Mirror looking unrealistic

[braddewald]

So heres the problem: I have a kitchen hood that is more or less at a 45 degree angle. The client wants it to be polished stainless steel, pretty much a mirror. Thus, no matter where the camera is, the only thing being reflected in the hood, because it is at 45 degree angle, is the ceiling. Thus, the hood looks like it is white, the color of the ceiling. While I told the client that this is what is going on, he is not satisfied with the look and wants it to look more like polished stainless steel. Any suggestions?

[TAKA]

Fake it!

 

If its a still, just paint some highlights with the gradient tool in PS, from black to white with a screen mode (or middle grey to white with an overlay mode). Give it a try. Make a new layer, mask the hood with the lasso tool and drop a few brush strokes.

 

If you wanna fake it in 3d, then just add a reflector: Either a plane with also a gradient ramp as texture (black to white). Position it right above the hood or wherever u think it fits. Right click on the object, Object properties>Not visible to camera, and uncheck casts shadow.

 

If you're using vray, you can do the same with a vray light which u can also assign a texture map, make it invisible, and in the include/exclude list, include only the hood. Use Max's Place Highlight tool to position your light for you so highlights bounce into your cam.

 

You can also use a standard max light with the Place highlight tool, and have it only affect specular. Include only the hood in the include/exclude list (Given that your hood material has highlight glossiness or some form of glossiness to it)

 

Hope that helps

[braddewald]

Thanks for the ton of suggestions. They are stills, so I think photoshop gradients are the way to go? Would you agree? What would you do?

[TAKA]

I'd go for Photoshop if its a still. very easy and very quick, and can be changed at any time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter M. Gruhn]

Big pieces of sheet metal like that tend to bow bend and warp a bit. Add a little bump to it. I've got .2, noise 30, fractal.

 

The big edges, many of them will be folded, not perfectly ground out welds. So radius the edges. I had to use a real radius, the material based didn't work good.

[braddewald]

Amine: Wow, thanks so much for the in-depth advice. I really appreciate it.

Peter: I tried to have the hood warp a bit. I tried a noise map in the bump slot and even tried to add a noise modifier to the actual geometry, but to no avail: because there is nothing but white ceiling being reflected, no matter how much the reflections are distorted, it comes out white.

 

I think I'm going to try the gradient overlay. I really appreciate it guys.