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StOuen
08-12-2006, 08:58 AM
Hello..,

I need to produce a realistic glass display case in Lightwave that will have some models inside. The problem I have is that the objects inside the case are to be the centre of attention and the reflections on the glass are kind of detracting from that. When I light the case with a HDR image or a 3 light rig, there is so much going on reflecting off the glass, creating a real 'busy' surface.

I suppose that what I am looking to achive is similar to Buzz Lightyears helmet. It looks glassy but there is one simple highlight and you can see Buzzs' face clearly within.

Any help greatly appreciated.
PetterSundnes
08-12-2006, 12:31 PM
One quick tip would be to controll the reflectivity amount based on the angle of the surface. Use a black-to-white gradient inside the reflectivity texture menu, and set it to incidence angle. You can see from this picture that the reflectivity is much stronger the further "out" on the helmet you go (where the polygons will be facing more and more away from the camera, the further back you go).
http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/school/images/screens/toys2.jpg
StOuen
08-12-2006, 01:14 PM
That works a treat. Many thanks petterms.
SNoWs
08-12-2006, 02:12 PM
You can control the reflections with a gradient set to incidence angle. Set 2 keys with the values you want so your glass is more reflective towards the edges and less reflective towards the middle... you can control the amount and the distance of the fresnel effect this way.
Pancho
08-12-2006, 06:58 PM
Try to make up your mind first and know how it should look. Then it's usually pretty simple to find the right ingredients to come up with a nice meal. The worst thing is when you don't know what you want and ask others to solve this kind of problem for you. But as you already try to describe what you want, a gradient would pretty much help. Although take a close look at the optical properties of glass. I don't believe you know to much about it yet.

Good luck
Pancho
StOuen
08-13-2006, 01:52 PM
...for all your advice guys.

Live long and free.
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