Hi all!
I’ve got a problem with plastic materials. I’d like to make really good-looking inflatable toys, made of plastic. This thingies has vivid colours with nice highlists. If I use a standard material with anisotropic shader, the highlight is OK but the whole thing looks flat and cartoonish. With a vray material and glossy reflections the highlight seems good but the whole thing looses it’s colour, and of course picks up the environment’s colour. Is there any solution for this with the actual build (I’m using the demo version), or I should wait the new demo coming up with the anisotropic shader thing?
If it’s the plastic I’m thinking of it’s not really anisotropic. I would think that one of the main characteristics of a blow up toy is that it is very translucent. You should be able to get good results with the VRayMat and a nice simple HDRI.
I’m not sure we’re thinking about the same thing. What I’d like to make is something like on this page: http://www.inflatabledepot.com/html/214brickcastle.htm
These materials aren’t translucent, only in certain cases but I don’t need those at the moment. My other problem is how to achieve that “creased” look on some parts, but that’s more max-related than vray :o)
IMHO, I think they are translucent. In the yellow you can see it, the deeper yellow under the crossbeam. That’s created from the shading on the inner, opposing side. You can also see it on the red.
For the creases, you could probably get away with a bump map. Except in the areas like the back purple beam where the creases actually deform the tube.
Well, the main question isn’t transulcency, but the reflections :o) And imho that thing on the yellow bar is reflection :o) I don’t know what is the material at this product, but I’m sure those what I’d like to model aren’t translucent at all :o)
Yes, for the creases I think I’ll use bump map, and I won’t model those kind of bigger deformations. Life is easier without them :o)
I’ve made a test image to demonstrate the problem. Logos and other stuff are removed from the object. The red coloured material is the problem (it is a standard material on this image). The question is how to make it realistic. http://kbalage.freeweb.hu/plastic.JPG
Here’s a new version of the pic, made some improvements on the material, but it’s still far from perfect. I used some stuff from vray.info, now it’s a vray mat with a slight bump map combined with highlightonly material. Any ideas to make it better? http://kbalage.freeweb.hu/plastic2.JPG
Well, I can’t really tell without a list of settings. Looks to me like you don’t have enough sunlight as well as skylight in the scene. It also looks as if the plastic isn’t reflecting the environment. Is this the standard material or the VRayMat? Post your material settings and any environment colors and settings and maybe I can help a little more.
I still think that most of the shading depth in these things comes from translucency.
I agree with J-bug mate, i think you need some more reflections. maybe try putting an HDRI map either in the environment slot in your material reflection mpa or in the env slot for the scene in general. Your material looks good other than lacking in shininess which is reflectiveness in this case. Give it a try. My 2 cents…
But it’s not really an anisotropic material is it? There is no “texture” to the plastic like brushed aluminium or hair. I’m not sure if it would help (just my opinion of course) but hey, it would be fun to use em anyway!
I’ve got to agree with Jbug here. That type of plastic has got a lot of SSS going on in it. Also I don’t think it’s anisotropic at all, just regular glossy reflections.
There are two material sets here. Both are Standard materials, one uses opacity and a fake translucency plugin called Backlight (you can get this at maxplugins.de). The other just uses a blurry VRayMap with a falloff.
If you are using the demo does it also mean your examples are using the VRay Material?
thanx for the help guys, I’m working on the material right now :o) You were right this thing lacks of reflection, I’m not really familiar with the falloff map, but using it right now. J_bug thnx for the scene, really good materials, I think the one without the backlight map is better.
But I still think this mat isn’t translucent, I had it in my hand :o) Maybe I have to have a closer look again :o)
The mat I used is a composition of vray and highlightonly mat, no reflections, bump map to simulate the glossiness. Environment color was light blue, and one omni for the sun. Now I play around with the material and change the env. and also the sun. I’ll post the results.
Taking a closer look at some photos of those things in daylight I see that the reflection is even greater. If you want a truly realistic look, as Marc said, you should grab some nice HDRIs. Especially for the reflections.
The falloff map isn’t really that important. In fact plastic doesn’t use the Fresnel falloff type as far as I know. I was just trying to simulate that unique shading caused by the translucency that I’m thinking of. You should play around with Falloff, it’s very useful to simulate diffuse shading also.
You’re probably partially right about the translucency. I’m sure there are different polymers used to create these things. All in all, I would think that they each have a diff level of translucency taking place but it’s just not noticeable in some. If they are painted in the process, for instance, then the paint would probably make it almost unnoticeable.
Sounds like a cool project. Can you tell us what it’s for?
