CompuServe Thread

#Real Chrome and Gold

14 messages in this thread
#37158From: Edwin BraunMar 12, 1993 4:38 AM
Why is the chrome not looking like chrome? I need a real refelecting shiny, sparkeling, polished 99% reflective silver like or chromelike finish for a company logo. Its for the Cebit so time is running out. I do not like the chrome that comes with 3ds. Or do I make a big mistake? But the front sides of the logo (letters) do not shine or reflect, it looks like dull even painted material. What I need is some reflection on the front-faces of the letters, too. Som distorted, bended smear would help much. And animated it should look like a fixed reflection that moves over the letters while they are rotating. (easy isn't it?) edwin Und alle die ein bisserl deutsch koennen sollen sich mal melden. Wie waere es mit deutscher unterstuetzung, oder sind so wenig 3ds user hier in deutschland? na da bin ich mal gespannt!
#37268From: ALAN IGLESIASMar 13, 1993 3:04 PM
Edwin, I have 4 or 5 different procedures for chrome/shiny/metallic looking logos. Depending on the application. Unfortunately, I am on an extremely tight deadline right now an am unable to upload them here. Feel free to give me a call at (619) 747-0043 and I'll be glad to help you out in "real time" so to speak. In the meantime, I believe Gary mentioned that a metallic shader is in the works for r3… Good Luck! -Alan Iglesias
#37272From: sherwood egbertMar 13, 1993 3:37 PM
you need to experiment more with the maps, and the reflections, i can get great looking chrome gold or silver from the right map applied in the materials editor as a reflective material. the tricky part here is the actual map itself. to get a real good gold material i took a picture of 3000 brass bb's all lined up, scanned in the picture and blured it. wa la gold. for silver ever thought of alluminium foil? works great!. if you don't have a scanner i can email you the maps and material lib. sherwood animation
#37281From: Chris BarnesMar 13, 1993 6:50 PM
Would it be posible for me to get a copy of those maps? So far a good scanner has been out of financial reach, but I could use a good chrome. Thanks. Chris Barnes
#37290From: sherwood egbertMar 13, 1993 7:47 PM
sure will email them on monday. sherwood
#37316From: Danny MercurioMar 14, 1993 9:40 AM
Sherwood, How about posting those maps here for others to enjoy as well? I've got a scanner, so this isn't much of a problem for me. However, I'm sure there are many who don't have access to a good scanner. Regards, Danny…
#37401From: sherwood egbertMar 15, 1993 1:04 PM
ok will do will send them up tonight. sherwood
#37437From: Danny MercurioMar 15, 1993 7:58 PM
Thanks Sherwood! Danny…
#37347From: CARL SMITHMar 14, 1993 10:43 PM
Sherwood- Dido that on uploading to the forum. I could use the chrome and gold in some of my animations too. Thanks Carl
#37386From: Chris BarnesMar 15, 1993 10:25 AM
Thanks! Chris
#37422From: AlexMar 15, 1993 4:47 PM
Hi there: I agree with Danny, would you please post them here? I would be one of those benefitting from the maps….Thank you. Alex K.
#37318From: Yost GroupMar 14, 1993 11:33 AM
In addition to what Sherwood said about creating an excellent chrome map (his blurred ball-bearing technique is a perfect idea), there are a number of other enhancements that are vital if you want to get that "moving chrome" effect. They all are based on using automatic cubic environment maps on the faces of your text (the front faces get a different map than the side faces), and then putting your chrome map on 2D geometric planes that you can't see from the camera. When you move those planes, the reflections in the text will move along with them. There are about a half-dozen other techniques that are based on this general concept (I'm sure that AlanI has gotten into all of them). Experiment! – G PS: If we can get Sherwood to upload his ball-bearing map to the forum, it would make your job a lot easier. <g>
#37351From: MARTIN G FOSTERMar 14, 1993 10:54 PM
Edwin, Here's a couple of techniques I've used: 1) Put a flat mirror reflection map on the front faces only. Surround the geometry with a geosphere with the normals flipped and a cloud map (or similar interesting image – maybe a scanned landscape photograph). Put a matte object behind the logo to hide the sphere from the camera view. 2) Similar to before except you create a second camera and link the target and camera to the logo but have it pointing straight out (perpendicular) from the logo. Surround the logo with a sphere with interesting map (self illuminated). You can render this camera view and it will match the movement of the logo and you will then have a flic or sequence of .tga files which you can use as a map. You could add a bluriness/softness to the texture map with an image processing package (hiresQFX for tgas or Animator Pro for flics) and combine this with a bump map in the material editor for a bumpy gold. I have used this technique for a bumpy gold material recently and the client was very happy with it. Good luck with Cebit.
#37383From: Ingo NeumannMar 15, 1993 10:05 AM
Hallo Edwin, na da bin ich auch mal gespannt, wer sich aus good old Germany meldet. Also CHROME GIFMAP sieht sehr schoen aus, besonders bei Logoanimationen. Versuch vielleicht den BLUR-Regler(ueber SHININESS) im MaterialEditor noch ein bischen zu erhoehen. Oder mal Dir in einem Paint-Programm ein schoen chaotisches schwarz/weiss Bild und nimm es als REFLECTION-MAP. Mach evt. die DIFFUSE-COLOR heller (L-Regler) und setz die SHININESS auf ca. 75-95% und arbeite dezent mit Lichquellen die sich im Logo spiegeln. P.S.: You find me at CeBIT-time in hall 21 by Autodesk/3D Studio. Visualisierung, Animation & Grafik Ingo Neumann, Wiesbaden Tel: 0611-3081854 Fax/Modem: 0611-379187