need help making a shiny plastic

[webshot]

I made use of the search button and actually someone asked this precise question. So I am going to try some of the suggestions from that thread. Feel free to add more advice here if ya like.

[Orkman]

Uh...on my demo reel (7MB) at the start and end, I have a white ball that is shiny white plastic. I wanted this very same effect I think you want. What I did was go to the MeniThings folder in my LW content folder and they had a scene that shows some jacks as shiny colored plastic. Unfortunately, I didn't see those files in LW8, so hopefully you have a version of LW7.

The thing I wonder about on yours is that it is almost a flat plane. Anyway, take a look at my reel.
http://www.munitionstudios.com/showreel.html

And here is the path to the MeniTHings folder. It helped me achieve the look I wanted.
C:\LightWave\Scenes\MeniThings\Radiosity_ReflectiveThings.lws

Give it a shot, and if you need help I can pick about the surface I used and tell you more about the scene setup.

[webshot]

Hey thanks alot dude. Nice reel too. My plane will be almost that of a TV screen so there will be a noticeable amount of Bow to the curve. But it is important that it looks kinda real life so I may have to do the hdri thing and radiosity. Know of any tuts on LW7.5 and hdri?

thx

[RPG2006]

I've had good results for shiny plastic using a gradient map in reflections set to incidence angle, much the same as the fresnel effect. That in combination with a good hdri image seems to work very well.

RPG:)

[CourtJester]

How things have changed from the early days, when everybody was desperate for their renders to NOT look like shiny plastic...:D

[Orkman]

How things have changed from the early days, when everybody was desperate for their renders to NOT look like shiny plastic...:D
It's Apples fault.

[gerardo]

Recently, I made these packs for a TV banner.

http://www.geocities.com/gerardstrada/Aerosol.txt

http://www.geocities.com/gerardstrada/Stick.txt

The difference between the opaque plastic and the shiny one, is the quantity of reflection (10 - 35), the glossiness (20 - 50) and that one has a micro bump and the other one not. Of course I´ve used a gradient in Incidence Angle and a HDRI for reflections.



Gerardo

[sebek27]

nice work Gerardo ! I do have a stupid question, when you say you used HDRI for reflections, do you setup hdr image using image world ? or in surface editor you use an hdr image in reflection channel ? thx

[webshot]

That is a good question because I am looking for a tut on hdri in LW. Does anyone know of one?

[gerardo]

Thanks. Isn´t a stupid question at all. In fact, the way in you use the HDRI depends on the functions you want that it fulfills (Reflection, Illumination or both). For Rexona packs I used ImageWorld, (I find is a more accurate way to project the image) what I accustom to do, is to convert the HDRI from a spherical panorama to Longitude/Latitude; this way, if you use a HDRI taken from a chrome sphere, from an only angle (180 degrees) when transforming it you can take advantage up to 270 degrees. Very good for reflections. I didn't illuminate with HDRI, I used the Great Textured Area Light hack (of Court Jester):

http://www.altyna.com/lw/specrefl.htm

I think is a more controllable way to adjust the illumination and the reflections for separate. If you want to illuminate with an image (Radiosity) and to reflect with other, you can use ImageWorld for the reflections (backdrop only in the surface properties without activating Reflections in the render panel) and map another HDRI in a sphere with Unseen by camera in Object Properties for the illumination. The disadvantage is you won't obtain the reflections of the surrounding objects. But if you use Imageworld to illuminate (radiosity/backdrop only) and spherical map for the reflections, the render times are speeded up notably.
Other way is to use Ray tracing + Spherical map, the mapping isn´t as good as Imageworld, but you can activate Reflections in Render Panel.

Some tuts about HDRI that I found very useful were these:

http://www.dbki.org/tutorials/eng/compositing/composit.htm
http://www.dbki.org/tutorials/eng/hdr_lighting/index.htm
http://www.dbki.org/tutorials/eng/hdri_speed/index.htm
http://www.dbki.org/tutorials/eng/background/index.htm
http://www.dbki.org/tutorials/eng/hdri_exp/index.html

Daniel Aka Da_Duke is an expert on this. :)



Gerardo

[Orkman]

Holy crap Gerardo. That is awesome. One of the most informational posts I have seen!

[sebek27]

thank you ! this will help a lot

[RPG2006]

Nice one Gerado.

I downloaded that area light hack tutorial sometime ago. Looking at your results I will have to look into that.

is to convert the HDRI from a spherical panorama to Longitude/LatitudeJust to note that to do the this, you'll want to download a free copy of hdrshop first. Load your image into it, go into image>panoramic transformations and set to latitude/longitude.

Nice one!

RPG:)

[gerardo]

Thanks guys, but the brainwork was made by Court Jester and Aka Da_Duke. Those thanks to them. :thumbsup:



Gerardo

[CourtJester]

Thanks guys, but the brainwork was made by Court Jester and Aka Da_Duke. Those thanks to them. :thumbsup:

GerardoI think Carm3D has also expanded and improved on TGALH. I've been meaning to take a look at it.

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