Texturing problem w/ Chrome logo!

[zachalbert]

Sorry to be annoying, but does anyone have any input at all? At least tell me if I'm asking the wrong kind of questions. This is an urgent matter, I am supposed to have this logo finished last week. Can anyone give me just general pointers about what to do? Thanks a lot.

[angel]

Seems to me that you are having reflection map issues, in other words, your problem imo is due to the image that you are using to reflect. I would try a generic black and white and grey reflection map for that chrome logo. That way you get reflections and contrast without having something too specific reflecting. If this chrome was on a bike outside for example then I would have a different opinion but for this logo go with a b/w/g ref map.

Check this texture collection:
http://www.doschdesign.com/products/hdri/Chrome_Studio_Effects_V2.html

open the pdf to look at the maps starting on page 12 to see what I mean.
later

[zachalbert]

Thanks, I'll try it out!

[soulburn3d]

Something in here may help you...

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/chrome/chrome.htm
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/flat_metallic_surfaces/flat_metallic_surfaces.htm

- Neil

[Marcel]

The classic style chrome reflections usually show a blue sky, and a yellow desert. Your reflection map has a forest with trees blocking the horizon. That's why the front of your letters look dark. Try to find a better reflection map, or make on yourself that suits this purpose.
Try to make the groundplane yellow, of remove it altogether.

If you make the edges of the bevel round instead of sharp it would also make them pickup more of the environment (and thus look more interesting).

Find some reference of chrome logo's that you like and study how they look, you'll find out what you need to change easily.

[zachalbert]

I really appreciate the help on this one! I took several of your suggestions and checked out those helpful tuts on Neil's site, and made my own reflection. I have almost got it looking great. There is still one issue, and that is quality. The lines on the model are grossly aliased resulting in a very ugly looking reflection. I'm sorry if there is an obvious answer to this one, but I'm self-taught and hence miss a lot of basic stuff :).

And is the map squishing on the sides? It's a large file, and I rendered it pretty large as well, so I can't think of why the aliasing problem is happening. Thanks for all the help!

This is the logo:
http://www.zachalbert.com/chromelogo-preview.jpg

And the reflection map I used:
http://www.zachalbert.com/road-reflect-preview.jpg

[Marcel]

Self thaught is the only way you'll learn stuff :)

The raytracing will shoot a reflection ray to your logo, bounce off, and end up somewhere on your background. Because your logo is round, the rays can end up in very different places on the map. So one pixel might be a reflection of a bright part of your environment, the pixel next to it reflects a dark spot on the background.

What you need is to have the renderer take more samples so that these spots are averaged. It's been a while since I used Max, but you might be able to do this with the 'supersampling' parameters. If you are not using the standard renderer but something like Brazil or Vray then you can up the sampling parameters for the reflections.

A cheap way to get rid of the antialiasing is to blur your reflectionmap. You won't notice the difference on the curved parts much, but the flat parts will get blurry.

I'd add some more colour to the reflection map, monochrome images are usually a bit dull to look at.

[zachalbert]

My reflection map IS blurred. And supersampling? Maxed out at 1, using hammersly (all the other methods have the same effect). Anyone use Max who can figure out the deal?

And I'll try a bit of color.

Thanks a lot for the help!

[Marcel]

What kind of material are you using, a normal material with a raytrace map in the reflection slot, or a raytrace material?

[Marcel]

What kind of material are you using, a normal material with a raytrace map in the reflection slot, or a raytrace material?

Try blurring the reflection map a bit more is what I meant :)

[zachalbert]

I am using a shellac material, half being a white, specular material for brightness, the other half being a raytrace material (not a standard mat w/ raytrace reflection). My map is in the environment slot.

And I tried blurring the map a lot more and you're right--it helped a lot. Some of those sharper transitions and contrasts were mellowed out significantly, adding more realism. Unfortunately, it didn't help the aliasing problem.

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