Maxwell Render

Hey Guys,

I don't post here often but I'm a constant lurker. Anyways, I usually use Maxwell for Architectural Renderings only but have ventured into some specialty logo design. I am trying to create an aircraft aluminum texture similar to this:



The issue that I am having is that this is a straight on render and this piece will have no curves. I've messed with lighting, environment, etc but still not even close. I have better luck with creating the texture from scratch in photoshop but it lacks the life that the rendered textured could have. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm thinking I might have to create some soft of displacement map for the imperfections in the metal as well as around the depressions the rivets make. I have the rivets as a separate 3D object and they render great.

Thanks!

Al

as you mentioned, you will need to do a soft displacement map. Also, you will either need to model or use a displacement for the indentations made around the rivets. This metal will have subtle scratches and most importantly a sortof smudgy, reflection to it. it's not necessarily a rough material but a random blurriness in it.

As far as lighting and reflections, this material looks good because it has something to reflect and show off these imperfections in the material you make. If it's for a logo, where you don't want to see any specific things being reflected, you might make your emitter have a blurry random lighting pattern to it so the metal can reflect something that is abstract and random and nothing recognizable. For something flat and not curved, I always feel it's tougher to make it look good. Like I mentioned, the biggest thing is trying to give it something to reflect.

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www.justingoode.com

All that was said already I agree with, but I will add that it might be nice for a project like this to take a look at the HDR Light Studio integration with Maxwell Studio.

The nice thing about HDR Light Studio is you can take any existing IBL and quickly experiment with modifying it to achieve specifically the lighting effects you want -- getting the best of both worlds.

It's not cheap, but I think it is well worth the money -- particularly for product type renders.

For highly reflective surfaces (like this) the environmental information is all-important.

Best,
Jason.

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My Tutorial Video Series: Maxwell Render 2 - SketchUp to Maxwell Workflow - ZBrush 4 - Corel Painter 12 Advanced - Substance Designer 2.1

I would model the logo with all quads then sculpt in those details to create the right maps, plus you'll need a nicely subdivided model to get the most out of displacement....

Then for the scene, I would start setting it up/testing with various curved objects until the general highlights, etc became desireable while material is being created. Then I would drop in the logo with straight on view and fine tune from there.....

Here's a quick example:







straight on view of "logo" dropped into scene:



setup:

Agreed with the above directions: for these kind of objects you are not so much lighting them as taking a picture of the things reflected in them. Your lights and/or set needs to be interesting. HDR studio will save you a lot of time for sure.

This is also maybe a good job for nDo2 for making the normal maps in Photoshop. Probably be very quick.

/b

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Brett Simms
http://www.heavyartillery.com