How to create a patent style shader

[joaquin_laborda]

Hi,
I would like to create a shader for a product patent illustration.
I'm not sure if there is any way to do this with Vray.
The main idea is to have black and white pixels only and to simulate halftones with points or lines.
I can imaging using a combination of environment reflections, and outline override, but I would appreciate any help.

[konstantin_chaos]

Hi joaquin_laborda,

The global Outline combined with the Outline override material attribute should be sufficient for the outlines (except for the dashed / dotted lines).
The halftones shading on the other hand is more complicated.

In V-Ray for 3ds Max there is a shader called V-Ray ToonMtl.
It is commonly used for cel shading but can't produce the halftones you're after out of the box.
The best you can do with it is connect a texture to the shadows portion of the shader for an effect like this:

It respects the existing lighting and in that sense gives you some flexibility.
Note that this material is not available in Rhino but can be implemented in the future.

For a dotted halftone I'd recommend you render a grayscale image and then convert the lighting pass to a halftone in post (in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.)

As for the example where the halftone strokes follow the curvature of the object - I don't think this can be rendered or automated.

Regards,
Konstantin

[joaquin_laborda]

Thanks Konstantin, I've been doing something similar with the outline override material, but the tip of the lighting pass is a great idea combined with photoshop.

Regards,
Joaquín