Stainless Steel is Hard!

[jjeconomaki]

I have really struggled with rendering stainless with mixed finishes.  Get the grained highlights correct and the mirror surfaces blow out.   Image below is of a new product. Feedback appreciated.
--John

[Ed]

Those are some high-end wood planes!  I think that render looks pretty good.  Would be good to see a close-up of one wood plane.

I have the same issues rendering my titanium rings with brushed finish.  Sometimes one area will look great, yet another surface is blown out.  You can adjust lighting of course, but sometimes that won't get you all the way with reflective metal.

For maximum flexibility, I create my model with a different material for each surface, even though the real ring is made from a solid piece of titanium.  For example, I use a different material for the outer surface, the edges, and the ring interior.  This allows me to tweak my basic brushed titanium material for each area to control the shade, roughness, direction of grain, etc.  I've also had good results creating my own brushed metal material using Photoshop.  This allows precise control of the grain pattern, color, and contrast of the grain.  Well worth the effort if it's a material you'll be using frequently.

Experiment and try multiple variations of stainless material on each surface of the model.  And if the model won't allow you to assign a unique material to each stainless steel surface, you can always make multiple renders, each with a variation of your stainless material, stack the layers in PS, and erase away.

Ed

[PhilippeV8]

Just wondering ... isn't it so that for these type of renders, the new environement editor is a great help ?

[jjeconomaki]

Phillipe;

I could not get a pin to highlight the front faces of the two lower planes.   I am going to try an emmissive material next hidden out of view.

John

[jjeconomaki]

After that awesome webinar this week, I took the time to redo this image. This was a freebie screen wallpaper for our customers.

Thanks KeyShot team, that webinar was just fantastic.

John

[Josh3D]

wow, fabulous John. very striking and great idea to create a wallpaper for your customers.