Help with Steel/Aluminium Textures

[superforma]

Hello,

Just having a play around with the 14 day trial, could anyone give me some tips on machined steel and aluminium parts please? I've tried the radial pattern and brushed radial but I'm struggling to get that machined finish. At the moment it looks unrealistic and very smooth.

Any tips or help would be appreciated!

Thanks

[DriesV]

Hi,

The "Stainless Steel" materials in the Library are going to be a good starting point. There is a search bar at the top of the Library to help filter out what you are looking for.

Attached is a simple scene and rendering to get you going. The "spindle" geometry is similar to what you are showing.

If you look closely at such (milled) part, then it has two main surface definitions:
1) Flat, with circular grooves
2) Cylindrical, with straight grooves

Also in KeyShot, it is a good idea to treat these finishes separately. As separate parts and with separate materials.
For the flat surfaces, you can use a Metal material with a Radial texture with Planar mapping.
For the cylindrical surfaces, you can use a Metal with a Brushed texture with Cylinder mapping.
Tip: Activate 'Move Texture' and click 'Fit to: X/Y/Z' to automate the proper alignment of the textures.

I hope this helps.

Dries

[mattjgerard]

A large part of the look of metals are mostly a product of the environment and HDRI lighting. Play with different HDRI's and rotate and scale the environment. Metals are all about specular and reflections. Once the textures look technically correct as Dries instructed, then play with lighting. There are some great tutorials on teh Keyshot youtube channel for this as well that you would be well served to watch. I learned a ton that way.

[TGS808]

The Metal Material Mastery webinar would be worth watching for sure.

https://youtu.be/fM7R0uQctKY