Tabletop and a shader question

pangarang

Update (11/24/11):

I haven't addressed all of the feedbacks yet. I'm just wanting to get the basic layout, shaders and textures done before moving onto tweaking everything, but your notes are still in my head! Here's the most recent image.



End of update.

Hey guys, so here's a piece I'm working on at the moment. Want to make it as realistic as possible.



What bothers me most at the moment is the iPod nano. I've got a blinn shader on it right now with just a base color slapped on. I've been playing around with the specular options but can't seem to get the material looking right. I have a desaturated version of the colour map being used for the specular color. Otherwise, there are no other maps attached to the object. Anyone have any tips? What would you do when making a metallic object such as this? I want it to be shiny but not super reflective and glossy.

Also, any other feedback would be welcome

Drew++

What renderer are you using?
-Rendering the aluminum parts with a blurry reflection would be the most accurate. Not sure if you have that option! In Mental Ray, the metal material should have an option for it.

BARDLER

It would look better if everything wasn't so neat and perfectly lined up. The eraser should be used, because nobody has a new eraser for more than 30 seconds, and I would place it on the pad of paper along with a pencil resting near it.

JacqueChoi

Some of your shaders seem a bit off.

The Metal on the aluminum looks like it's white plastic.





The compositing values seem completely off between the table and the brick background (are you using a photo for a background image?)

The light looks like it should be coming from the window, but the lightsource, shadows, and highlights seem to not support that.


I would highly suggest you scrap the background image (I suspect that's what it is) and model a brick wall and window, and actually place a light source there.

sbnewsom

I use to have a green ipod Nano. As I recall, it didn't reflect all that much, but then again, like a previous suggestion, the metal was more brushed than glossed, so using the reflection blur in mental ray. Else what you can do is apply a very detailed/small light noise to the bump map and it should diffuse the reflection quite a bit. That's what I did to simulate blurry reflections is quite a few games.

Besides that, add some scuffs and scratches to the ipod. Even if your ipod doesn't have any, it does add A LOT to the realism and natural look of the scene. Plus even if you are organized, it doesn't help when recreating a real-world scene in 3d. First thing we think when we look at a Computer Generated image is its logical setup. Move, rotate, separate objects to make it look like the morning after studying for a Calculus or Business Strategies class final.

pangarang

Thanks for the great tips, everyone!

@Drew: Yeah it seems to be the consensus that blurring the reflections would be the best way to go at this point. I think what my problem is that I'm using mental ray to render, but the materials I'm using are your basic Maya materials - Phong, Blinn, Lambert. I should play around with the mental ray materials and see what kind of results that will produce.

@Bardler: Very useful information! I agree that everything is too nicely lined up right now. I'm still not sure as to the final composition yet, as there are still more objects I want to throw into the shot - cigarette, a pack of smokes and an ashtray, a plate with crumbs on it, eraser shavings, pencils, lamp and a gift bag. I will definitely keep this in mind when I start moving things around to make the shot look more "lived in".

@JacqueChoi: Thanks so much for that image! My shader-knowledge isn't as good as it could be and this definitely helped. Yes, that is a photo in the background but more specifically an HDRI image connected to an environment sphere. I'm using IBL lighting for this scene. The shadows you see are occlusion shadows. Perhaps they are too strong and therefore inconsistent with what the BG image suggests. Right now, there are no other lights in the shot.

@sbnewsom: Awesome tips, and definitely no argument there. I tried out your suggestion with the bump map, combined with JacqueChoi's guide to basic metal and already the ipod alone looks much better than how I had it originally. I agree that the textures themselves still need some more love, however. This is something I'll be attending to once I do a second pass over all the props.

pangarang

Here's the most recent update as of 11/24/11. The goal is to get all the following nailed by end of the month - basic layout, texture maps, shaders. After that, I will be moving onto giving each prop some individual love - wear and tear :P