Concrete Texture

[frog_a_lot]

Ok why is it that i can never get good concrete, i have seriously tried everything. I have looked at vray materials and tried arroway etc but i just cant get a good looking concrete texture.

 

What textures do you guys use for concrete etc

 

Thanks

[STRAT]

http://www.cgtextures.com/

[frog_a_lot]

But like how do you set them up etc, do you simply make a bump map from the texture off there and what about spec/refl maps etc

[Dave Buckley]

it's entirely up to you, if you want to control where the concrete if reflective and not then yeh you create a specular map.

 

and forgive me if i'm wrong but spec/refl maps are the same thing, i believe this is because specular is the old terminology in the standard material for what is now reflection in the arch and design mat.

 

but from doing a lot of reading on these forums recently i've learnt that spec/refl maps are what make your materials look most realistic as no materials will contain a uniform reflection across the surface due to everyday weathering of the surface (even more so with conrete) so a nice specular map will really break up those reflections.

 

take a look at anton cherenko's recent 'making of' tutorial on www.ronenbekerman.com he covers his concrete quite well.

 

and with regards to bump maps there was a really good thread on hear about creating HQ renders of wood which covers the subject quite well and opens up some interesting thought about using normal maps and displacement maps and where and when.

 

also check out leigh van der byl's website, some nice info on there about materials.

 

with regards to the samples on cgtextures, they may need a bit of photoshop work first before even thinking about bumps/normals/relfections etc.

 

the best tip i heard when learning materials was 'just because a material is tileable, it doesn't mean it's non-repeatable'

 

depending on what render engine you are using, take a look at the free full-res arroway textures on www.mrmaterials.com they contain diffuse, relfection and bump maps and are really well made materials.

[DanGrover]

For what it's worth, Specs and Reflection maps are usually the same thing, but their effects are different. Specular highlights are purely a reflection of the lights in the scene. Reflections are, of course, reflections of everything. So ideally, you'd always use reflections but often Specs are all you need (if, for instance, something is not very reflective and so will only reflect the very brightest objects - lights - in a scene) and they're infinitely quicker. In A&D you turn it to spec only using the little check box (Highlights and FG only? something like that) next to the reflection parameters - in fact, this actually DOES have some reflections too, because it uses the FG map to give some more detailed reflections and can look great. Unfortunately, I haven't worked out a way to do this with VRay, so I'm stuck with real reflections. Its a shame, because sometimes it could really save some time to have an option to use spec only on some objects - unless someone knows of a way?

[Claudio Branch]

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/29304-...e-texture.html

 

Scroll down in this thread and you will find my response and a rather large concrete texture that you can use. I made it for all the large concrete structures that I tackle in my projects....

[NickG]

@Dan - You can have spec highlight without reflections by unchecking "Trace Reflections" in the Options rollout in the material editor. Then the reflect color and glossiness control only highlight value. The material sample will show the end result accurately (turn on the checker bkg to see reflection when on, then disappears when uncheck Trace Reflections)

 

@Claudio, thanks for sharing!

[jinsley]

http://www.cgtextures.com/

 

one of my favorite resources, besides taking lots of pictures during site visits...

 

you could try flickr too...

[frog_a_lot]

Thanks guys ill have a go at the things listed.

[DanGrover]

@Dan - You can have spec highlight without reflections by unchecking "Trace Reflections" in the Options rollout in the material editor. Then the reflect color and glossiness control only highlight value. The material sample will show the end result accurately (turn on the checker bkg to see reflection when on, then disappears when uncheck Trace Reflections)

 

You bloody star. Thank you!

[Tommy Burns]

Ok why is it that i can never get good concrete, i have seriously tried everything. I have looked at vray materials and tried arroway etc but i just cant get a good looking concrete texture.

 

What textures do you guys use for concrete etc

 

Thanks

 

This maybe a gamma issue for you. Have you looked into setting up your gamma, it really is important. There are some good tutorials on the matter at mrmaterials.com. With a bit of reading you should have some super concrete!!!