. any ideas? Thanks

[notamondayfan]

opacity map?

[Macpod]

how exactly? is this something to do with materials? Ideally i would like the material to let light through....

[notamondayfan]

yes, in your materials editor, theres a opacity slot. it uses black and white images (like a bump map). so you need an image of the pattern you want, and adjust it in something like photoshop, so that its a gray scale image. in max, the white part of the opacity material will be totally see through, and the black parts will be solid. any gray between the white and back will be semi transparent, depending on the whiteness of the gray.

you can then map the opacity texture the same way as you would with a diffuse map.

[Macpod]

Thanks, will give that a shot. Cheers.

[Nic H]

Theres some decent diffuse and opacity maps of perf steel that come with max in the ArchMat folder.

[Macpod]

that works great with the perforated material.......but how can i get a rusted perforated steel look? i cant seem to use both perforated steel and rusted steel at the same time....

[Macpod]

any ideas? actually just being able to change the color of the perforated steel would be fine.

[Dave Buckley]

to change the colour of it could be done in photoshop, just change the colour of the bitmap??? What render engine are you using??? I use mental ray and i'm just rendering a quick material using the perforated metal bitmaps that ship with max, will post it when its done, then i will try and add some rust. the arch and design materials in mental ray are a great place to start

[Dave Buckley]

also to add the rust try using a 'mix map' in the diffuse slot, then you could try adding the metal material in the colour 1 swatch of the mix map, and the rust bitmap in the colour 2 swatch, let me know how it goes, post some renders of your material so far, it makes it easier to advise and also to see what you are trying to do

[Macpod]

[Macpod]

it would be good if i can get some rust texture or simply brown coloring on that. ill give it a go.

[Macpod]

ok, what i have done is apply the mesh material under opacity maps, but after that i cant seem to manipulate the colors or add another material to it without deleting the mesh material.

[Dave Buckley]

this was my attempt, if you can find a bitmap where the metal is already rusted that would also work.

 

attached is my original material test scene (kindly shared by jeff patton), also attached is my perforated steel, and finally is a wall with peeling paint material, the wall material was just a bitmap of painted bricks, so its attached to show what you can get if you find a picture with metal already rusted

[Macpod]

finding rusted perforated metal would be the hard bit....

 

anyway of making that perforated metal brown?

[Dave Buckley]

yeh, before applying the bitmap in the material editor, take it into a photo editing program, like photoshop, and alter the rgb values etc, or go to:

 

http://mayang.com/textures/perl/fullsize.pl?image=diamond_metal_5140201.JPG

 

and use that one

 

only takes a 3 word search in google

 

'rusty metal grid'

[Macpod]

ahh. i was searching for rusted perforated metal. That mayang site is great. thanks.

[Dave Buckley]

another good site is

 

http://lemog.fr/lemog_v6/index.php?cat=5

 

good look, if you need any more help just shout

[Macpod]

Excellent. Saved my ass, thanks again. Thats to everyone.