Coffee Foam Effect

[andrea25]

Hi, i'm trying to create a realistic cup of coffee, like this.

My problem is about the foam above the liquid, do you have any suggestion?
Thanks a lot

[INNEO_MWo]

I would try some steps:

• create a geometry with the shape of the foam surface
• use a bitmap texture (google spends tons of them)
• try this with a translucent material and play with the subsurface scattering values
• add some transparency with the procedural textures
• and maybe add some geometry inside the coffee (translucent material as well) with an emissive material to create extra light
• make sure that all the geometry don't intersect each other (there are some very good tutorials in the learning section

(step forward to 34:50 min)

share your results of your scene

hope that helps to start

[andrea25]

Thank you for your suggestions, i'll try as soon as possible then i'll post the result.

[andrea25]

Hi, here i am
I have tried to follow the suggestions of MWo, and this is the result, retouched in photoshop.
What do you think? This is the perspective of the image, the coffee cup is a secondary element of my scene.

[LayC42]

This test result looks good. The coffee liquid with this color gradient looks realistic.
Can you show a detail shot from the foam? And next thing will be the glass material. You can play with the IOR and try solid glass and dialectricum.

Hope you have such a good coffee while work on this scene.

[Finema]

Hi,
You can use an image for the foam.
You can see the result in my test with a low def image founded on google.
Also, you liquid model is not correct. See here for a better render : https://www.keyshot.com/resources/downloads/scenes/  > Liquid in glass

[andrea25]

thank you for the answers.
@LayC42 Yes, the glass material is not realistic, i'll try to change ior and other parameters.
@Finema Wow, impressive! Can you show me your setting about liquid and foam materials?They are amazing

[Finema]

I played with the cup of coffee and i have fun with it   Here a mini scene.
It could be improved. For example : add an opacity map on the edge foam texture.
It's open to creative render... and it's my two cents.. 

[Finema]

@Finema Wow, impressive! Can you show me your setting about liquid and foam materials?They are amazing

In attachment the materials settings

[andrea25]

Thank you Finema!
I have worked on my model and materials, this is the result
What do you think?

[Finema]

yes !  it's better
1 - your liquid coffee is too dark or not enough transparent
Play also with environment to add light in coffee texture
2 - what about the edge of the glass ? we can see the cream texture 

[andrea25]

yes !  it's better
1 - your liquid coffee is too dark or not enough transparent
Play also with environment to add light in coffee texture
2 - what about the edge of the glass ? we can see the cream texture 

1. Yes, now i'm trying to improve it
2. I don't know how solve it, the color on the edge of glass is some kind of reflection of the foam, maybe i can fix it with photoshop, reducing the saturation on the edge, becoming grey.

[Finema]

can you show us the model 3D ?
glass + liquid + foam

[Finema]

i've played with coffee and foam  on some render here > https://www.keyshot.com/forum/index.php?topic=13478.0
The important thing is to separate glass, foam, liquid models. Take a look on the link i've post above about Liquid in glass.
With this technique you can modify coffee in Bourbon ! It's time (19 pm in france)

[andrea25]

Here is my model, made in Autodesk Alias AutoStudio
The liquid is between the external surface of glass and the inner one
The last image is the render retouched in photoshop to hide the reflection on the edge of the cup