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I recently had a request to explain the method I used to create the iridescent glass tile shown in the attached rendering. I figured I'd share it with everyone.
So my client really pushed me to get the most accurate representation. Which wasn't easy seeing as my sample piece only contained 9 tiles (3x3). Since the tile was glass, it had definite depth to it. Additionally, the client wanted to see about 9 different types of tile, some of which were translucent.... I figured I really needed to model the geometry of each tile. Looking back it's tempting to say I could have created the same effect with simple flat geometry and a nice bitmap... but maybe not. See attached image (tiles_geometry.jpg) As for the actual modeling, I started off with a plane (can't remember what size), but lets just say 48x48" with 1" divisions. Convert to edit poly, inset a little bit, bevel/extrude on a 45 degree angle and then extrude a bit more straight up. Select ALL of the top faces of each tile and tessellate or otherwise subdivide them to a 4x4 grid, and with all these still selected, add a noise modifier to add a slight and random waviness to each tile. Then go back to the "ground level" faces and bevel/extrude these to create your grout. It makes for VERY high-poly tile... but hey... it looks nice! Oh... make sure you assign the proper material IDs to the faces before doing all this bevel/extruding!! Once the 48x48 section of tile is complete, you can clone it wherever you need it and trim away sections you don't want. DO attach the chunks into a single mesh though... for each plane of tile, that is. Makes the UVW mapping much easier.
To add to the challenge, the client wanted the iridescent tiles to be mixed in with NON-iridescent tiles in a very random pattern (not shown in the rendering). He quickly picked up on the UV tiling of my first attempt and so I then created a massive "crossword puzzle" type image to use as a mask (included in the zip file below).
Anyway... the key to the iridescent effect is the combination of a colorful tiled image and use of the Falloff map in the diffuse color and reflection slot. The Reflection Glossiness slot also contains a variant of the colorful tiled image, this image being gray-scaled and blown out quite a bit. Lastly, I made several bump patterns and randomly distributed them across a 12x12 tile grid that would fit over the other bitmaps. Each of these maps along with a .mat file are included in the zip file below. All of these images are mapped on channel 1. If you wanted to mix in Non-Iridescent tiles or some other kind of your liking, you could use the large "crossword puzzle" images to do that. Those will need to be mapped on a separate channel as I believe they might be on a 64x64 grid. Use a blend material with the 2 different tiles in the Materials 1 and 2 slots, and then put the "crossword puzzle" image in the Mask slot.
That's pretty much it. I never did an animation test to see how it would look, but I'm guess it'd probably be pretty accurate as well. If anyone is feeling ambitious, please post one in this thread!! Hope this is helpful to some of you.
Link to the Zip file- www.digitalx3d.com/vray/IrridescentTile.zip
So my client really pushed me to get the most accurate representation. Which wasn't easy seeing as my sample piece only contained 9 tiles (3x3). Since the tile was glass, it had definite depth to it. Additionally, the client wanted to see about 9 different types of tile, some of which were translucent.... I figured I really needed to model the geometry of each tile. Looking back it's tempting to say I could have created the same effect with simple flat geometry and a nice bitmap... but maybe not. See attached image (tiles_geometry.jpg) As for the actual modeling, I started off with a plane (can't remember what size), but lets just say 48x48" with 1" divisions. Convert to edit poly, inset a little bit, bevel/extrude on a 45 degree angle and then extrude a bit more straight up. Select ALL of the top faces of each tile and tessellate or otherwise subdivide them to a 4x4 grid, and with all these still selected, add a noise modifier to add a slight and random waviness to each tile. Then go back to the "ground level" faces and bevel/extrude these to create your grout. It makes for VERY high-poly tile... but hey... it looks nice! Oh... make sure you assign the proper material IDs to the faces before doing all this bevel/extruding!! Once the 48x48 section of tile is complete, you can clone it wherever you need it and trim away sections you don't want. DO attach the chunks into a single mesh though... for each plane of tile, that is. Makes the UVW mapping much easier.
To add to the challenge, the client wanted the iridescent tiles to be mixed in with NON-iridescent tiles in a very random pattern (not shown in the rendering). He quickly picked up on the UV tiling of my first attempt and so I then created a massive "crossword puzzle" type image to use as a mask (included in the zip file below).
Anyway... the key to the iridescent effect is the combination of a colorful tiled image and use of the Falloff map in the diffuse color and reflection slot. The Reflection Glossiness slot also contains a variant of the colorful tiled image, this image being gray-scaled and blown out quite a bit. Lastly, I made several bump patterns and randomly distributed them across a 12x12 tile grid that would fit over the other bitmaps. Each of these maps along with a .mat file are included in the zip file below. All of these images are mapped on channel 1. If you wanted to mix in Non-Iridescent tiles or some other kind of your liking, you could use the large "crossword puzzle" images to do that. Those will need to be mapped on a separate channel as I believe they might be on a 64x64 grid. Use a blend material with the 2 different tiles in the Materials 1 and 2 slots, and then put the "crossword puzzle" image in the Mask slot.
That's pretty much it. I never did an animation test to see how it would look, but I'm guess it'd probably be pretty accurate as well. If anyone is feeling ambitious, please post one in this thread!! Hope this is helpful to some of you.
Link to the Zip file- www.digitalx3d.com/vray/IrridescentTile.zip
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