[jbranson]

I'm building some new materials to work with the design software I use. Trying to come up with something that looks like a good metallic automotive paint.
Whaddaya think? I'm shooting for kind of a candy metallic.
(you should see the originals in full resolution).
JohnnyB

 

[imslow]

that's really cool that you can get reflections on the pieces. That must be generated by the program

 

[dreamqueen]

Looks like candy metallic paint to me. New materials? Like made out of what?
Would this be the stock or some sort of coating?

 

[ROSKO]

looking at that makes my teeth hurt

 

[jbranson]

Beth,
Only materials in a "virtual" sense. I do 3D presentation graphics for concept visualization, design analysis etc. It's all virtual, nothing is real...but the software is so incredible advanced that you can simulate just about any material, including many of it's physical properties in case you need to animate it in a movie and have it behave as it would in real life.
The reflections are taken care of by a process called "ray-tracing" where the computer calculates the actual path of virtual photos from light sources, to object, to the next object, back and forth etc. Very CPU intensive as you might imagine. But you can control the "depth" of the reflections....meaning how many times an object is reflected back and forth to other objects.
"Material" is the term used for an extensive set of color/texture/bump/reflectivity parameters that imitate the real material when applied to an object.
This materials is made with a base color, then an overlay color, then different colors for reflections, and indirect light (irridesence), and finally a metal flake added with it's own color and reflection parameters.
I'm not happy with the indirect lighting effect...too white/washed out looking. Note the right side of the red square...looks too rough, not glossy enough.
JohnnyB

 

[coolatula]

Wow,that sounds all technical and such then I looked over and under your screen name it says "Big-titted Slut" and it made me laugh inside a little.

I imagined you getting ready to give a presentation your boss introducing you..."and now ladies and gentlemen of the board for our 3D concept visualization presentation I give the floor over to the.....Big-titted Slut."

 

[RPAQUETTE1]

Do you use SolidWorks for software?

 

[jbranson]

The Big Titted Slut uses solid works for smaller more dimensionally accurate projects, or things that require output to CNC machinery.

I use to AutoCad for large project layouts, prints, etc. I use 3DS Max, or Maya for stuff like I've posted here.

Solid Works is a very very impressive piece of software, although I find some of the work flow aspects to be kind of non-intuitive.
JohnnyB

 

[RookieGeorge]

The gold and red pieces work real well as a metal flake when they are reflecting the green (at this resolution). I wonder if the flake itself could have a colored tint to give it that extra depth every time, or perhaps if the light source were tinted?

 

[jbranson]

George,
Yep I can "ray trace" the reflections in the flakes themselves so they should reflect the color of objects, right now I have the flakes set to reflect a generic color because the render time to raytrace the flakes is so high...but I'll give it shot and see what it looks like.
JohnnyB

 

[jbranson]

A couple more, with some ray tracing added to the flakes...can't do too much or it washes out the colors...cause there is no "environment" to reflect. Normally a shiny item would reflect the room it's in, the walls, or the sky, the ground etc. Other than the other objects there is nothing but a virtual void to reflect or the gray "gradient" background. If I put the objects inside a virtual location they would reflect that environment.
Played with the flake size, density etc. too.
JohnnyB

 

[bcr]

super cool Johnnyb. the gold works best for me, probably 'cause I saw a 675 daytona today.
cheers, bcr

 

[jbranson]

Yeah, the gold works best for me too. Just the overall look of it seems more real. I'll just copy the parameters for that material to the others and change the colors.
JohnnyB

 

[jbranson]

Ok...now use it in a sentence.....
Here's some of the materials applied to a model I made based on a Duc MH900E. Gold doesn't show up well due to the unnaturally flat geometry of the wheel....and I still can't come up with a polished aluminum I like...been working on that for years. Scale was off too..can tell by the flakes that are too "fine".
Person could spend years on this stuff....oh wait...I have
JohnnyB

 

[RookieGeorge]

At my resolution, it didn't seem to change the effect much. The gold cube reflecting green and red is still the best 'flake' effect. I think the darkness of the blue is what dulls it. A lighter shade might pop quite a bit more. IIRC, the 70's metal-flake blues tended to be lighter, probably for that same reason. (Back in the 90's I knew a guy that had a metal-flake Cutlass SS show car done in aircraft paint that was SICK pretty. He wrecked it.)

The swing arm rendering is interesting. The swing arm itself looks more of a semi-gloss (almost certainly due to a reduced image size/quality) and the rim just doesn't seem to match the rest. I think it's all the sharp edges. The abrupt spoke/rim joint really disturbs me.

Keep in mind: this is pure layman's criticism - I don't do rendering.

 

[jbranson]

Hey...remember, my work is almost always intended for layman to look at, if they aren't happy the client won't be happy. All your points are right on the money. Not sure what it is with the red, seems to have ever so slightly a rough finish. Lack of thing to reflect is probably it...our eyes percieve shiny by what we see reflected in it.

Yeah...the spokes bother me too, never got around to fixing that. Amazing how much time I spend "messing up" renderings...cause in the real world nothing is perfect, nothing is perfectly flat, or round, or shiny or square...and the eye picks that up whether you know it or not. So more time is usually spend giving things a real world "patina" than is spent actually making the models.
JohnnyB

 

[dreamqueen]

quote:Originally posted by jbranson

The Big Titted Slut uses solid works for smaller more dimensionally accurate projects, or things that require output to CNC machinery.

I use to AutoCad for large project layouts, prints, etc. I use 3DS Max, or Maya for stuff like I've posted here.

Solid Works is a very very impressive piece of software, although I find some of the work flow aspects to be kind of non-intuitive.
JohnnyB

You must have some kind of mega-workstation to run your 3d software! Output to CNC machinery? Does this mean you can design an object/part, given the proper dimensions and then have it machined? have you done any custom bike parts?

 

[Pietro]

We had a CAD class last semester with solidworks. Such a great program once you get the hang of it and yeah, you can design things in solidworks and with a properly dimensioned drawing package you should be able to get what you need machined. I plan on using it more this year once I get my laptop that will actually run it.... If I can find my files maybe I can post some of the work we did.

 

[jbranson]

Beth,
Actually my computer(s) are getting kind of dated for my software needs. I run 3.8 gherz P4's, with 2 gigs of ram, and Nvidia 7600 video cards (dual monitors). But all my machines are 32bit and to get the most out of this software you have to run 64bit.

Once I do a part in SolidWorks I import it to FeatureCAM which does all the tool path calculations, simulates the machining and spits out the CNC code.... all I'm missing is the $100,000 machine tools to make the parts....but I got a friend named Frank C. that has a bunch of the machines....and the software too
JohnnyB

 

[Pietro]

I didn't do all of this. It was a group project so I did roughly 1/4 of the modelling and associated work. I think it turned out really nice.