Material - Translucency / Silicon

[Ellyus]

Hi everyone;

I am looking to create a ‘silicon / resin’ material that will look like the linked image.

So the aim is to picture the ‘thickness of the resin/silicon’ while being transparent. In addition, add some bubbles with some noises ?)

I assumed I had to tweek around the refraction fog but I can’t quite achieve that.

As I am working on Rhino, I am also wondering if it should be applied to a closed polysurface (kind of a volume thing) or single surfaces on the outside.

Looking forward your inputs,
Have a great day !

PS: excited for my first post in the community

[fixeighted]

As long as it's a closed mesh then tweaking the fog params will work just fine for this. Blur the refraction/refl a bit.
You'll need caustics to get it looking right though.
Bubbles...just scatter some throughout the mesh, with a clear glass mat.
Will be interesting to see the results

[Ellyus]

Hey fixeighted;

I've set up a quick model-scene and tried to create the material but I'm not quite at it :s.

The scene is very basic with a rectanguar light on top of the model.
As for the material I created, here are the setting:

Diffuse: black

Reflection: white
Glossiness 0.8

Refaction: white
fog colur: tint of blue
fog x: 0.005
bias: 20
glossiness: 0.95
IOR 1.00 (I tried several higher values but its give odd results from the contours - see the exemple 1.4)


It still feels not accurate ...

I'm not too sure where to strat again from; I can't find a way to suggest the 'thickness' of such resin / silicon


thanks for your help !

n.

[Grigio18]

Why did you set bias to 20?
I would start with a phisically correct material, and only then tweek the values artistically.
resin ior is maybe between 1.45 and 1.52, looking at the reference i would put between 0.85 nd 0.95 on the glossiness both fr reflection and for refraction.
I would add a little bit of chamfer to the corners.
And last thing make sure that the resin base planar geometry is not coplanar with the wood...I would make a negative push of 0.001 cm.

[Ellyus]

Thank you Grigio18 for your inputs.

With the default bias value (0) the output 'transparency' wansn't what I was looking for (see 1st attached image); so I increased it but I maybe pushed it too far; I lowered it to 2.

I set the IOR to 1.48 and glossiness to 0.93 for both reflection and refraction.

The chamfers definetely improve the result and I made sure the resin base is no more coplanar with the wood but I still feel I'm not there .....
Rather than looking like a thick gel/resin/silicon where we can see through it has a 'tinted glass' effect.
Not to mention the odd 'black' stain on the outside srf.

Still work in progress and appreciate all your inputs .


Current settings

Diffuse: black

Reflection: white
Glossiness 0.93

Refaction: white
fog colur: tint of blue
fog x: 0.002 or 0.005 (2nd and 3rd attached images)
bias: 2
glossiness: 0.93
IOR 1.48

Have a good day,

[fixeighted]

This is what I worked up with a mix of stuff. I added a composite which includes edgetex and a random smudge/grunge map, which turned out to be crucial to add much variation.
Looks pretty similar to me but I'd have to have all the necessary extra geometry - the boats etc. in order to develop it further....I'll leave that bit for you
Lighting is just a sun, caustics on with max 300 photons. Make sure your sun's photon radius is large enough - what could be causing those black parts.
Hdr in the env reflect slot.

[Joelaff]

I would consider tesselating the mesh and adding a subtle noise modifier to it as well so that no face is totally flat.

Lighting a completely flat reflective face is its own challenge (involving gradient light sources to get a variable tonal gradation, aka “whispy-doo.”). A slightly uneven surface will provide much more interest in any reflection or refraction as well.

fixeighted’s example is definitely in the right direction.

Don’t be afraid to alter the surface of the non-resin material underneath to get it darker in the middle, etc. Use this surface under the resin to help get the look you are after.