dilectric vs conductive materials

#1

do anyone know why dilectric materials reflect white highlights, and conductive materials reflect “tinted” highlights,

i don’t own a phd in physics but i’m very intersted in this, you know to understand better what cg is based on and all that,

thanks

#2

hi leonard, i’m also interested in these kind of questions. on the “Science for CG”, it is explained as this :

" Selective specular reflections are possible only for metals, which results in tinted reflections. Conductors (metals) don’t have subsurface reflection, only specular reflection. " with a nice pic (have a look).

i understand it as : highlight is a phenomen of surface.
when light arrives on a dialectic material (with reflective property), a part of is absorbed, another is absorbed in subsurface and reemitted (diffuse), but another part of the all spectrum is immediatly reflected : highlight with white reflective color.

with metals, there is only absorption and reflection. if we see a tinted highlight (gold or copper…) that means some part of the spectrum has been totally absorbed and the other immediatly reflected.

i’m not totally sure with all that so i would be interested if someonelse can complete or correct. :slight_smile:

#3

oh, thanks, that clarifies a lot of things, btw do you know any books tabout the hisotry of the cg?,

#4

do you mean a book which explaines on what "cg is based on " ?
because i don’t know any book about the “history of cg” but if you’re interested in technical things, i personally like the Introduction to Computer Graphics from Foley

…hum about history of cg, i’ve just checked on the web and you can find good ref like this http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/lessons.html

#5

thanks a lot :slight_smile:

#6

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