Need Guidance re: Specular Choice

[Don Cheke]

See questions in attached images.

Working on barrels.

Wood. What would you have used for roughness with this choice? Here I made a copy of the specular one.

Dark metal. Didn't know what to use for specular. Wrong to use Cellular?

Don Cheke
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[designgestalt]

hello Don,

I am replying to both your posts:
"Re: Need Guidance re: Specular Choice"
"Which Map is for Specular"

I guess you need to learn a bit about what the different channels do for you...
By just talking a look at the material graph, it is also too hard to say, what result your texture map has: I can either see what texture it is, nor can I tell what the result is, after you put a "color to number" node in.
I added a few links for tutorials below, which helped me a lot in learning how to create my own materials. They do not exactly relate to your wood texture, but you will learn a lot in understanding how to set up your material:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhLY7U80A8Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfuTOYZbYQc&t=314s
I guess you stumpled across one of the godfathers already... this is an excellent video about how to stag one map above the other. (to add more "worn" look to your wood, you need to do something to the bumpmap too, at the moment it looks more like plastic)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdSYRFUWDRk&t=550s
In this video Esben explains how to use third party materials (in this case Poliigon, but I am sure this relates to your question in the other post as well)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=repqy81Gs84
Blender Guru is the guy behind Poliigon, and he makes excellent tutorial videos. Although this is mostly related to "Blender" (software), you can learn a lot about lighting, textures and photorealistc images... his videos are often very long, but still worth it. In this video here, he explains pretty good, what you are after with your wood texture (in my opinion)


unfortunately I am not on a machine with KS installed, so I cannot share a screengrab, but in the material graph there are three buttons in the top section.
With i.e. your texture map selected click through the buttons, you will see this very textureb you selected and the result/effect it will have on your part.
It might also just be, that the scale of your texture at the moment is too small or too large and you do not see any effect. I am sure Esben will explain what I am talking about in his videos. This is essential to create a customized material, otherwise it is often too hard to tell, what is happening...

I hope this will help you a bit, I know in the beginning there is never enough time to learn a program and in the meantime with Youtube being swamped with tutorials it is hard to judge whichones are usefull and whichones are not, but an hour spend with a good tutorial is better than 5 hours spend in KS with a frustrating result ...

cheers
designgestalt

[HaroldL]

Don,Have you looked at the KeyShot Quick Tips? Here's one that may help, though it is more about Roughness.

[Don Cheke]

Don,Have you looked at the KeyShot Quick Tips? Here's one that may help, though it is more about Roughness.

Thanks Harold. It got answered part in the other similar thread. I've watched a number of videos since this post and have a pretty good feel for it now.