Material like "Cloud Gate" stainless?

[innerdream]

http://freshome.com/tag/anish-kapoor/

 

Having trouble nailing this one, the client is uber picky. I have about a 90% mirror with just a touch of specular and no fresnel.

 

Any suggestions? This is for Modo.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Post a picture of what you have so far.... And what is your base diffuse color?

Edited February 21, 2009 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[Chad Warner]

Don't know that I can help with Modo, but I would bear in mind that the photos that you linked have been highly photoshopped, which I would assume is going to effect the appearance of the sculpture to some extent.

[innerdream]

Here's a test. Base diffuse color is 0.25, 0.25, 0.25.

[shaneis]

Well, it's just highly polished stainless, so try the following...

 

Set your diffuse colour, make the reflective colour the same as the diffuse (maybe 197, 198, 190). Turn Fresnel on, set your IoR to about 30.0, 40.0, maybe even 50.0. This way, the IoR should override the reflectivity/ "mirror" settings, so use it to adjust material's reflectivity.

 

When creating metallic materials, the most important values are the reflective colour (metal reflects in it's diffuse colour), and the Fresnel/ IoR. Here's a good exceprt expaining why you should use Fresnel and IoR for metals,

 

"How pronounced the differences in reflectance are at different angles depends, to a large degree, on how conductive the material is. Conductive materials include metals - non-conductive materials include plastics, ceramics and glass. Non-conductive materials are also known as dielectrics. Conductive materials exhibit a much more subtle Fresnel effect than non-conductive, dielectric materials. This means there is less difference in reflections at different viewing angles. For polished surfaces, our eyes use this as an important visual cue. We get the sense that something polished is metallic because the Fresnel effect is less pronounced than plastic or glass, which are dielectric in nature."

 

To test this, get a small piece of aluminium foil and place it polished-side-up on a bench top or table. Looking directly down, your reflection will be stronger in the foil. Get down low and look across the table, the reflections will be similar in strength.

[innerdream]

Well, it's just highly polished stainless, so try the following...

 

Set your diffuse colour, make the reflective colour the same as the diffuse (maybe 197, 198, 190). Turn Fresnel on, set your IoR to about 30.0, 40.0, maybe even 50.0. This way, the IoR should override the reflectivity/ "mirror" settings, so use it to adjust material's reflectivity.

 

When creating metallic materials, the most important values are the reflective colour (metal reflects in it's diffuse colour), and the Fresnel/ IoR. Here's a good exceprt expaining why you should use Fresnel and IoR for metals,

 

"How pronounced the differences in reflectance are at different angles depends, to a large degree, on how conductive the material is. Conductive materials include metals - non-conductive materials include plastics, ceramics and glass. Non-conductive materials are also known as dielectrics. Conductive materials exhibit a much more subtle Fresnel effect than non-conductive, dielectric materials. This means there is less difference in reflections at different viewing angles. For polished surfaces, our eyes use this as an important visual cue. We get the sense that something polished is metallic because the Fresnel effect is less pronounced than plastic or glass, which are dielectric in nature."

 

To test this, get a small piece of aluminium foil and place it polished-side-up on a bench top or table. Looking directly down, your reflection will be stronger in the foil. Get down low and look across the table, the reflections will be similar in strength.

 

Thanks for that shaneis. I tried your setting and it's seems that my hdri no longer reflects well in the object? I'll mess with it some more...

[Cocytus09]

I'm not a Modo user, but I know that your reflections in an image still are only as good as the environment they reflect, so try different reflection maps and see what's stands out. It also looks like the anisotropy of the material is off.... play with that setting a bit if Modo has it.

[shaneis]

Thanks for that shaneis. I tried your setting and it's seems that my hdri no longer reflects well in the object? I'll mess with it some more...

 

Is there a check-box in the Modo material editor to enable "metallic reflection" (or similar)?

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Test done using Mental Ray, a a blended Car Paint shader with a Arch and Design shader set to the default chrome.

 

Not sure the Car Paint shader was necessary, but I wanted to try something with two different size specular reflections. My thoughts on this is that controlling the larger specular will allow me to get soft definition of the shape through highlights.

 

This may or may not be present on on Cloud Gate, depending on how it is polished, or if it is sealed with a top coat material.

 

I am also lighting with an HDRI, which gives me a decent environment for reflections with little work.

 

I would say that my overall undercoat is to dark, or has a darkish feel. I still need to adjust this, but I am happy with the test for the fun of it.

Edited February 21, 2009 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[innerdream]

Test done using Mental Ray, a a blended Car Paint shader with a Arch and Design shader set to the default chrome.

 

Not sure the Car Paint shader was necessary, but I wanted to try something with two different size specular reflections. My thoughts on this is that controlling the larger specular will allow me to get soft definition of the shape through highlights.

 

This may or may not be present on on Cloud Gate, depending on how it is polished, or if it is sealed with a top coat material.

 

I am also lighting with an HDRI, which gives me a decent environment for reflections with little work.

 

I would say that my overall undercoat is to dark, or has a darkish feel. I still need to adjust this, but I am happy with the test for the fun of it.

 

 

That's it! Good job. I tried the default chrome setting I have and the artist didn't like it. Can you post the settings for that chrome and I'll try it?

 

Here's my latest with a mirror setting at about 90%.

[innerdream]

Check this out. I'll send this to the artist and he can dig his own grave.

[Ron Schatz ASAI]

Your sample work is a lot of smaller parts and bends, matching it it to "cloud gate" is out context. The gate test shows us you will need a nicely detailed mid ground 360 around the art as well as a great BG to reflect interest and fun. Place the camera close (5'-10'?) to clearly see any reflections that would come close to Cloud Gate effect. In closing, More work on the surrounding environment and BG maps, your art piece is as far as you can go, until you can add a detailed environment with more models to the work.

I did say environment, yes environment, after that fake it like the photos on the link and Juice It. This is Art! Have Loads of Fun with It.

 

The bottom of the test C Gate is great, and the bottom of the real one is that dark, spot on.

[innerdream]

Your sample work is a lot of smaller parts and bends, matching it it to "cloud gate" is out context. The gate test shows us you will need a nicely detailed mid ground 360 around the art as well as a great BG to reflect interest and fun. Place the camera close (5'-10'?) to clearly see any reflections that would come close to Cloud Gate effect. In closing, More work on the surrounding environment and BG maps, your art piece is as far as you can go, until you can add a detailed environment with more models to the work.

I did say environment, yes environment, after that fake it like the photos on the link and Juice It. This is Art! Have Loads of Fun with It.

 

The bottom of the test C Gate is great, and the bottom of the real one is that dark, spot on.

 

Yep. The artist is going to pick an interior and exterior setting to place his sculpture in for the finals. This was to show him how different metals looked. He now understands his piece will not be cloud gate, much to his dismay. LOL