my rust shader, what do you think?

solarSailor

what do you think about the overall look of this texture?

I like to practice making these kinds of shaders because there are different kinds of elements in it, like the metal, the paint and the rust, there can also be different variations of the look as well.

Obscura

You can make variable shaders in a game engine too, especially if its have node based material editor.I mean for example UDK can clearly and easily do this. About your material definition: i would like to see more like stuff like this->
http://www.mdukesphoto.com/New%20MDUKES%20PHOTO/BMI-rusty-barrel1.jpg
http://www.garthreckers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/rusted-barrels-984x655.jpg
As you can see, the outstanding surfaces are the most rusted. Also there are some down-flowed discoloration (rudimentary rust) and a lot of scratch and small damages on the paint.and a previous paint layer maybe, but this is not really important.

Using references when you are doing materials would helps you a lot.

solarSailor

Obscura wrote: »

You can make variable shaders in a game engine

YES, thank you, Im aware of that, and I have done some work with UDK in the past, and I have even experimented with its vertex painting feature.
But I am trying to learn something new using Maya only.

Obscura

Yeah i understand that, but dont you think that is not really useful at the game industry? I think its only good for pre-rendered stuff. If the goal is not to make an useful shader for in engine/game usage, then its ok, but work more on the material definition. On the things what i wrote previously.

fearian

Obscura wrote: »

Yeah i understand that, but dont you think that is not really useful at the game industry? I think its only good for pre-rendered stuff.

NOPE

The nice thing about shaders like this is you can apply them to high poly models and bake out a diffuse texture when you bake your normals. Or just bake them onto the low poly model itself to use as a base texture. Because shaders like this can be procedural, you can reuse it across props.

Obscura

Yes its true but once you baked the maps from this, all the things looses the customize-ability. I mean if you want to use this on 2 similar prop with different settings, you need to bake 2 different version. And if you do the shader stuff in engine, you can instance the material, and you can edit the parameters without using extra textures.

onionhead_o

"The nice thing about shaders like this is you can apply them to high poly models and bake out a diffuse texture when you bake your normals. Or just bake them onto the low poly model itself to use as a base texture. Because shaders like this can be procedural, you can reuse it across props."

fearian:
I suppport this message. I trying to get a similar workflow

Obscura: I dont think it hurts to experiment doin it in maya. But you are right that if the sahder is done in engine you can reuse the the shader and just tweak settings.

Clark Coots

I don't think just because this is mainly a game art forum people can't post other CG related art here. Learning new techniques like Maya layered shaders is always helpful and can help familiarize oneself with node based shaders which will make you more comfortable in something like UDK. It can also help your creativitiy on seeing how far you can push combining 2 textures/shaders and mixing procedural stuff in there too. My opinion is things shouldn't be so one to one all the time. I mean just look up at the Banner at Rikk The Gaijin's Walt from Breaking Bad model, its not game art, yet here it is on PolyCount.

I think this layered shader is looking good, using those textures really helped the look of everything over the previous procedural only method you were working on.

solarSailor

here's another update.

brittanydrewapicture

Is there any chance you can show a larger shader network? I'd love to see how you're combining multiple shaders together like this. Looks great!

I agree also, it is definitely great to share multiple trades! Never hurts to work with VFX level shaders as well as game level shaders! Gives you more flexibility and awareness of material properties and allows graphics to be pushed further!

solarSailor

brittanydrewapicture wrote: »

Is there any chance you can show a larger shader network? \

thats the entire shader itself, im either using a layered shader or mib_color_mix, but I have not touched the scene file in a while, I have been doing the same thing but in Vray and with a different scene.

brittanydrewapicture

Sorry, I mean a larger image of the shader network, since I'm not entirely familiar with the nodes you're using.