Material Help

[cadjockey]

Hi All

I'm just demo'ing the package and I must say I am impressed overall but I'm having some difficulty making a couple of materials.

I honestly don't know where to start, I wonder if some kind soul could give me some hints to getting a good result for teh two items below before my trial runs out. I have to verify the final render before I can purchase  

1. open cell speaker foam like this:

2. polyurethane spatter coating used on truck beds like this


thanks

Rich

[guest84672]

You can achieve this with a combination of texture, bump and opacity map.

To get started, use a material from the library, apply it to the object, and then double click on it to modify it.

@1. Use an image of cell speaker foam to get started, and apply it to a base material like plastic as a texture map, and bump map, and opacity map.
@2. Start with a plastic material, and then apply a bump map using one of the procedural noise maps and adjust scale and height.

I hope this helps.

[cadjockey]

thanks Thomas. I understand the principles, I'm just not sure how to go about creating the bump/spec/opacity maps for the foam, what the opacity map should really look like to get get that effect.
Was hoping for some examples
The polyurethane is easy, just modify one of the existing ones.

Rich

[guest84672]

For starters, you can use the same image that you use as a texture and bump map, and apply it as an opacity map. Just so you can see what you are getting.

[Ryno]

Has anyone produced any open celled foam like the one in the first post?

I will soon be working on a vintage Formula 2 car, and I need to replicate the foam covering over the intake trumpets on the engine. I'm thinking a good shot of the open celled foam, tweaked, for the opacity map would be good. I'd have, say, 5 different layers of it (so 5 surfaces, all offsets of eachother) that all have the mapping slightly offset from eachother, might achieve a decent result. I'm currently unable to give this a try, though, as I have something else going on in KS that's robbing my system of resources (curse you, glass and liquid complexities!).

[EDIT] I've found a little window of time.
I scanned in a small piece of foam we had in the office and turned it into a texture to use. The base material was a Hard Rough Black Plastic, in which I didn't change any of the material settings at all, aside from applying the textures. The diffuse (colour) texture is just the raw scan. The bump has been slightly adjusted to amplify the peaks and valleys. The opacity map was amplified further, then I played with the levels to have a little more white showing (the first try was far too heavy on the blacks, and so the layer was too thin).

For the model, I made a quick shape and then offset it 4 times, giving 5 total surfaces. I threw a label on there too to see how that would act (for my purposes, these filters often have a logo printed onto them). Judging by the final render, I think my surfaces should be closer together so that it hides the stepping more, but as a basic technique I think it provides and adequately voluminous result.

[cadjockey]

interesting technique, thanks for sharing.

Rich