New WIP, please comment

[DaForce]

Hhahahahah here is what happens when you follow my instructions and then add some reflection with a little glossys..you get a banana plant that has been wrapped in plastic...LOL

I think this can be fixed by using the alpha map in the reflect slot, and then just make a new version of the alpha map that has grey instead of white so the reflection isnt so strong.

[mzmeskal]

yep....it sure is pain in the butt to make it work properly...but your way is a good start.......some tune ups and itll look perfect.

Thank you for your time DaForce!

[DaForce]

heheheh a real pain!

Thats cool, i think i may have to use a standard material and then have a vray mat as the reflection and glossy that. That way i can make use of the opacity channel which may work better, but it will be slower to render tho...damn it.

[stellar]

Hoping that i'm not off the topic, what is your attitude against working with dark objects? Lately I've been rendering too much wengé wood, think of a bar full of wengé and the details become completely invisible.
Does anyone has tips on that?

[DaForce]

Hmmm depending on the situation and the surface....some nice reflections even some glossy reflections could really help bring out the details. Like polished wood.

Other than that the only other option, really, is to make the wood lighter in color...but that would most likely look un-natural.

Could you show a render of what you were referring to?

[stellar]

i don't know how to post images, but the problem was all the shelves of the bar were wengé veneered and since the bar itself is not brightly lit the whole thing came out be one brownish thing.

subtle glossy reflections from a hdri might works the best i guess as brightening the texture turns it to a walnut or something.

thanks anyways.

[mzmeskal]

I don really want to change the settings of the material either, cos in real furniture, it is sort of matte....

I understand what you mean....I ve been through exacly same problem....

I Thik Ill just turn the fresnel off and put refl falloff distance/camera and Ill put something inside the window.....than it should catch some more light.......

[rangwood]

Im working in the furniture design, and I came across the same ploblem with black materials/wood especially using Vray. Your problem has nothing to do with Fresnel reflection, I would definitevly uncheck this option in this case. Actually what makes a good black material it's the reflection. Most wood surfaces are never completely flat like mirrors, if you look closely they have veins and cavities. This will affect the refection. For that reason you should make a specular map to get correct reflections,.. desaturate your diffuse/color map and copy it to the specular slot will work most of the time, and set the spinner at 50% or so depending on the surface. Get a vray light instead of skylight in windows. One workaround in Vray is to use the hilight only plugin as a shellac material. If this doesn't give you satisfactory results make a second pass with specularity only and compose them in photoshop...I would like to post some illustrative examples but dunno how, if anyone can help???

[mzmeskal]

Thanks for a tip....

to post some examples....you need to have some web space
her you post a link to that example....