Material questions

[Roger]

I am trying to modify an existing material, "ceramic cup" to have a black color instead of white or off-white. I set both the diffuse and specular colors to black, but it is not black, just has more of a gray tint. Did I forget something, or is there another attribute I have to set the color for?

[robcat2075]

Show a screencap of the properties.

 

Of course, you don't have some other group that is overriding the color choice in this material.

[Roger]

I'll grab a screencap. I don't think I do. There are two fractal combiners, I'm not all that hot with the materials editor but I don't think these affect the color.

[Roger]

Here is a screen-grab of the materials editor:

[Rodney]

Roger,

It'd be good to also know more of the look you are going for.

My thought is that Black Specular on Black at best could only give you the original black (i.e. no specular at all)

The equivalent would be to Right Click and set the color to 'Not Set'.

 

Knowing more about your end goal will help direct us to that goal.

 

My thought with what is currently known is to reduce the intensity setting of the Specular Light. But that will likely be effective only if you are after a duller leather or fairly non reflective surface. I think of intensity with specularity as being a dial that allows the surface to absorb available light; a lower setting will allow the surface to absorb more whereas a higher setting will deflect/reflect more.

[Roger]

Roger,

It'd be good to also know more of the look you are going for.

My thought is that Black Specular on Black at best could only give you the original black (i.e. no specular at all)

The equivalent would be to Right Click and set the color to 'Not Set'.

 

Knowing more about your end goal will help direct us to that goal.

 

My thought with what is currently known is to reduce the intensity setting of the Specular Light. But that will likely be effective only if you are after a duller leather or fairly non reflective surface. I think of intensity with specularity as being a dial that allows the surface to absorb the light; a lower setting will allow the surface to absorb more.

 

I guess what I am going for is a shiny black porcelain or ceramic material, kind of like a billiard ball.

And now that I think about, white specular highlight might have produced the look I was going for.

[Rodney]

I guess what I am going for is a shiny black porcelain or ceramic material, kind of like a billiard ball.

And now that I think about, white specular highlight might have produced the look I was going for.

 

Sounds like you are on the right track here.

 

Perhaps someone (Stian! Marcos!) could assist with getting that light reflection that looks so perfect by adding a white card (one patch) just out of camera view. This would go a long way toward capturing billiard room overhead lighting/reflections.

[robcat2075]

the attribute you have set to black is only one part of a combiner. The other part would have to be black to to make every thing black.

 

And if you just wanted black you wouldn't use a combiner at all, you would just make the material black.

[Roger]

the attribute you have set to black is only one part of a combiner. The other part would have to be black to to make every thing black.

 

And if you just wanted black you wouldn't use a combiner at all, you would just make the material black.

 

Well, I was modifying an existing material to see if I could get the look of ceramic, just in black. So I didn't mess with the combiners. I guess I will have to experiment some more.

[robcat2075]

Can you show a picture of a black ceramic you are trying to mimic? That would give us a starting point.

[Roger]

Robcat, are you having issues with your email? I've tried sending you an email and gotten a bounceback twice.

[Roger]

This is more or less what I am looking to duplicate:

[NancyGormezano]

Try these settings to start then tweak to taste. The black is 26,26,26 (never use 0,0,0), and the white spec is 238,238,238 (never use 255,255,255).

 

Additionally, make sure that your lights in the chor have specularity =ON, or else you won't see any specularity.

 

The settings for the surface will vary according to the size of your model: how much & how deep you want the material to reflect, how big the spec size, intensity, how rough or smooth you want the surface material to look, and most importantly do you have something to reflect in the model. One size does not fit all.

[robcat2075]

If you don't need the actual reflection effect, here's a simple approximation using specular reflection with the "Glossy" specular shader.

 

Remember to turn "Plugin Shaders" ON in your render settings.

 

 

 

The actual effect of the real glazed surface depends on it being slightly reflective AND the fact that the SKY is WAY brighter than any other surroundings. The sky gets a noticeable reflection but the ground and other environs are so dim that they don't obviously show.

[John Bigboote]

This might be a nice place to try a MATCAP!

[robcat2075]

A classic CG solution is to use an environment map. Fake reflections that render quickly

 

[John Bigboote]

The beauty of environment and matcap maps is that you can paint your own input image the way you want it.

[Roger]

What is a matcap map? Is that something new in v17?

[Rodney]

Matcaps are a form of Shader that uses an image to surface and light a model.

I believe they arrived circa v13.

There are quite a few topics discussing Matcaps as well as some collections of images to use with it in: the Shaders Forum