Creating New Materials

[jojoduah]

I'm looking into creating my own materials/shaders in 3ds Max now. My rendering engine I use is Vray. I've done a lot of searching (Google) and I pretty much have a good understanding. When it comes down to materials, I'm confused as to bump vs. displacement. I know what the difference is, but when should I use them? I know bump should probably be used for every material, but when does displacement get used? Should I always use that too, or only with certain materials such as brick, tiles, and etc? The next question is when using a bitmap in the diffuse slot, does it matter what the diffuse color is being that its a bitmap? Thanks in advance.

[Ismael]

"The next question is when using a bitmap in the diffuse slot, does it matter what the diffuse color is being that its a bitmap? Thanks in advance."

JoJo

 

Is there any way that you could possibly learn this experimenting, changing slot color and or bitmap and re-rendering?

[Corey Beaulieu]

Bump essentially uses the map to fake shadows so that things seem to have texture. Displacement actually moves geometry so that there is texture.

 

Displacement is obviously better/more realistic, but adds a lot of render time. most people displace where objects are closest to the camera or generally looking flat and bump the rest.

 

As to the diffuse color, it doesn't matter, but the viewport will continue to use that on the object. It helps to keep it similar to the color your map is so that you don't have to bog down you viewport by displaying maps constantly. You can also control a balance between the diffuse color and your bitmap in the maps parameters.

[Fred_V]

For a quick answer.. Only use displacement when you need it!

For your background, a simple picture is usually enough and will not take hours to render. But, if you have some objects on the foreground, you may think of using displacement! It's all about what you want/need..

If time comes for you to use displacement, try using VrayDisplacement Mod (as a modifier in the rollout ) insted of the displacement of the shader. It's how I work..