Metal

Esselle

Hi all, too many days I spent to try to achieve a metal-look in my material, but it looks at me always too weird. I see many tutorials and seems I do them well but sometimes looks like stone or concrete, sometimes like plastic, never like metal .-. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, so if you can help me, I would really appreciate it!

That's the only thing that looks at me a bit, but not enough, metal-ish...

What am i doing wrong?

(don't care of that blue stick)

bunda4th

Can you post your texture flats as well. The other way to make metal really work is using a gloss map and having some reflection in your material node.

Esselle

Diffuse: http://i49.tinypic.com/2zxzcci.png
Specular: http://i46.tinypic.com/i3w9rm.png
For the gloss I inverted specular map, constantclamped and multiply by 60

Snader

Well, for one, your 'detail' of the brushed surface is very large. You should scale down all those lines a lot.

Second, your rust is placed very arbitrarily and random. Try to place it more logically. Same goes for the damage on the lettering.

Esselle

umh so, where is dirt/rust/damage supposed to be? Edges and contact surfaces?

Anyway, I still played in the editor and I changed the gloss with a constant put at 50 and scaled the "brush".. that is the result :poly122:


For the reflection, do damaged metals have it?

Xelan101

Rust should build up anywhere water and moisture collects. Try looking at some real-work reference. Often times rust builds up mostly around areas where there's lips (again water collection) like above your extrusions for the lights, in corner/recessed areas (maybe lightly around your indents on the sides) Also since rust is caused by moisture it will often form in a drip pattern, having a clear roughly circular start, and then evidence that the water poured down the surface, leaving a trail of rust behind.

As for damage, it's helpful to think of the motion(s) that have caused this paint to be rubbed, chipped, and scraped off. Depending on how the motions were carried out adding a clear direction would work well. Also try to think of how tall a human (or relevant scale race) is compared to the wall. Around their height will be where most of the damage is concentrated.

Think of the story of this wall, that should help you sell that it's grounded in reality. Who/what works by this wall. Where is it? Is it outside? In a medical bay? a mechanic's shop? If you can decide on a story element like that it makes it easier and easier to add detail, and gives you fun stuff to play around with. If it's in a medical bay, you can use those oh so popular blood splatters, a mechanic might spill oil, or accidentally burn the wall while welding or cutting up space junk etc. (although large unique details I'd suggest adding using a decal or vertex paint, as they'll get repetitive very fast with a tiling wall like this)

Sorry for the massive post, hope it helps!

Oh and P.S. for the reflection question, if there's areas smooth enough to be shiny (as there still seems to be) they'd at least have some form of subtle reflection, not full on mirror finish chrome, but definitely still a hint of it.

Esselle

Yes, it will help me a lot! Thank you all so much