Need material advice - Is this metal?
node
Hey! I was in the middle of texturing a lamp post on substance painter, my goal is to reach photorealism, so being as close as possible to my REFs is vital.
My problem is that i can't really tell if the lower part is metal or not.
The part i'm talking about is circled in red:
The reflections suggests me that it could be a metallic material, but i when i try to texture it in substance, it doesn't really give me the same vibes. Maybe it's painted metal? Meaning that it shouldn't have a metallic value?
I also noticed the differences between this part and the higher one (the "head" of the lamp) which i concluded could be a type of hard plastic.
So what do you think? is it metal? Should it have a value of 1 in the metallic scale while i texture it?
Thanks for your time
My problem is that i can't really tell if the lower part is metal or not.
The part i'm talking about is circled in red:
The reflections suggests me that it could be a metallic material, but i when i try to texture it in substance, it doesn't really give me the same vibes. Maybe it's painted metal? Meaning that it shouldn't have a metallic value?
I also noticed the differences between this part and the higher one (the "head" of the lamp) which i concluded could be a type of hard plastic.
So what do you think? is it metal? Should it have a value of 1 in the metallic scale while i texture it?
Thanks for your time
Replies
I made some reaserch on lamp posts and i only found general information, obviously all street lamps are different, and finding information on this specific one was kinda hard.
Then i remembered i have an uncle who's an electrician, and i asked him if he knew what materials where used to make that part. He said that lamppost are generally made with either alluminium, hard plastic, or fiberglass.
Fiberglass was a big news, so i searched for it and found very similar risults
(I dont know why they are colored like the italian flag, hurray italy i guess)
Right now i'm trying to reproduce this to see if it resemples the original effect. I'm also trying with experiment with coating a bit, but i don't think that's the answer.
Also, i saw you mentioned fresnel, which is something i though about, but i can't really see where to "activate" it in substance, i suppose i can't.
It's got rust in places where the protection has scraped off so we know it's ferrous - that excludes aluminium and fibreglass and since steel is the cheapest and most sensible ferrous option ...
The fresnel Eric mentioned is a property of the material so it's not something you set directly.
All materials are perfect mirrors when viewed from an angle parallel to the surface* and the closer you get to looking parallel to the surface the more reflective they get - the rate is determined by the specular reflectance value of the material.
In the case of this material you can stick with the default metallic/roughness setup and it will be fine.
(*you can't actually look at a surface from a perfectly parallel angle because you'd have to be inside it)