different colors based on edge proximity?

[andrewjohn81]

I couldn't think of a way to do this, nor could I think of a descriptive title.

I have a bunch of different objects who's geometry is too messy to efficiently create a UVunwrap.
They need to look like they are milky white plastic which is being lit from behind. One thing that sells that is to either have the edges darker or lighter.

For some, it's easy. Just create a mask in photoshop for your plane. For others that bend in multiple directions it's not so easy. I'd really like one shader that can be used for generally any shape. I'm just drawing a blank on how to build it.

I thought it could be something simple like just a simple light shader, since it's back lit, putting a map/series of maps in the map channel there which would tell it the color. Only..I don't know which maps to put.

any help in the right direction?

[dlparisi]

Maybe something like this...http://www.itoosoft.com/english/menu.php?id=coloredge

[andrewjohn81]

that's almost exactly what i'm looking for. But this is seriously dense geometry. I wouldn't even want to have people pick out all the edges they needed.

Pretty much exactly that, only instead of basing it on edges, it would be based on surface angle. I think that should work.
If the surface angle is more than a set number, usually something like 45-60deg would work for most surfaces you'd need, then it would be a solid color fading to a different solid color within a set distance.

[instinct]

VRayDirt with inverted Normals switched on maybe ?

Regards,
Thorsten

[andrewjohn81]

vray dirt Was the first thing that came to mind. I tried the inverted normals, but I couldn't get any results. Maybe i was just being dumb though.

I'm not sure what stage that is calculated. Maybe it was just a different time?

I tried putting vray dirt in the map slot of a vray light material. I applied it to a couple boxes, but they still rendered out plain white. I tried changing the value of the vray light material to something darker as well, but still returned no results.

Is it working ok for you?
__________________________________________________

Wow, not sure what I did before.
Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I know I tried that though.
Thanks again Thorsten.
I must have had some strange setting checked along with that which made it give different results.

[instinct]

yup. works fine for me. LightMtl, VRaydirt. Invert Normals ticked and Affect same object only ticked does pretty much what's needed here.

Regards,
Thorsten